Pork Chops Come From Where?

I stumbled across this video the other day and thought it would be a perfect fit for The Beginning Farmer Blog since pigs are such a big part of my farm. It appears that the video is from The Better Bacon Book: Make, Cook, and Eat Your Way to Cured Pork Greatness which is a book/set of videos available only on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. It actually looks like a pretty cool "app" with videos on how-to cure your own bacon, build a smoker out of a trash can, and even some history of bacon. Plus, it is only $2.99 so maybe I'll have a review shortly ...

So, incase you have ever wondered where the baby back ribs came from as opposed to the spare ribs then I suggest watching the video. Oh yeah ... and this guy seems pretty good at what he does! Have any of you ever cut up your own hog or cured your own pork? I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips ...

Individual Cuts vs. The Whole/Half Hog

I thought I would expand a little on the cuts vs. whole/half animals post a little since there were a couple of comments on my previous post. First of all I don't believe I'll ever get to a point where I don't do any individual cuts (although I could be wrong), but I would like to get a point where it is a very small portion of the sales. As I detailed in the last post I strongly believe that a whole/half is the most sustainable for all involved, but I also understand that there will always be a majority of customers/potential customers who like the convenience of only buying pork chops and bacon.

In our case we sell the individual cuts through multiple sources ... at a farmers' market, through an on-line order food cooperative, monthly deliveries to a group of customers in the Des Moines area, and off the farm. With all of those various methods of selling (some of which overlap) keeping an inventory is a requirement. That inventory takes quite a bit of time as we keep track not only of quantity, but also of weights (we use a spread sheet at the farmers' market with weights to make selling easier). When we process a hog (or anything else) that will be for sale as individual cuts there is also an extra charge at the locker to make it an "official" animal and have labels with weights. On top of all of that time there is also the expense of running freezers, or in my case of never having enough freezers!

As you might imagine all of that adds up to quite a bit of extra time and money spent in order to offer the convenience of individual cuts. I can see the benefit of individual cuts if you were just doing it for a few cuts (burger and steaks as mentioned in one of the comments), but if I could get away from it I would. We do try to keep everything that we can get a label for. That means we have plenty of lard, leaf lard, and pork soup bones. And, at certain times of the year we really get overloaded on things like ham, ham hocks, and roast.

On the flip side when we sell a whole there is no need for freezer space, there is no inventory, and there is not as much time spent in selling it. This was our first year doing a pay-as-it-grows program on the pigs and it seems like there was a decent amount of interest in that. It is something that takes a bit more paper work and time, but if you compare it to the individual cuts you realize it isn't so bad I think. Plus, when the whole hog is sold there isn't any "tough sell" cuts left over and with a little education I think our customers will really come to appreciate getting those cuts!

Like a said ... just a few more thoughts on the cuts vs. whole animal discussion ...

:: Farm Rock :: This Too Shall Pass ... by OK Go ... watch here ... buy here ::

Cowpooling or Pigpooling?

Recently someone pointed out this blog post about "Cowpooling" and I thought ... "hmm, I should recommend this to others". I know that in the past people who have purchased whole or half hogs from us have split up their portion either because they didn't have the freezer space or because they knew they wouldn't be able to go through their pork very quickly. But, I really like the idea of a group of people getting together to do some "cowpooling" or "pigpooling". I believe it goes hand-in-hand with our desire to build community through having a connection to the food we eat.

In a way the bundles of pork we have available now are variation of "pigpooling" I suppose. We have split up a whole hog into approximately 17 bundles that offer a fairly equal variety of cuts. This way a customer who does not have the freezer space for a half or whole can still get in on the action. So far we have been able to sell a decent about of the bundles, but we still have more for sale ... if you are interested in purchasing a bundle just check out this post and shoot me an e-mail.

Now that I have the sales pitch out of the way (I have to do these every once-in-a-while since we are trying to run a business) I do want to say that I think "cowpooling", "pigpooling", "gardenpooling", or even "small-grainpooling" is the way to go. For too long we have been moving away from communities of people that can depend on each other and share with each other. I have a feeling that in too many neighborhoods these days when you come up a cup of sugar short you just head to the store instead of stopping at the neighbors house ... I know that I'm guilty of that.

