New Worry - Shy away from conventionally raised pork

There is a constant string of discoveries that point to the need for locally produced pasture raised meats. This one in particular is especially concerning.

It appears that there has been a discovery of a very concerning gene on a medium sized pig farm. The farm has about 1500 sows, that they raise only on farm, no outside genetics or breeding. This particular gene has been found in multiple samples from different sources around the farm.

Why is this so concerning? becasue this gene has the ability to make a variety of bacteria into "superbugs" that are strongly antibiotic resistant. AND, the gene can apparently be transferred to humans where bacteria on the humans can acquire antibiotic resistance.  In other words.. someone could be carrying this gene without knowing it, get a cold or flu or other infection, and discover that the usually easy to deal with bacteria are resistant to all known antibiotics. Not a good situation!

Let me say that it is completely unknown where this "gene" came from or how it got onto the closed ecosystem of this farm. However, as you read through this article, towards the bottom, it makes a clear mention of this:

They made multiple visits last year to the farm, where the sows give birth in tight pens and the piglets are taken to separate pens of 25 each after they are weaned. They found samples of the bla IMP-27 gene in several different samples and in several different species of bacteria, including E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae.

So, this is NOT a pasture based operation where the pigs live outside in the sunshine and fresh air, it is NOT  an organically based operation since the use routine antibiotics on farm. We can "assume" that they are also not using heritage animals with strong immune systems, since those animals are usually raised within the first two criteria of pasture and organic. It is also a pretty safe assumption that these animals are fed commercial soy based "barely good enough" hog feed instead of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Dis any of these issues cause this gene to show up? Its hard to say, BUT we do know that consistent use of antibiotics (as they admit to doing here) causes antibiotic resistance.  I strongly suspect that the combination is what creates a sort of "negative synergy" that gives birth to this and lots of other problems.

The point here is, this is a medium sized operation. It is not technically a "factory farm" or CAFO. And still, the lack of adherence to nature gives rise to these very concerning problems.  It is the practices of conventional breeds, low quality feed, confined spaces that create the need for consistent antibiotic usage and thereby crate these "superbugs".

How do YOU, the consumer avoid this? As we always say.. KNOW YOUR FARMER! Know how he does things... the key points to look for are:

• Heritage breeds for strong immune systems
• Pasture living for fresh air and sunshine
• No confinement births for a naturally cleaned environment
• Good quality organic feed
• At least some feed that is fresh, not from a bag with minimal nutrition
• Completely free of antibiotics, hormones and vaccinations

These form a "minimal accepted standards" for the resulting meat and meat products.

The source of your family's meat is critical... a pretty label or a good flavor or a cheap price are NOT reasons to buy meat. Doing so puts your family into deep health risks, Buy meats only from farms that you KNOW and TRUST and follow at LEAST the above list of criteria.

The full article is here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/researchers-find-rare-superbug-gene-us-pig-farm-n692236

Today's menu... Kale!

With the garden in full swing, the animals get a nice variety of feed from day to day. Today, the menu was fresh kale with a side of dandelion greens. And Lots of it.



The kale is super easy to harvest compared to the itchy zucchini! We pulled a load of kale, about a third of a row, in about 30 minutes. Enough for a full feeding for pigs and some for the milking goats.

I'm really happy with this variety of heirloom kale. Super producer, easy to harvest, and oh so nutritious! Farm animals never had it so good!

First full zucchini harvest

Today was the first full harvest of zucchini. About half the plants had full size fruit, so this is about half of a peak harvest.

Very nice way to end the day... Harvesting feed from our own garden under a summer Oregon sunset. Beautiful! Cool weather, and a full family event.

This load was split between hogs, goats, and birds. Everyone are fresh today!

The hogs enjoying dinner

Even the babies got in on the fun

Tomorrow... It's back to greens (chard, kale, and dandelion greens).

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Piglets

Cute pics for the animal lover

Peaceful afternoon!

What a pile of piglets!

Mommy training the little ones to stay close and safe

This weeks pig harvest - brocolli

Here is a look at collecting this week's pig feed... brocoli!



We rarely use commercial hog feed, preferring to feed real produce to our hogs. When our own garden is between harvests, we volunteer to clear out old plants and such from local organic farms. This load of brocoli comes from Easy Valley Farm in rogue river.



And of course, little theodore... like any good farm kid.... enjoyed a brief snack while pulling plants!

posted from Bloggeroid

New Litter of Pigs!

Today we have the arrival of the newest litter of piglets, 13 healthy ones, 2 spotted and 1 striped.

Unfortunately, she chose to give birth right by the fence, so we are working to get her into a shelter before we leave for deliveries today. So.. we might be a tad late!

Half price sale on farm direct hogs!

