The Myth of Pastured-Pork 

Right on...

My EXACT thought! Joel Salatin and Justin Rhodes

My man I had to come on down to the comments real quick like hold up I’m pretty sure as long as they are moved you’re totally good but I do understand if left In one spot they will tear up some things

My pigs are on rotation and they do not always root, they graze most times and root sometimes. they fix the soil too. I think they root when they smell bugs under the surface

True, but not all of us have been gifted with 2,000 acres like Mr. Salatin where pigs can be rotated to endless fresh pasture while the others have time to recover.

So glad it was helpful

Yup

Indeed

@CarlosChip Morales omg my horse must be starving

@@coleenannis153 Hahahahahahahaha! Best answer EVER!!!!!

@@coleenannis153 Horses are like rabbits - rear gut fermenters. They have a large cecum and colon that performs the same function as the rumen in ruminants, so they can use grass as a primary food source. If your horse is primarily pastured, you'll see the classic "grass belly" that you don't see on grain fed horses - think of the difference between race horses and family pets that aren't ridden or worked routinely and spend most of their time on pasture. That grass belly is due to enlargement of an active cecum and colon.

@CarlosChip Morales they do digest grass! You have no idea what you are talking about.

Once when my AGH got out before I learned to rotate them- even though they hadn't been fed for the day- I *could not get them to follow their feed* because they were far more interested in grazing.

And that's the voice of experience... I plan to get some AGH so thank you for the info.

I have had AGH for about a yr now and they will destroy your pasture like any pig if you don't move them enough. However, they would much rather graze clover and grass than tear up your pasture. So far they've only been through one winter but they wouldn't eat the hay I through in their paddock. They slept in it instead. They are great foragers and I send them into the bush to eat hickory and acorns in the fall. They have a great temperament and are great homestead animals.

good clarification. "rotated properly" is the key and not over grazing. The pig will certainly eat grass, you're right. My point is that the pig isn't a ruminant and so will opt for higher nutrient food, if it is to be had, under the turf when a cow or sheep will move on to greener grass. This doesn't make pig grazing impossible, just a management challenge to prevent them from rooting up the turf, something it sounds like you do well.

@@TheFarmsteadMeatsmith With a restoration agriculture farm you will have lots of high protein, carbohydrate and oil crops producing all year long. They need to eat bugs and fruit and nuts and mushrooms and the occasional root.

I'd like more information please. Were tired of our pig pen being dug down muddy and just disgusting. We want to rotate on our pasture for our next run. What are some suggestions you have to get started.

@@eadams7451 either rotate them all the time (3 days max, depending on size and density as often as daily) or look inti Korean Natural Pig Farming where they build roofed deep bedding piggeries where the pigs live out their days. An open sky static 'pig pen' is going to eventually turn into mud unless you can drop a constant supply of organic matter into it

Thanks for the feedback

I have seen pigs eat grass. Came out the backside undigested.

pigs will eat hay all day long, every day. You are misinformed.

@@jmatlock1994I see pigs eat grass everyday all day and it definitely is digested when it comes out the back.

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Thanks. Glad it was useful

Problem is, they rip up a wood lot really quickly. If you can take them to the woods when there are acorns in the fall it’s not so bad, BUT oaks do not produce every year.

That is one breed I haven't dealt with yet. It sounds like they were created recently precisely to retain all the great Kunekune traits in a larger framed, faster growing pig. They look like 19th century Berkshires to me.

You can feed it to your pigs, but they won't gain weight as much.

Yes! Unsaturated and monounsaturated oils are the ones that come through in the flavor of the pork. Acorn finished pork really tastes of acorn oil. Pigs finished on fish meal will taste of fish, which, while healthy, isn't tasty. Olives, however, would make tasty pork.

Glad you found it valuable Mike.

People see pigs in grassy areas appearing to eat grass but they are actually eating softer broadleaf plants like amaranth,lambs quarter and other common pasture weeds. We ran our pigs on pasture till they ate out the broadleaf weeds then put them back on oak woodland before they could start rooting. If people just walked out into the field to see what swine are actually eating it would help kill the myth of grass loving pigs.And yes its a myth that pigs can totally feed themselves on any pasture. Our pigs ran on 80 acres of woods and 25 acres of pasture and while our 24 to 30 pigs might have just survived on this land base they would not have thrived without their daily barley/corn/soybean meal.

Do paddock. Make 1/2 acre plots and move them. I do works out great

You have to rotate them quickly (weekly, give or take a couple of days) and leave a long time of recovery between paddocks or plots.

@@tangokaleidos1926 weekly honestly feels too infrequently. I wouldn't go over 3 days max. Granted my pens are SMALL (16² horse panel pens) with up to 8 AGH each, but it works well for me. I let the mothers naturally wean them around 2-3 months, divide males and females into separate pens and get them out grazing. By the time they're approaching harvest I'm moving them every day as part of my daily chores, but they barely root at all. Just a little now and then, easily scooped back in place before moving on to other chores

they can't digest it means they can't get nutrient from it

​@@mrsnoop1820 right...but "they can't digest [it] as effectively" means they are getting nutrients from it. Just because they're monogastric doesn't mean that grass doesn't do anything for the animals health, or the quality of meat...