Sharing a cow or pig or garden share with your neighbors and friends is a great way to get good food ... have a connection with your neighbors/friends ... support local farmers ... and, know where your food is coming from!

What Worked ... And What Didn't

With the new pigs on the farm I thought it would be a good time to share some of the things that we will be changing with this group. All in all we were pleased with the way that we raised them and will follow much of the system as before, but there are a few things that will be changed. Most of the changes are just are a part of the continued journey to the place that we would like our livestock systems to be at. But, some of them are really based on what I didn't like about the first group.

Change #1: The most obvious change that we have made is a location change. This change was based on a couple of things. First of all the original pig pen was meant to be turned into a garden, I'm not completely sure if that will happen this year because we ended up keeping the pigs longer than we wanted to and thus we didn't have a chance to prepare the garden last fall (spring mud is not good for the plow, disc, and tiller). But, we also moved them because we wanted some fresh clean ground for them. Hopefully our perimeter fence will make an appearance soon so that they can have that clean flesh ground more often.

Change #2: At least to begin with I'm going to be feeding the pigs twice a day (we will see how that goes) by hand instead of with the bulk feeder. I would like to them to get a little more used to me being around and amongst them in hopes that it would help with loading and moving in the future. But, it also allows me to try some different things with feeding.

Change #3: I am going to be building a feeding platform on skids soon (once I get some oak from the sawmill). I still want my feeding area to be portable, but the place where they eat is a place that gets torn up the most so I would like to try this out for a while. Also, it would be nice to build a slightly bigger platform for the water (another place that gets really torn up).

Change #4: Since our new sow is due to farrow in June we will need to have an adequate farrowing hut for her. I have researched many different hut plans and I can't say that I have come to a conclusion yet, but she will have something more than a steel hut (unless I can find some English style huts ... I may use one of those).

Those are a few of the major changes that we are going to make. There will be others though I am sure because we are still learning a lot (I don't see the learning subsiding anytime soon)!

Safe and Sound...

*Today's post is a couple hours later than usual, but I'm still trying to catch up from the long day that was yesterday ... a 5:00 AM wake up, a pig pick up, soccer practice, and youth group (back to back to back) took a toll on me and I'm trying to catch up with my work.

But, as you can see from the picture above the piggies are all safe and sound in their new home. In fact it looks like they decided to sleep in today because I snapped this picture after 8:00 AM. I am really pleased with the way the pigs look and how they have grown. The Berkshire and Hereford cross is something that I'm very interested to watch grow, and of course taste. There might even be a chance that one of the gilts (four gilts and one barrow) gets to stay on the farm. If I can find a Tamworth boar (or semen) it is a three-way cross that I would be interested in trying out.

The sow though is probably the most exciting part because she is bred to a purebred Hereford boar and this June will give us our first litter of pigs born on the farm ... and they will be purebred Herefords. She is very easy going and nice to work with and I aim to keep it that way be feeding her and the pigs by hand instead of using the bulk feeders (at least to start with on the pigs).

Of course all these new pigs mean one thing ... we will have pork available this summer and then probably again in the fall/winter. If you are in the area and would like to get on the waiting list just shoot me an e-mail.

Mmm...Pork!

A little over a week ago we brought home our first pig from the locker. The thing I loved most about bringing it home (at the time) was that it was so much easier to load for this trip than the trip the pig took to the locker! This time I just threw some boxes of white paper wrapped piggy into the back of the Expedition and off I went. No pushing, no mud, no mess, and no problems! But, the actual best thing about bringing the pork home has been eating it. Here is what we have had so far.

