This should probably go to the pig forum but I know you folks already, so I'll ask here first.
I'm writing a book on assignment from Storey and need to add about 10 profiles to it. It's called
Homegrown Pork: Humane, Healthful Techniques for Raising a Pig for Food in Your Own Backyard. The profiles are supposed to be of people who buy a pig and raise it to slaughtering age, though if someone raises their own piglets for home consumption rather than mainly to sell, that would work too.
Storey will list your contact information if you wish but if you'd rather not do that, that would work too. If you raise something to sell, we can mention it in the introductory paragraph and you'll get a lot of free press over the years. Storey sends a copy of the book, hot off the press, to all contributors.
I do have to edit to suit Storey's style but will run the edited version past each contributor for their official okey-dokey before saving it.
If this is something you do and you wouldn't mind helping me out, I'd love to include you. Or, if you know someone else who might be interested, maybe you could put us in touch? You can contact me via this forum or email me at
ozarkgoattrek@gmail.com
This is a sample (made up right out of me head).
Thanks!
~ Sue ~
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Sample profile
Bob Allerbeck and his wife, Andi, moved to their dream farm, a 40-acre spread near Tomato, Arkansas, in 2007, where they raise grass fed Katahdin-Dorper lambs and commercial Boer kids. They and their children, 10 year old Micayla and 7 year old Jacob, raise most of the food for their family's table including pork from their own pigs. Here's what Andi says about their pig raising venture.
Q) What type of pig does your family prefer, regarding age, sex, breed and so forth?
A) We eat a lot of pork so we buy a pig twice a year, in the spring and again in the fall and raise them to slaughtering age. We buy Red Wattle weaners. They run about 250 pounds when we kill them about six months later. We generally get barrows because the breeder we buy from has a good market for gilts as breeding stock.
Q) Do you process your own pig or take it to a slaughterhouse?
A) We used to take our pig to a state licensed slaughterhouse but we've had a traveling meat processor kill and cut the last two here at home. We think the meat tastes better because the pig isn't stressed and it's a lot less hassle for us.
Q) What cuts do you favor? Do you use the 'odd bits' like intestines, head, and feet?
A) We do use intestines because our family eats a lot of sausage and we like the natural casings as far as they go. We cure our own hams and keep a lot of roasts and the ribs for barbeque and the rest goes into sausage. I pickle pig's feet but most of that extra stuff goes to the dogs. We did give the head of one of our pigs to an old lady from our church but she never asked for one again.
Q) What pork-raising advice would you give our readers?
A) If you want exceptionally good-tasting pork, go for one of the old-time breeds like Red Wattles or Mulefoots and put the pig on pasture and let him scare up some of his own feed. But if you want quick pork raised on commercial feed, a modern crossbreed would do a better job. And don't underestimate what kind of fence you need to keep pigs at home. Our first pig was everywhere but where we wanted him and getting him back to his own pasture was a huge hassle. That's an understatement!
OT: Do you raise a pig for pork?
, RandomGal. 