Given our recent sudden changes (previous job post) and loss of cash flow, we have decided the best path forward is to immediately liquidate the hog herd. What I mean by that is... Tremendous savings to you! We are offering our hogs for sale, farm processed, as whole or half , at half price!

There are three ranges of size available:

Smaller
Regular market size
Breeder

This is an unprecedented price! $2.50 per pound hanging weight.

Processing began this week and will continue into next week until the herd is down to a manageable size.

This will not only provide immediate cash flow, but also lower the feed bill and allow for our land to rest. We can plant the pig pasture in a nice covercrop while the herd is small.

Now is a great time to take advantage of the deep savings. Half price doesn't happen often!

posted from Bloggeroid

Across the board 20% Pork Price Decrease!

Exciting news!

Each year we do a review of our operation and product pricing. Our mission is to ensure that our prices are reasonable, but based on actual costs to produce the quality of food we are committed to. Quality and nutrition always comes first.

Well... this year's review of the Hog production ended in the ability to LOWER pork prices across the board, by a whopping 20%!   That's right.. all pork prices are dropping by 20% of the meat price! This is NOT a special, not a limited time offer, this is until further notice!

The reason lies in last year's creative adaptions to feed. Since feed is the single largest cost for a hog production, we spent a lot of time working on supply, types, ability to grow, sprouting, etc. The overall combination of all these things worked and allows us to lower prices!  No change in quality, just passing the savings on to you.

If you have not tried our meats yet, please do.. This lower price is surely friendlier on the family grocery budget, and our hope is that our meats can become a regular part of your family diet.  Whether you take home delivery in the Rogue Valley, or are one of our new shipping customers... please do take advantage of these new lower prices.

What it takes to impress a girl these days...

Guys, if you think we have it tough in this modern day of dating rules and such...  Just be glad your not in the animal world! Here is a little taste of the "dating ritual" in the pig world... doesn't look easy!

This little boar decided to try his had at winning the affections of a young gilt. What ensued was a half hour or so of this "dance". In the end.. he gave up and walked away... unsuccessful.

Corn harvest time

It's finally time to pull the corn stalks, and boy are those pigs happy!

When we grow corn, it's not just for one or two ears from each stalk. That had always seemed a waste to me... 6 to 8 footy tall, thick stalks for just a couple little ears of corn. Well here at little sprouts we don't do it that way. We see more value in that huge stalk than in those tiny ears. So we grow corn FOR the stalk, and if the ears develop... that's icing on the cake. But either way, a row of corn stalks is magnificent pig food.

The trick is to let the stalks grow and mature until they just start to dry out... then pull the entire stalk and feed. Its like an 8 food fudge sickle! Of course... they quickly learn about those yummy ears and go for them first. They will desperately rummage through each and every stalk looking for ears, consume them asap, and then settle in for a nice meal... its like eating dessert before dinner.

Here are some shots of the hogs enjoying the corn harvest.

posted from Bloggeroid

New Products! Pork Ribs, tenderloins, sirloin chops

We are pleased to announce the arrival of more cuts of our delicious healthy pork! We now offer:

Tenderloins
Baby back Ribs
Sirloin Chops

And we added both spicy and mild pork breakfast sausage.

Dont miss out! Quantities limited!

Pig Heaven - A sustainable, healthy, profitable, pig feeding model for small farms

It is possible, no pig in the world has a better life than these guys! They have their own garden... and eat fresh produce every 2 days.. harvested for them and delivered to their doorstep.  Life is good!

Today we harvested 22 barrels (35 gallon trash barrels) of zucchini. At approximately 150lbs per barrel, thats a total of 3300 lbs of zucchini! This is pretty much average harvest per week for the pigs.

The ladies are chowing down on the first 6 barrels of fresh harvested zucchini... plenty more to come!

Why do we do this?

Well... for the cost of seeds, water, fertilizer, infrastructure (about $2000 all together) plus a bit of labor to prepare, plant, grow, and harvest... we get a ton and a half of fresh nutritious organic produce to feed our pigs every week.  Lets do some math...

3300 lbs is a lot of zucchini. The going local rate for organic locally grown zucchini in bulk is 1.35 per lb... but that's not heirloom.  Heirloom varieties go for closer to $1.50 per lb.  But lets be conservative... use the 1.35 per lb price. That means 3300 lbs is worth $4455 of Zucchini! For heirloom (which this is) thats a value of $4950.   And we feed this.. every week, plus a small amount of soaked/ sprouted grain, weeds and alfalfa.  In addition to zucchini, we are growing beets, pumpkins, cabbages, and a whole host of root vegetables for winter.

Grain, at wholesale, runs about $.15 per lb for a killer deal, $.20 per lb for a good deal (organic).  We are feeding produce fresh from the garden worth $1.50 per lb. that's 10x the going rate!