• Pork Chops - We had to start with the Iowa gold standard first, so we started with a couple nice red butterfly pork chops. The color was amazing and the taste was even better. Two chops was enough for the entire family at supper and then I had the leftovers for lunch the next day. I can't wait until we have pork chops again, but I do need to make sure I save some for the grill.
• Cottage Bacon and Regular Bacon - Next we had a breakfast night at supper so along with our scrambled eggs and fresh bread we had bacon ... of the regular variety and the cottage variety which comes from the shoulder instead of the side. Both were wonderful and it was great to have bacon that tasted like something! Later on we had some cottage bacon on our pizza ... that was amazing!
• Ham Steak - On another night we had one of my farm meal favorites. Ham, corn, baked potatoes, and bread. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the ham because a lot of that taste has to do with the cure, but this was some great ham. In fact we have had a few different people comment on how good the ham was. I loved the taste and I loved the tenderness.
• Pork Tacos and Pork Spaghetti - We didn't have any beef in the house, but that wasn't a problem because we had nice little packages of ground pork. In both cases we friend them up in a pan and then made our meal. The first night it was spaghetti sauce and the next night it was taco meat. I suppose this was a little out of the ordinary, but it actually was pretty good. The biggest plus was that I didn't have to go to the store for ground meat though!
• Sliced Sandwich Ham - Just about like the ham steaks, but just smaller slices. We had this for lunch after our class up in Ames. My Grandma just steamed it for a bit and then we put it on some toasted buns. This will be a great meal for a quick lunch.
• Pork Shoulder Roast - Sunday morning my wife put a three pound roast in the crock pot before we headed to church. When we came home a few hours later we were greeted to a very pleasant smell and some tender and juicy pork roast. The whole family enjoyed this meal and we still have some in the fridge for later.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies - You are probably thinking I'm crazy now, but it is true. Just last night we made chocolate chip cookies with pork lard instead of Crisco. Thanks to one of my wife's friends (and a pork customer) we had a jar of freshly rendered lard to add to the recipe. I will admit that it seemed a little odd, but they taste great. In fact these are almost healthy chocolate chip cookies because we have some our nice outdoor/pastured pig lard in them, oatmeal in them, and freshly ground wheat instead of white flour. Of course the key word there is almost...

There you have it. We still haven't had a chance to try the Italian sausage or the breakfast sausage yet, but they will get their chance soon enough. In fact, I think there may even be a couple of other cuts we need to test out. All in all there has been some great eating at Stoneyfield Farm lately!

Getting Out of the Pig Business...

Well, we aren't actually getting completely out of the pig business, but for the time being we may be taking a break (hopefully a short break). Thanks to a bunch of great people who were interested in our pork we are going to end up processing all of our pigs (minus the mister). Two will be going to customers freezers and one is going to be ground up into ground pork and ground Italian sausage for the End of Month Meals program that we have at our church (serves almost 200 meals each night during the last week of the month in the winter).

But, since we are going to be virtually pig-less pretty soon I am beginning to think about the next set of pigs. While I was mostly pleased with this batch (minus a few small things) the Hampshire in the cross isn't something that I'm totally interested in having. Lately I have been going through phases where I was against purebred livestock and then I am for it. Right now I am for it to an extent...

Way back in 2007 I wrote about a couple of heritage breeds that I was reading about at the time and now I feel like I'm in the same boat again ... not really know what to get. This is what I'm sure of at the moment. I would like to get purebred stock right now, maybe just a bred sow or two if possible, and possibly a few feeder pigs to have for the summer grilling season. I am not sold on any bred for sure, but I'm beginning to realize that it will have more to do with what is available rather than what I want the most.

Another thing that is a huge requirement right now is getting hogs that are currently being raised the way that I want to raise my hogs ... outside on the pasture. I would like to buy from a farm that is practicing pasture farrowing and finishing so that I have a better chance of getting pigs that will work with my system. Since I want to start small I think I can go ahead with the purebred stock.

A few breds that are bouncing around in my head now are: 1.) Red Wattle - Somebody should probably convince me one these, 2.) Gloucester Old Spot - I have heard these are the ultimate pasture pig, 3.) Tamworth - This is probably one of my favorites right now, and 4.) Berkshire - Should I jump into the growing popularity of this bred?

I would love to hear your thoughts/votes/breeders close to me!

P.S. There is one half still available if you would like some pork. Just shoot us an e-mail if you would like more details.

Learning From Pigs, And More...

In yesterdays post I focused on some of the more difficult aspects of raising our first batch of Stoneyfield Farm pigs. Today I wanted to take a look at some of the better things that we learned/did/experienced. Overall this first batch of hogs was a pretty good experience all the way through finishing them out and even the sales (we still have two that we could market if you are interested). And, I can easily say that we learned A LOT! Here is just a small sampling of the good things and what we did right:

1. All though these crossbred pigs may not have been my first choice we did luck out in that we were able to find Tamworth x Hampshire pigs close to home. I was really excited to get the heritage Tamworth into this pigs and I was thrilled with the way they finished ... well filled out, but longer and leaner like a Tamworth. Now if I could just find some purebred Tamworths (gilts and a boar) close by then I would be set!


