Looking For Tamworth Pigs and Other Odds and Ends

This weather is absolutely killing me! Like many places across the Midwest this spring has been very wet and pretty chilly at times. I am thankful though that I live in "Southern" Iowa now because up in "Northern" Iowa they are talking below freezing at night as a possibility. That plus all of the rain just doesn't seem fair! To help put this in perspective my soccer team has played two games so far this year, tonight was supposed to be our sixth of the season ... but, it was postponed because the field was under water! We play soccer in all sorts of weather, but not under water. Also, they have been trying to do the perk test out at the farm, but the holes keep filling up with run-off water. Oh well...

So, after that rant I think it is time to get on with things. Since the readership of this blog is steadily picking up (thanks everyone!) I thought I would would try and use that for my own gain ... and money spending habit. What I'm looking for is pigs. Specifically Tamworths, Gloucester Old Spots, Ossabaw Island, Red Wattle, or any other threatened or heritage breed. We are not going to go full bore on the pigs this year, but I would like to get a small start and at least some pork for our freezer. I would really like to have some heritage breeds to start with, but a cross of a heritage breed that is breed to live outside could work also. Oh yeah, in I would help ... Southern or Central Iowa would be a plus ... Northeast Iowa is okay ... with gas prices the way they are the closer the better.

In other news, things are coming along slowly but surely with the building stuff. I have to give my wife 100% of the credit for the work getting done. Just today we put a down-payment down for our pole building and it looks like we have some of the other major contractors picked out. Next, we need to take a trip and go shopping for some appliances, flooring, and our wood burner. Also, we need to make sure our house that we are living in now is presentable for showing ... it's going on the market soon.

One last thing, I talked with my cousin for a bit today about the tractor. He fixed the brakes and a couple other minor things and we should be good to go in the next couple of days. Of course I would just get stuck if I tried to do anything now, but hopefully it will dry out soon ... but not too dry!

More Thoughts on Pigs

This morning before I started work, I decided to do a little more research on hogs. I already knew that the tamworth is a good option for a pasture based operation, but I wondered what else was out there. I read about a couple of interesting breeds. The first one is the Ossabaw Island Pig (pictured). I came across this one because I decided to check out what pigs they raise at the Living History Farms, which is a living museum here in Iowa dedicated to farming and Iowa's history. The Ossabaws are related to some of the earliest pigs brought to America by the Spanish and probably came about as pigs escaped farms and became feral. The really interesting thing is that these pigs remained mostly isolated so they have many of the early traits that lend them to pasture living. You can read more about them by clicking on the link above.

The other breed I read about this morning is the Large Black. Like the name implies, these pigs are black. But while they are large, they really aren't big pigs like some of the modern breeds. They are known for their hardiness and good foraging abilities along with their tasty hams. (That is a good trait!) I came across this breed while searching for information on pastured pigs.

If you would like to watch a four minute video about Caw Caw Creek Farm, a well known pastured pig farm, just click on this LINK which will take you to an article and video from America's Heartland. It is an interesting video because this is a guy that does pretty well raising pastured pork and selling to individuals and restaurants. I'm not sure if I would use his feed mix though unless I thought it would make me the big bucks!