What makes Wickham Farm Pork the Best!

There are a few things that we at Wickham Farm do that places our pork among the best you will find anywhere. First, we start with the best pig breeds available. The Red Wattle and the American Guinea Hogs that we raise are what is known as heritage breeds. (HINT: think pig equivalent to heirloom tomatoes) These breeds are basically the same pig today that they were hundreds of years ago. They have not been bred to be extra lean (and tasteless), or to grow quickly under modern day mass production farming methods...aka, factory farm confinement hogs. What they are is hardy pigs that do well outdoors. They're great mothers and are excellent grazers and foragers and they taste great! Heritage breed hogs like ours tend to have more inter-muscular fat marbling and when it comes to pork, fat is where the flavor is.

Here in Iowa, over 90% of hogs are raised in confinement buildings where they spend their life on steel and concrete and almost never see the light of day.  Hogs that are raised in these modern confinement style operations are fed a  diet of corn, soybeans, vitamins, minerals and antibiotics. Yep, that's right. Antibiotics.
They are commonly fed to swine raised in confinement operations.at low concentrations for long periods of time in order to maintain heath and promote growth. Sounds crazy, I know. We never give our hogs sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics. Antibiotics are rarely used on our farm except when necessary to save a pig's life. So why on earth would anyone give antibiotics to animals that aren't sick? The answer is simple. Hogs raised in the totally unnatural setting of a confinement building would frequently be ill without them. The confinement system of raising hogs doesn't work without sub-therapeutic antibiotics. 

A "modern" hog confinement building just a few miles from our farm stands in sharp contrast to the method of hog farming we utilize at Wickham Farm.

And as if this isn't bad enough, many modern confinement hogs are also fed a growth promoting drug called ractopamine (paylean). Ractopamine is known to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and increase carcass leanness in finishing swine. One source said that it could make the farmer an additional $5-$10 per head. Sounds like a hog farmer's dream come true doesn't it?  But there is a dark side to Ractopamine. Ractopamine has been be linked to cancer. It has been banned in 160 countries including the European Union, mainland China and Russia yet it is still used extensively here in the U.S. Does this make any sense? Not to me it doesn't!

Like hog confinement operations, we feed our hogs a diet that includes corn, soybeans vitamins and minerals. But that is where the similarity ends. Rather than confine our pigs to a climate controlled building, we allow ours access to pasture.Yep, that's right. Pasture where they graze on grass, clover and weeds. The young pigs run and play and the older ones root in the dirt searching for tasty morsels of plant roots and worms. In essence, living outdoors on pasture allows our pigs to do what a pig is suppose to do.  It allows our pigs to be pigs.

Our hogs diets are supplemented with things like pumpkins, squash, apples, pears and other fruit and vegetables that are gleaned from our garden and nearby farms. We have found that hogs that are raised and fed this way makes for some extra sweet, delicious pork. So what kind of pork do you want to eat?

Pumpkin eaters!

Proffesional pumpkin chucker!

One of many loads of squash and pumpkins destine for pig feed.

Special thanks to our friends at Indian Hills Orchard, Gravert's Apple Basket, Papa's Pumpkin Patch and the Joel Wood family for their contributions to our pigs' diet. The pigs thank you too!

One season of piggy salad bar pasture

Last June I wrote about what I called the "piggy salad bar" pasture mix. This was my first attempt at planting pig pasture. After reading all I could find on the subject on the internet, I planted about 1 acre of land to a mix of dwarf essex rape, oats and cow peas. Recently, I've been asked to write a little about the results of this summer's grazing. The pasture mix was grazed by our red wattle sows and gilts. I divided the pasture into three sections and the hogs were rotated to fresh pasture as the patch they were in was grazed down. All of the pigs did well and the gilts continue to grow at a good pace.As a group they ate about 25% of their normal feed ration. This made for a substantial savings on the feed bill. I have to say that overall, I was very happy with the planted pasture. I think the pigs were happy too. While I think it is fair to say that my pasture mix was a success, there are a couple of things that I will try to do differently next year. 

• First, I will plant more ground to an annual grazing mix with staggered planting dates. This way I can rotate the hogs into fresh pasture that is not overly mature. By the time I put them on the last bit, the oats were getting a little bit tough and the cow pea pods were drying up. 
• Second, I will try to expand the variety of things I plant. Maybe some turnips or beets for fall grazing. Or some corn to hog down. This fall, we were fortunate enough to get a couple of truck loads of pumpkins given to us. I may plant my own patch next year and let the hogs harvest them, thus eliminating all the heavy lifting!

Trailer load of pumpkins, gourds and squash for the pigs.

Guinea Hogs enjoying a couple pumpkins.

 
The vast majority of pigs today are raised in confinement buildings and fed a ration of corn and soybeans with low levels of antibiotics added to promote good heath and faster growth. This produces a fast growing hog that is profitable for the farmer and inexpensive for the consumer, but pretty much tasteless. The kind of pork you find in most supermarkets today! I firmly believe that the way to raise the best tasting pork it to raise healthy, happy hogs who get fresh air and a diet that consists of more than just corn and beans. After all, you are what your food eats!

Apple Time

Fall is a time when all kinds of crops are plentiful. There is a lot of food that is wasted because it is over ripe or blemished. Much of it makes good feed for our hogs. Saturday, we gathered up windfall apples for pig food. We gathered the apples from under 6 or 7 trees in no time. These would otherwise go to waste.

Big scoop for a little girl!

Just a few more buckets and the truck will be full!

This is just one more way that we try to offer our pigs a healthy and varied diet. You wouldn't want to eat the same old thing every day and neither do they. Much thanks to our friends at Indian Hills Orchard in Fulton, IL and the other farmers market vendors who have sent surplus produce home for our pigs. It makes great pork!