2. Raising hogs out on dirt and in the grass really does work. With the use of a single strand of electric we were able to effectively strip graze our pigs from time to time and allow the access to all kinds of good things. They proved to be very hardy as long as they had shelter and made it through the coldest days (-20ºF) without any problems. Once our exterior fencing is all in place I look forward to really getting them out on the farm.


3. Thankfully we were able to find customers who were interested in our pork. Hopefully we can continue to work with them in the future and build on a customer base in our own area. I am excited to know that the pork is going from our local beginning farm to local families that we already know and those I'm sure that we will get to know. To me that just seems like a great system.


4. I think the biggest thing that we learned from these pigs though is that if you let them be pigs they are pretty good at being pigs. We made sure they had shelter, food, and clean water ... they made sure they grew and stayed happy (and they did seem pretty happy).


5. Finally, if I were going to be completely honest I would have to say that raising our pigs outside is probably the one thing we have done best since we begun. We had the benefit of starting out with a very few and having things set up for them when they got here. Like I said, we made sure they had what the needed and we let them grow. That isn't to say that there wasn't problems or setbacks (see yesterdays post), but all in all I really enjoyed raising pigs on a small scale.

Those are some of the good things. Our biggest question now is where do we go from here. We have kept back two gilts that we could use for breeding stock. They were the best two of the bunch that seemed that have the best traits we were looking for (consistent gain, good health, intelligence, and more). But, on the other hand they are not purebred and from time to time I really buy into the benefits of purebreds. Also, I'm not sold on the Hampshire in their blood...

So, that is all to say that if you are interested in a half (or splitting a half with someone else) just let us know and we will set up a processing date :)

What Have I Learned

In the comment section of my "Dirt Hog :: Chapter 2 Book Report" post Mike and Rich asked similar questions about what I have learned by just jumping out and raising pigs and what was different than I expected from when I was planning it out in my mind and on paper. I thought those we such great questions and important things for me to think about, so here is a whole post dedicated to just those thoughts!

So, since it is always better to finish on a good note I thought I would start out with the bad. Here are some of the surprises and difficulties we faced raising our first batch of pigs:

1. We had everything ready. A spot for the sow and the piggies and a spot for the big 'ol boar to hang out until he was needed. Even though we didn't have running water on the farm yet we had it covered with our 300 gallon water tank that we pulled out from town. Despite all of our planning we lost our boar just a couple days after getting him home. He got out and I'm still not sure what led to the death ... it was pretty sad that it happened literally about a day and a half after he arrived. That was difficulty/bad thing number one.


2. Feed cost wise the timing wasn't perfect and we bought our pigs just as commodity prices started to skyrocket. This really wasn't a huge difficulty because the same thing was happening for everyone, but it did make things different than what I had imagined "on paper". Also, I don't think we switched the ration to a lower protein content early enough. Not a huge deal, but it may have saved us a few bucks in the end. That was difficulty/bad thing number two.


3. Pigs are ornery! I can't say that I didn't know that going in because I had experienced it on the farm as a child, but I do think I had forgotten how ornery they were. When the water tank got low enough the liked to knock it around like a toy, when the were done eating they liked to flip around the trough like a toy, when I went in to fix something they liked to rub their beautifully muddy noses all over me! That was not really difficulty/bad thing number three ... and now that I think about it... it kind of is funny :)


4. They get big quick and lift gets busy. This problem is really a problem that came about because of all that we were trying to do. Our pigs really were ready around November and we should have and could have sold them then. It would have saved feed money and been a good deal all around. But, because of how crazy our life was with the move and the construction it just didn't happen. We knew we had customers interested, but we just didn't make the time to get everything lined up and by the time we did it was deer season.
   
   Deer season in Iowa means some lockers shut down all processing except for deer. That meant we weren't able to secure our processing slot until this past week. Like I said, this was really poor planning, but we have been able to work through it with a great batch of customers ... That was difficulty/bad thing number four.

Other than that there were a lot of things that we learned and some great things that came out of our first batch of hogs. But, I think that really should be a post unto itself. Check back tomorrow for the good of what we learned and experienced with the first Stoneyfield Farm pigs.

