So, What's the difference.....? Part Two

 

Part two: O’Connor Family Farms Woodlot Pork

By: Adam O’Connor

“According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world..”

When it comes to the most popular animal protein that is consumed by humans, how do you stand out?  As with all things we produce, the care we give to raising animals and the environment they live in are very different from what you will see at a commercial hog farm. Once the meat is sent to the butcher, cut, and packaged, it would take a very trained eye and a good guess to tell the difference between the two.  But once the meat is cooked, hopefully by someone who knows how, our pork will stand far above the standard cut you will normally find. Which brings us back to our central theme: So, what’s the difference?

Rewind the clock 50 years and you would have found a much different agricultural landscape when it comes to pigs.  The average hog grower kept pigs in either a small pasture, or small fenced wood lot. One or two may have been kept in a smaller finishing lot to be fed scrap food and fattened before slaughter. However, this free style life was not to be had for long. As fast as pigs were elevated in the American agricultural system, they were just as quickly confined to buildings, living a life on concrete or suspended by a slatted floor above a pit. 

A few years ago, we discovered a system of raising pork that took things back even more. The system we use now, controlled free ranging pigs through woodlots, is very similar to what was seen by earlier settlers, all the way up through the 1980’s in rural Appalachia.  Before confinement became a concern, hogs were turned out to roam the woods, foraging off the land in an all-you-can-eat buffet of natural feedstuffs. This style of hog raising is highly documented, from the Foxfire books all the way to common folk tales; after all, it was the dispute over a free range hog that spurred the Hatfield and McCoy feud. 

Today, with the calculated use of electric fence, we can raise pigs in this much more natural environment, and still maintain boundaries. Our pigs are supplemented with Non-GMO grain, to give them what they may not get in a specific area.  But after a short time foraging, digesting, and turning the top layer of soil in one area, they are moved to the next. All of this is done in a choreographed dance if you will.  By controlling what areas the pigs are on and when, we can make sure they are applying just the right amount of disturbance to an area. This leaves a wonderland of natural rebirth for soils that had previously been left dormant. 

So how is this better for the animal?  Pigs don’t have sweat glands, hence why they roll in the mud (thermal regulation).  By keeping the pigs in a woodlot with shade, we don’t have to worry about them getting too hot and becoming stressed.  With them being outside, they are leaving their gifts (discharge from the back end) spread through an area that they are rejuvenating with disturbance.  Their diet becomes more diverse, everything from leafy greens to shallow tender roots to the always beneficial acorn. Their production, or weight gain, is much higher, giving us a better return on what feed we do give them. 

From the outside looking in, we are raising pigs that we don’t have to clean up after, feeding them less grain, they gain more weight, we don’t have to pay for expensive buildings, and they are improving the soil to boot.  But the most important aspect of quality cannot be overlooked. The quality of the meat you eat, is a direct result of the quality of food that animal has consumed, and a testament to the environment it was raised in.  Since switching to this production model, I cannot remember treating a sick pig.  It is not that I wouldn’t treat an animal if it was sick, we simply don’t have sick pigs anymore. 

The quality of our pork speaks for itself, and is a testament to the work we have devoted ourselves to.  If you want to experience the difference, stop by the farm store and make a selection. This pork will make any recipe great. But it makes the old ones… even better!