Who in their right mind would do this? well us... we would.   Lets think it through.   it takes us about 3 hours a week to harvest this produce.  Total cost to plant was about $2000.  so growing it ourselves is actually quite economical!  consider the alternative:

We would have to feed about $1000 of grain per week, plus another $200 per week in nutritional supplements (because grain by itself doesnt supply enough nutrition for health). And you still have labor to cart the grain around and feed it appropriately.

Think about the impact to the environment... trucking 3 tons of grain in per week to feed these guys... plus all the local tractor labor to fill the feeders.  This approach, growing the feed right here on farm, in our dirt, with our water and our labor, makes a lot of sense! and it's nutrition that cant be beat!

We are excited about our model... it provides the best nutrition possible (fresh produce) for the hogs, meaning larger healthier litters and fewer health problems.  Plus it is more environmentally friendly than trucking heavy feed around the country. And it saves money for feeding in the process. And lets not forget... it makes the best tasting pork you can imagine!

So there you have it... a unique model that works... profitable for the farm, healthier for the hogs, sustainable for the environment, and producing a superior product for you, the consumer.

Have you tried our sausage or bacon yet?

Organic Alfalfa and Alfalfa / Grass Mix delivered for the year

Today we finally received our yearly order of hay... This year we went with a combination of both straight alfalfa and some alfalfa / grass mix, all certified organic.  We have 7 blocks for a total of 408 bales, which  is approximately 28 tons of hay. Thats a lot of hay!

The animals are having a feast!  Even the hogs are chowing down like they haven't seen alfalfa in months (which is almost true).

Here are some shots of the animals feasting on bales of the fresh hay:

First Pumpkin Harvest

The Pumpkins are finally ripening! We gave the pigs a taste of their first fresh pumpkins along with the usual zucchinis. They loved them!

What a nice variety!

Even the little ones took turns nibbling on the leftovers

Fresh Hog Feed

Beets and zucchini headed for foothill

Cucumber vines with ripe cucumbers

The salad mix for the breeders

This weeks harvest!

Produce fed Hogs - a new approach

There are two main ways to feed hogs today... commercial hog feed or "scraps".

Commercial hog feed comes in lots of varieties, all intended to meet the nutritional needs of the animal at the lowest possible cost. In other words... they are formulated to "just barely" have enough nutrition for health.  Companies that produce these feeds do a lot of study on exactly hat the minimum needs are, to meet them without going over.   There is nothing necessarily wrong with this approach, as long as the nutritionist that produced the feed formula truly does understand hogs. The farmer is depending on the company to know what the hogs need and provide just that.

The other approach common in smaller operations is feeding hat amount to scraps or leftovers. This could be the non human edible produce from a garden, leftovers from a restaurant or grocery store, spent grains from brewing, Basically any semi edible food that is cheap and would otherewise go to waste.

We use both approaches from time to time. We have the commercial feed  from scratch and peck that is a soy free , organic, non-gmo whole feed.  But we use this sparingly. Then we collect scraps when available from a variety of organic sources.  But this is hit and miss.  We also provide a steady supply of greens (weeds) from gardening and on open pasture.  But, alas, that list of things is not enough to feed the number of hogs we now have (50 to 100).  So we needed a new idea to both save money and provide deep nutrition.

Enter.. produce. Fresh grown organic heirloom produce. We actually started a garden primarily for the hogs. Its not that the hogs get what isnt human useable... no.. these hogs get the first pickings, the best produce we can produce. Not scraps, but real food!

Summer time means zuchinni, pumpkin, beets. cucumber, melons. corn, etc. The things we can grow and feed on a continual basis.  As of right now, we harvest about nine to ten 40 gallon barrels  twice a week of these things.  That provides over half of the total feed for the hogs. Then we fill in with sprouted grain and commercial feed, plus the weeds from the garden or pasture.

Winter time we plant moistly roots and cold hardy plants... beets, carrots, rutabagas, kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, turnips, etc. These items allow us to harvest continually for most of hte winter, because they over winter in the ground.

You see, we debated about how long we can keep pumpkins for winter feeding, dehydrating zucchini to last through winter, etc. But then we realized.. why go to all that trouble when the ground itself is a great storage spot! Just grow the roots, leave them in the ground to slowly grow  until time to feed!  Low maintenance , low cost, no energy food storage!

Nutritionally this is optimum for hte hogs, because they get a true variety of fresh produce, grown right. We are not dependent on any single nutritionist or company to determine what our hogs need to survive. These hogs eat like they would in the wild, opportunistically browsing through whatever they find.

