Real Pigs are Dirty

It feels like winter is here early this year with a Halloween snowstorm here on the farm… I know most people are already grumbling about winter but we love it here! Emily has a very strong Norwegian heritage and mixed with my German Wisconsinite genetics we definitely get excited when the weather gets chilly and the snow flies. It did make things a little interesting on the farm side of things though, we always keep an eye out for those first few “below freezing” nights because if we aren’t careful we can freeze up our water lines! Our cattle were moved to pastures with frost-freezer waterers but we still have pigs and turkeys out on pasture on hoses. We just made sure that our lines were drained and hydrants turned off and we made it through the freeze just fine.
It is interesting running our animals out on pasture while “real” winter weather hits, but they handle it very well. It was perfect timing because I was watching a video last week with a commercial hog farmer (i.e. raising pigs completely indoors in barns) and it can be very drastic how different regenerative farming is from the commercial side of things. It almost feels like we’re talking a different language sometimes. In the video the farmer was explaining all the benefits there are to raising hogs in a barn… a couple points really stood out to me though.
The first was that he was very proud of how “clean” his pigs were. And from what you could tell in the video the pigs in the background were indeed very clean. He also went on to talk about how much care they can provide for the pigs in their stalls because they never go outside, they never get sunburnt and there’s always plenty of feed in the feeder. Everything is sterile, orderly and clean. It looked great except when you realize it’s probably the last thing a pig would actually want.
There is a perception that “clean” equals good. It’s the same perception that loves looking at a pasture that looks smooth and green like a golf course. That’s something that I had to break myself of as I have farmed longer. A full healthy pasture is going to look like a chaotic jungle from the road and not like a golf course. It’s not as pretty but it’s the truth. A happy pig is also not going to be clean because guess what? He’s probably covered in dirt from rooting in the soil or mud to keep himself cool. That’s what pigs love and that’s what pigs do.
Now, of course, there is nuance here. No one wants a farm to be gross and dirty… we also don’t want our animals covered in manure and filth. But I make a very clear distinction between a happy, dirty pig (or cow or turkey) and a sickly, dirty, unhealthy animal. The biggest reason that we move our animals every day (or 3 days for the pigs) is so that we can keep them out of their own manure and filth. If animals aren’t moved enough it gets bad very quickly! We don’t aim for clean pigs here, what we do aim for is a healthy, happy animal raised in their natural environment.
They should ask the pig what they would prefer… a clean prison or a dirty playground.

PS We had a news crew out this week for a segment on local turkeys! Keep an eye out for it if you’re on the WI side of things… and don’t forget to get a deposit down on a turkey while you still can… Our birds are going faster and faster the closer we get to Thanksgiving!

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The Art of Finishing

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The Turkey Difference