Pastured pork

I had a fellow drive up today and ask me if I had pastured pork. I was near the front driveway when he asked, and I didn't have to work hard to answer -- I just pointed.

Pastured Pork... what does "pastured" mean?

For my operation, it means and animal that spends the majority of its life on dirt. Foraging and rooting and discovering pig treats that only pigs can find and appreciate. My pigs spend quite a bit of time with their nose in the dirt. We give them full feed, and they can eat as much of it as they'd like, but while they do eat the pig feed, they really like going out and finding their own delicacies.

This handsome fellow is our berkshire herd sire. The first picture in this entry with Andrea is for scale. He's a big fellow, maybe 6 feet long and around 500lbs. As you can see behind him he's got quite a bit of space. He shares this pasture with 8 sows and is a pretty happy fellow most of the time.


Pastured pork taste


When I first started raising pigs I did my own taste test. I purchased the best bacon (read: most costly) from costco, the cheapest bacon I could (from safeway), and then bacon from two farmers at the local farmers market. I cooked strips of each bacon in separate pans, and then cut them into identical pieces. I had 10 people taste test the results.


The unanimous opinion was that the farmers market was better, more satisfying bacon, but one of the two farmers market bacon got nearly unanimous praise. So I contacted the farmer to see what breed of pig it was, and found out that they ran a berkshire/yorkshire cross herd -- so that's what I raise. They do great on pasture, and the bacon and hams and chops are the best I've had. And I'm a dedicated carnivore.


What the pigs eat

Our pigs have access to a pasture area and a wooded area. They seem to like eating the grass roots, and there are particular areas in the woods that they seem to like. I've been wondering if there are truffles there that they're rooting out.

Here the herd of medium sized pigs has chosen an area under the trees and is searching for something.
So that's part of what pasturing is for me. When you raise a pig entirely on feed you get a pig that really doesn't have any chance to have the richer, more interesting flavor of a pig that has been able to choose its diet. My pigs eat quite a bit of grass, and it makes them a bit sweeter and nicer.

Bedding pigs

That's shortie snoozing on a comfy bed of hay even though the air temperature is 20 degrees. We've experimented quite a bit with bedding pigs on our pasture, even in winter. Notice the snow on the field to the right.

For pig shelters we use portable calf domes that we get used from dairy farms. They show up on craigslist from time to time, and if they're in good condition with no cracks they work great. Market price around here for a 7' (that's the larger size calf dome) is $190. I've bought about 20 of them, and in the three years I've been using them, I've only cracked one. So I use that one mostly as a "tarp" over the top of supersacks of pig food.

Pigs love to sleep together, so even though this sow (her name is tank) seems to fill the entire dome, when night falls there will be her, her sister, and a couple of smaller pigs fit into the cracks, or sleeping on top in the grooves between the sows. Goats get in there, too. I'm guessing that everyone appreciates the extra warmth.

Whole litters of piglets love this, too.

So here's what we do to make this work.

First, you want the animals to have a good amount of insulation under them. In fact, the insulation between the ground and the animal is more important than the cover on the animal. So we actually cover the entire bottom of each pen with 8 60lb bales of hay. This means that there's 18-24" of compressed hay below the animals. You can cut the strings or not. We do cut them.

After you've got the bottom covered, break up another bale and stuff every hole.

The pigs will go into this, and if they're cold, they'll burrow into the hay. This picture shows a mature sows head buried in the hay. The snout of the pig is at the center bottom of the picture, her ear is near the top of the picture. This is a happy, warm pig.

We watch the hay, and when it gets wet or muddy we'll toss another bale of hay in. If it's too messy we toss a handful of food into the hay pile and flip the dome over and rebed it. I buy local grass hay for $2/bale for this, and usually spend about $100 a year on bedding these domes. Figure it saves me at least that amount of feed that the animals would otherwise shiver off. Plus it's fun to see a bunch of pigs sleeping in.

Giant milk score

I got a call from Charlie, who I'd done some business with earlier in the year. He is a retired postal worker who has a farm 10 miles north of mine.

One of your major costs in raising pigs is the feed. So if you're going to have any success at it, you'll keep your eyes out for free or low cost pig food. Quality is important, too. I'd rather not feed a pig something that I wouldn't eat.

So Charlie called me and asked if I was interested in 300 gallons of either expired or soon-to-expire cow milk. I was all over that, and picked it up Thursday morning.

Pigs love cows milk. The gallon containers aren't bad, you just slice them with a razor knife and they empty pretty quickly, but the little pint containers are a pain in the ass. Finally discovered you can treat them like grapes -- put them into a garbage can and stomp them flat, pour off the milk, repeat.

In cold weather the pigs cram themselves into as few shelters as can fit all of the pigs. So even though they have 4 shelters that are all bedded with dry hay, 2 of them will be full of pigs, and 2 empties. Guess it's warmer that way.

The shelter in the pictures above is the 2nd from the right in the next photo.

These are the new additions to the herd. They weigh between 80 and 100lbs right now. Some of these guys will go for christmas at about this weight, others will be held and grown out. A few will be bred, if they show good temprament, conformation and work within our system.

I am sooo pregnant

This is our boar. he's a handsome fellow, about 20 months old, and weighs around 500lbs. he's a berkshire boar. This is the animal that I am aware of when I'm working in their pasture. He'll sometimes see me on the other side of the pasture, and run all the way across. I'm pretty sure I can't outrun him. So while he's galloping at me I have to decide whether it's a backrub he's after, or if he's grumpy. So far he's been mostly itchy, but every now and then he'll come over and try to bite me. He's only half-interested in biting me -- he doesn't make any sort of followup, and I don't tolerate it, but it's a balancing act. I do not turn my back on this animal without having the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Today I chose to step over the magic electric fence to safety. Shorty, one of our sows, greets him.
Shorty looks small in this photo. The boar is 40" tall at the shoulder. Shorty is 350lbs by herself.

This is the subject of this blog. This is Big Momma, my most experienced sow. She's been a great mother and has consistently weaned a high percentage of her litters. She's feeling pretty pregnant right now. I'm guessing that she's due this week. She's laying down like a dog would -- with her hind legs tucked underneath her, and her front legs straight out. She weighs about 450lbs and is roughly 5' long.

Moving around to the side, I'd like to take a look at her nipples. I can usually do this by rubbing her tummy and nipples. I'm guessing it feels really good to be rubbed. You can flip over a 450lb sow with your finger.

That's another pigs ear in the forground. The pigs tend to follow me around when I'm making my rounds. Towards the end of my trip I'll have the whole herd following me. It must look pretty funny from the highway. People honk sometimes.

She doesn't really want to move, so I'm about to move on, when the boar comes up.

He manages to get her on her feet, mostly by threatening to mount her, and as a result I can take a look at her nipples.

Yes, she's starting to get "bagged up" -- Birth soon. I try milking her -- but no milk is flowing, so not today. Maybe tommorow or the day after. Sows enjoy being milked.