Picked up our first pork yesterday!

Well, we picked the first batch of pork up from the butcher yesterday.  We are getting ready to sample the first of the bacon as I type this.

Some first visual observations.

• Very lean cuts, not a lot of excess fat on bacon or hams.
• internally all the cuts look similar to pigs we have had in the past.

The pigs we sent ranged from 220 -260 lbs.  Now that I know that we didn't have excess amounts of fat on the pigs I will send the next batch at 300 lbs.  Normally on a 300 lb. grain fed pig you will have excessive fat on most of the cuts of the pig.

For example, this is the bacon we got from the pasture raised pigs we just butchered.  You will notice there is a little fat on the one side.  This was the the pack with the most fat.  The majority of the pack have approximately less than 10% of the weight of the packaged bacon being fat.

Our pigs have access to pasture 24 hours a day.  The water they drink is from the spring fed stream in the pasture that our farm is named after.  The pigs eat on the pasture as well as are supplemented with our own feed mix in the barn.  Since they have to walk after eating to drink they are constantly getting exercise.  This produces more muscle and less fat.  They are also eating a more healthy diet which helps build muscle instead of fat.

Now, knowing that my theory was right I want to raise the hogs to 300 lbs instead of 250.  This should produce a larger amount of meat without all the excessive fat giving us more product in the end.

I want to review what we feed our animals here on the farm.  The cows get silage hay consisting of mostly grass with a little clover and alfalfa mixed in.  They also have a mineral lick tub that is free choice.  The lick tub will give them any micro-nutrients that may be missing in the hay due to variances in soil conditions during plant growth.  The calves are born on their own and stay with the mother till they are ready to butcher or are sold.  The mother cows wean the calves on their own naturally so we do not have an added stress or shock to slow down growth.  The calves will start eating grass and silage hay within a few days of being born so it there is a natural slow transition from mothers milk to grass only!


The pigs diet is a little different.  A pigs digestive system is quite similar to ours in the fact that they eat a large array of things and need a balanced diet to stay healthy.  When foraging naturally a pig will eat almost anything.  That includes grass and other green plants, roots, stems, insects, worms, fruits and vegetables, nuts, and almost anything they can find.  Since this is hard to duplicate in the winter months we have to use what we can to reproduce the same basic nutrients they would find naturally.  So, we grind grass hay made here on the farm with a hammer mill to break it down into very small pieces.  We then add a little corn, oats, and minerals to balance out the mix and give them any missing parts of the puzzle.  The hay is 70-75%  of the total finished feed product by weight.

I am very excited by our results so far and cannot wait to improve on what we have learned!

Hay season is winding down so I am starting to work on catching up on all the stuff that has been sitting since spring that needs done before winter.  I need to finish pig shed doors, tear down and rebuild new cow shed, repair lawn disturbed during construction and general clean up of the mess around barn area.

I hope everyone is well!

Kenny