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Taste the Difference

What is "Pastured', and what does it mean to us?

"Pasture" is defined simply as an area where plants are grown for the purpose of feeding animals by grazing. The easiest way to raise "pastured" pigs is to simply house them outside on a single paddock for the entire year, allowing the pasture to become depleted over the course of the year. This often results in the end of the season with animals living on bare dirt, with little to no nutritional benefit gained over the course of the year. We choose use an intensive method of rotational grazing, moving pigs routinely through multiple paddocks. Pigs usually spend between 1-2 weeks on each paddock, depending on the weather and the condition of the forage in the area that they occupy. Each paddock is a mixture of brushy woodland that provides shade and a fun place to dig and root around, as well as open areas of high quality forage and grass for food and bedding. When a pasture starts to be depleted, the pigs are moved and the pasture is mowed, and it is allowed to rest for 7-10 weeks before the animals return.

Why do you rotate the animals?

Rotating the animals allows the land to rest and allows the forage plants to recover from the pressure of being browsed by animals. In any pasture, the best and most tender plants are consumed first by whichever animals are grazing it. Animals always eat dessert first! If this is not interrupted, the plants with the highest palatability and feed value are not allowed to recover and will be outcompeted by hardier grasses and broadleafed weeds, resulting in a pasture with little to no feed value for the the animals occupying it.

Why do you mow the pasture?

As plants mature they not only grow taller, they also grow stronger and woodier, making them hard to digest for non-ruminant animals like pigs. On our farm, each pasture is mowed after the animals are moved out to "reset" the plant base and cause new, tender shoots to emerge. This not only provides younger and more digestible forage for the pigs, it also levels the playing field between plant species, preventing the pasture from becoming dominated by plant species that the pigs do not feed on.

Do the pigs eat anything other than the pasture?

Yes. We choose to use supplemental feed in addition to the pasture to ensure the pigs are well fed throughout the season, and their nutrition is not solely dependent on rainfall and other external factors to be well fed. We feed our pigs a free-will conventional ration in addition to the forage from the pasture, as well as milk, apples, pears and an assortment of other tasty leftovers from the farm. Because of the feed gained from the pasture, we do see significantly reduced volume of the conventional feed, often less than 50% of expected daily consumption for pigs raised in confinement.

Why is pastured pork so expensive?

In short: Its a lot of work! Managing fences for 5-10 separate pastures, moving pigs, providing feed, water and shelter in multiple locations, plus mowing, sowing and otherwise maintaining the quality of the pastures is time consuming and labor intensive! In addition to this, the rate of gain for pastured pigs is usually lower than what is expected for pigs raised in confinement, or even pigs raised on a single paddock system. Pigs that are raised in confinement have little to do but eat and drink, resulting in optimal growth in exchange for a very poor quality of life. In contrast, pigs that are raised outdoors spend time running, rooting, and relaxing (and occasionally trying to escape), all of which burn calories and convert feed into "play" instead of "pork". In addition to this, when pigs are confined or kept on a pasture with no feed value, the only thing available to eat is a conventional ration that is perfectly engineered to meet their nutritional needs and allows them to grow as fast as possible. Raising pigs on a pasture with high forage value enhances the quality of the meat and broadens the diversity of their diet, but oftentimes does not match the growth you see when pigs are exclusively fed and engineered ration.

Do you use antibiotics in your pigs?

The four primary ways that antibiotics can be used in the livestock industry are:

Therapeutic: Administering antibiotics to an individual animal as a response to an acute, diagnosed illness.

Metaphylactic: Administering antibiotics to all animals in a group as a response to one animal getting sick.

Prophylactic: Administering antibiotics to healthy animals to prevent illness.

Subtheraputic: Giving animals a continuous dose of antibiotics, historically used to promote growth. Thankfully, this practice is banned or heavily restricted in most livestock industries in the USA.)

On our farm, we only use antibiotics in response to acute illnesses when we don't believe the animals will recover naturally. Our judicious approach to antibiotic use means the majority of the pigs we raise will never be treated, while providing what we believe to be the highest possible quality of life for the animals and minimizing the death of animals due to illness.