So next time your enjoying a Little Sprouts English Banger sausage, feel secure that our hogs are not fed a "formula"developed in a lab, nor are the fed leftovers or garbage... the hogs that produce that sausage are fed the best of hte best, locally grown fresh organic produce, grown just for them!

Almost at full harvest!

The pig gardens are doing great this year. We are just a bout at full harvest potential.  Here is the status:

Squash (including zuchinni)  - harvest every 3 to 4 days, producing 7 barrels per harvest

Cucumber - harvest weekly, producing 6 to 7 barrels

Each barrel is 30 gallons, so on a weekly basis we are producing :

Squash = 420 gallons per week

Cucumber = 210 gallons per week

ITs time to start dehydrating some of the harvest for winter months, since the harvest will continue to improve over the next month.

The beets are ready to harvest, not as many as we hoped for but still significant. We expect quite a few barrels, maybe 12.

The cabbages are struggling in the heat

The pumpkins are doing great, probably ready to start harvesting in 2 weeks.

 Here's a look at the pigs enjoying today's picking of cucumber:

One man's weed a another's breakfast

One great benefit of multi species farming, that includes both plants and animals, is no waste! What would normally be a problem in a garden, weeds, become a blessing and nutritional powerhouse.  The hogs, pastured heritage hogs , absolutely love weeds, and they are good for them!

This morning I pulled the mature almost seedy weeds from three rows of melons and simply three then over the fence. The hogs actually walked away from their corn pile to Munch down on the delicious fresh salad!

Even the babies tried some. Before long, there were but a few scraps of leavees and stems left.

Upgrades for the hogs at foothill

The unusually hot weather this week  brought some concern about the hogs growing nicely at foothill. The water system was struggling to keep up with demand. It seemed that he battery was dying every day and leaving the waterer dangerously low. With a steady supply of water, hogs are in danger of suffering deeply in this dry heat.  So, we decided to fix things better.

First, the power system on the water trailer. We had already replaced the small solar panel with a full sized 15 watt panel.  Next we replaced the small 100 watt solar controller with a  300 watt digital one. This gave a reading on the power pull of the motor which was more than expected at 6 to 9 amp! no wonder the original system wasn't keeping up.

I replaced the smaller battery on the water trailer with a true deep cycle with much larger capacity. Then installed a pressure gauge in line with the water line after the pump. Using the readings from the pressure gauge I was able to set the pressure switch properly to turn on at 5psi and off at 15psi reliably.  This gave a reliable power and water source.

Here is the completed new setup

Here is a shot of the pressure gauge installed using a typical Y hose connection and adapter

Top view of the battery, pump, and solar controller

Then I went to work at the other end of the delivery hose.  The hose leads to a 4 way connector which feeds:

1. Hog Waterer float valve
2. loose hose with shutoff on end for manual water delivery
3. empty
4. Pressure tank

The pressure tank is helpful. It is just a standard 5 gallon pressure tank  for a hot water heater. This is a sealed tank with an air bladder inside.  The air bladder softens pressure changes and stores a small amount of water to reduce pump cycling.

With the new water pressure set to 5-15 psi, I released enough air from the tank to leave it at 10psi. In theory that stores enough water to account for 5psi pressure change. 

The distribution 4 way splitter.  note the small pressure tank in the upper left corner.

The waterer itself. 

Then... the poor hogs were SO hot. Even in the shade they were just laying still in distress trying to breathe. Remember.. pigs dont sweat.  They need external water / mud to keep cool.  So... More water to the rescue!

We purchased another hose, a home water timer, a nozzle, and made a pig shower... a virtual pig water playground! The timer turns on for half an hour every 6 hours during the day, and the nozzle shoots the water far enough into the pen to keep the electric fence safe.  this occasional spraying will provide quick relief as well as a muddy spot where they can dig and lay to cool down. The resulting mud will help to keep them cool.

The timer is strapped to a plastic fence post, which is braced against another plastic fence post with wire ties. Actually makes a sturdy base just high enough

With water running, pretty good distance for a 12v pump! Some of the pigs came running over to investigate the sound of falling rain!

Success! happy pigs playing and lounging in the rain drops

One final thing to do here is to install another solar panel. A single 15 watt panel can charge at about .8 to .9 amps in the bright sun. That gives about 10 amp hours per day of power at best.  But the pump draws 6 to 8 amps..  so for just filling the waterer for drinking it would work fine, but   to run 3 times a day at 30 minutes each for the shower adds   90 minutes run time at an average 7 amps...  thats about 10.5 amp hours per day.. more than one panel can recharge.  Adding one more should make the system balance nicely. 

"Thank you Mr Farmer!"  says the now happy pig

Move aside guys! make room!

AAAHHH, cool rain!

Ever seen a group of happier pigs??

Afternoon snack

A new litter of pigs enjoys a late afternoon snack...