Good 'Ol Pork For Sale

Here is a little self-promotion for your Tuesday morning. If you are in the vicinity of Central Iowa and would love some great small-farm raised pork just let us know.

Happy New Year from Stoneyfield Farm! What a year last year was. We were able to purchase land for our farm, we built our house and are now living in it, and we have brought our livestock to our farm as well. Things are really coming along!

Since you expressed interest in our meat, I thought I would update you on how it is coming along.

Our Dexter cattle are now at the farm and are adjusting to their home. They are growing well and are enjoying the hay made from our land. We are looking forward to spring when the pastures green up and we can start our rotational grazing with them. It looks like we should have a few steers ready for sale near the end of the summer.

Our hogs have been enjoying the farm a bit longer than the cows. They arrived here in June and are now ready to head to the processor. If you are interested in purchasing pork, here is a little more information on them:

The pork that we have available this winter is “Old Fashioned Pork”, just like Grandpa and Grandma used to have. Our pigs are kept outside free of confinement houses and have not been fed or given antibiotics or hormones. They have been allowed to live the way pigs were designed to live - rooting up the ground, wallowing in the mud, and relaxing in the sun. They have been fed a varied diet of soybean meal, ground corn, and ear corn (corn still on the cob) with access to grass and hay from time to time as well.

We will be selling our hogs by the whole and half (or by smaller portions if there is a group you would like to go in with). The pricing for our “Old Fashioned Pork” is as follows:
-Purchase of hog = $1.00 / pound on the hoof (live weight) to be paid to Stoneyfield Farm
-Processing of hog = $0.60 / pound hanging weight to be paid to Milo Locker

The hogs we have this winter are around 250 lbs. The hanging weight should be somewhere around 175 lbs. Depending on which cuts you choose, you would then end up with around 123 lbs of meat if you purchased a whole hog. (Let us know if you would like a worksheet that helps you see what cuts you can have.)

This would equal around $2.89 per pound of meat consisting of your choice of cuts. Please keep in mind that the price per pound might vary depending on the individual hog and which cuts you choose.

We have a processing date reserved at the Milo locker, and the meat should be ready to be picked up the first week of February. We will need to finalize our order for this processing date this week so if you are interested in purchasing pork, please let us know within the next few days. If you would rather have a hog processed at a locker closer, please let us know so we can make arrangements. (Processing charges may be different at other lockers.)

If you have questions or would like more details, please feel free to call or e-mail. If you would like to purchase a whole or half of “Old Fashioned Pork”, please let us know within the next few days.

Thanks again for your interests in our farm and our products. We pray you have a wonderful New Year!

Ethan and Rebecca Book
Stoneyfield Farm
ethan@stoneyfieldonline.com

It is About Survival

I know that this is a topic that I have blogged about before, and the article that I'm taking the information from is from the June, 11th edition of the "Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman". Nonetheless I am dumbfounded each time I read about the current crisis in the pork industry. The title of the article that I read yesterday is, "Goal is survival, economist tells Pork Expo crowd", and it really details a difficult time for the hog farmers across the country. And by difficult I mean they are losing money or on the edge of losing money.

Glenn Grimes, of the University of Missouri, said this, "There will be some rough times ahead, but the hog industry will survive. One of the things you have to think about is how to get from here until the end of 2009, not about how much profit you will be making. Your goal is to survive." The article goes on to say that the breakeven cost for most of the hog farmers in Iowa is around $60 per hundredweight. Today lean hogs are selling at about $70 per hundredweight. So, there could be a little profit ... but, corn, bean, and fuel prices have gone up since July, 11th.

I guess I read an article like this and think about the ramifications for the farmers and I wonder how in the world this could happen. It is not like we are talking about computers or iPods here that are just "wants". We are talking about food! How have we as a nation gotten to the point where producers lose money in order to provide food for our nation and the world. Okay, I guess I understand the "how" and to a point I understand the "why" (we are addicted to cheap subsidized food), but I really can't figure out how we can keep going in this direction.

There is one other thing that I think about when I read an article like this ... can I make any money with the eight feeder pigs that I will have finished this fall and for sale. Right now it costs about $18 per hundredweight of feed and pigs like to eat (even though they are the best converters of feed to weight). Will those numbers work out for me and will I be able to make ends meet?

Remember ... I'll have wholes and halves of pork for sale this fall ... let me know if you would like to be added to the list!

Late Post...

Sorry for the late post today. As you can see from the picture below we had a busy/early morning. I will update this post later this afternoon with more details!


Here are some of the details on our new pigs. A few weeks back I saw an ad on Craigs List for "pastured swine". This of course caught my attention, but even better was the fact that they were only about 12 miles from our place! I called the farmer and told him I was interested in a few of the feeder pigs ... but, found out he was really wanting to sell the 8 pigs, the sow, and the boar. I went down to check them out hoping that I could just some feeders.

Well, once I go there he mentioned that he really wanted to sell them all and that he had some people coming to look at them. Normally I would have just said thanks, but I can't ... but, I really like the fact that these pigs where a Hampshire and Tamworth cross. As you may know the Tamworth is is listed on the ALBC list as "threatened". I drove away that day and began thinking about the different possibilities.

Finally I figured out a way to get it all together and those piggies showed up on the farm today. So, as of now we have halves and wholes of pasture raised (soon to be back on pasture after learning the joys of electric fence) Tamworth x Hampshire pork. These should finish this fall (October/November) and should be plenty tasty (I know I can't wait!).

If you would like to throw out a name for our new Tamworth boar you can check out my latest Epi-Log post and offer up your suggestion.

Small-Scale Pig Raising :: Chapter 5 & 6 Book Report

Well, I'm tearing my way through this book! Actually the chapters are fairly short, which I tend to like because it makes it easier to knock out a section each night. But, I'm also working through it pretty quickly because I think it is a pretty good read. I also think that it helps that it is about something other than grazing or cattle. I have been hitting the grass-fed cattle books pretty hard for quite awhile no so this is a change of pace. It will probably make me more interested when I pick up "Grass-Fed Cattle" again.

Chapter five of Dirk van Loon's book, "Small-Scale Pig Raising" deals with selecting a pig. Mr. van Loon writes mostly about selecting a pig for your own home pork, but also includes a few paragraphs on buying pigs for breeding. This is something that I was somewhat ready to read, although I already have our pigs picked out, because it dealt with what we are dealing with right now.

Of course he is specifically talking about "small-scale" and in this case that means two or three pigs. This is a perfect number for the family that is looking to provide meat for themselves and maybe to sell in order recoup some of their feed money. This is the number of pigs that I was looking to buy, but that isn't what happened (more on that next week). The chapter is full of great information for the beginner and I am beginning to understand why Walter Jeffries recommends this book so highly.

In Chapter six the topic is pig handling. Again, it is full of a lot of good information for the beginner including stuff about transportation (think small-scale and people without stock trailers) and moving on the farm. I do like the section where he talks about using the tail of the pig to direct them where you want. I believe we are going to be a farm that leaves the tails on our pigs.

Overall my impression of this book is very good and I think it is perfect for someone who doesn't know much about pigs. It puts everything in good practical terms and makes it all seem doable. Pigs is one area where I have the benefit of a little prior knowledge. For much of my growing up life we had pigs on the farm and I was able to help out quite a bit, but there is still a ton of good information for everyone!

Pasture For The Pigs

I am getting dangerously close to being able to announce that we have pigs on the farm, but I can't quite do that yet (keep checking back for more details soon). I have been reading as much on the subject of pigs as I can get my hands on though and I'm starting to get pretty excited about the possibility of pork for the family and for customers. It looks like we will have plenty of pork available this fall, but more about that later. For now I would like to share an article from the University of Missouri Extension titled, "Forages for Swine".

This article is from about fifteen years ago, but the information included is timeless. I would say that the authors, Howell N. Wheaton and John C. Rea, give a fairly unbiased assessment of pasture management for pigs. They take time to through out both the positives and negatives and seem to favor confinement farming in some circumstances (I don't really agree with that), but they also give some great information on what forages really work for pigs.

I think this is a good basic resource for those of us interested in pasturing pigs and I will certainly be turning to it next year when I begin to do some seeding on the farm. I would love to hear from any who is or has pastured pigs ... especially if you are planting certain grasses or legumes for your pastured pigs. Hopefully I can give some more first hand information very soon...