​@@cliffordwilliams9597 malabsorption

@@mrsnoop1820 Malabsorption is when an individual is unable to absorb nutrients from their regular diet, not a term that has relevance in this discussion. "Herbivores with monogastric digestion can digest cellulose in their diets by way of symbiotic gut bacteria. However, their ability to extract energy from cellulose digestion is less efficient than in ruminants." -en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monogastric "Animals like cows and pigs can digest cellulose thanks to symbiotic bacteria in their digestive tracts, but humans can't." www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/eating-ethanol-scientists-turn-inedible-plant-parts-helpful-dietary-starch/#:~:text=Animals%20like%20cows%20and%20pigs,waste%20in%20our%20digestive%20tracts. It's an established fact that pigs can get energy from cellulose in plants such as grass. It is a bizarre claim that the pigs wouldn't benefit from the vitamins and minerals in grass, and it is undeniable that grass fed pork tastes different (for many, better) than strictly grain fed.

Unarguably, it wouldn't be humane to raise most pig breeds strictly on grass/clover pasture. That doesn't mean the animal doesn't benefit from grass.

Horses are herbivores not omnivores. Yes, they are monogastric animals, but they have a large cecum that contains the bacteria they need to digest cellulose. The cecum of omnivores is not able to do this.

Wil Spencer Can you please share what breed or breeds you have had success with raising on pasture

IPP, Idaho Pastured Pigs

@@702goodguy8 all breeds. They must be rotated about every week. It will depend on area. Just make sure you rotate them quickly and give a long recovery time before returning.

Certainly not _grass only_ but I've had great success with "pasture only" pork. But it has to be a slow growing lard hog like a Kune Kune, AGH, IPP or Large Black. And it won't work on straight grass, you need a diverse pasture. Clover and other forbs should be at least 20% And they have to be moved *often* or they will root.

It depends largely on where the pig was kept. Where there are forests with lots of mast, the pigs roamed and ate nuts and roots. This is called pannage. When the forests disappeared, or where there aren't nut trees, they were confined in yards and fed milk and grains and legumes and veggies and kitchen waste.

In the Pacific islands, coconuts and sweet potatoes were given supplementally to their forage diet. This improved the fatty acid ratio

Snakes, roots, eggs, small animals, carcasses, nuts, legumes and leafy plants w/ protein.

I don’t know about some of the other forbs but dandelion is probably the favorite food for our kunekune. We do everything we can do grow dandelion. Dandelion and a pasture rich in legumes are essential. Giant ragweed and lambs quarter is also a favorite and they love to eat walnuts. The only time out kunekune root is in the fall. They root up any crabgrass. The roots apparently are sweet on the fall and only the young pigs root the older pig do not. We feed no grain and in the winter alfalfa, clover, and grass mix hay and sometimes alfalfa pellets if our hay is too woody. I’m eight years we’ve never had to feed grain or remove our pigs off a good healthy pasture.

I hear this also about supplementing with a good pig feed. 8 years of raising kunekune I’ve never supplemented. I even spoke with a family from New Zealand. Where the breed originated. They agreed with me that the idea that you have to supplement them with a pig feed was perpetrated by the feed companies.

I have heard, these are Roumanian pigs, Bazna and Mangalița are one of the best heritage breeds, if not the best, especially Bazna.

Olso, they have a very healthy meat...

Anything they can find

Rhyne Cureton my point was that pigs do graze!

@@quentinstore1464 forage might be a better word for it. Wild pigs eat a lot of snakes, rodents, fruit, roots, grubs, and skittles.

Stephen Hagen it was sarcasm ! All pigs graze!

That Guy, They eat acorns, worms, grubs, carbohydrate rich roots, etc.

And as a caveat kunes can't live "only" off grass, but they can live "predominantly" on grass supplemented with some grains and hay.

The gelada is a monkey that eats predominantly grass. Cecums can go a long way to processing cellulose. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelada#:~:text=Geladas%20are%20the%20only%20primates,and%20the%20seeds%20of%20grasses.

Geese also prefer to graze mostly grass . The idea that ruminants are the only animals that live off grass is just categorically wrong.

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They are in the wild. grubs insects, fruits, seasonal stuff. eggs from ground birds. they wipe out ground bird populations. Deer actually eat ground bird eggs to in the winter. and whatever meat they can find. also. A LOT of spouting things.

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Pigs are very carnivores. Given a choice they go for meat first

They will eat piglets if they can get past mama.

@@MistressOP Never heard of that but ground bird eggs must be scarce in Winter.

A mast-fed pig makes delicious meat.

you are right!

Sadly oaks do not produce mast consistently

Salatins pigs are rotated on pasture every 12 days the majority of what they eat is grain based feed. Joel wouldn’t pretend that the main source of nutrition the pigs consume doesn’t come out of the feeder that moves to each paddock with the pigs. You’re angry about something you don’t understand. He’s not saying pigs don’t live on pasture but they need to be fed grain and vegetables it’s how their digestive system is constructed.

@@easybreezy9666 That's true. More to the point, he specifically said that he has butchered pigs that have only been fed grass and the carcass was emaciated. That's some heavy empirical evidence that supports the fact that pigs cannot thrive off of grass and forage alone.

@@andrewmackie5923 that's the intense, active bacon hogs. Lard hogs are chill and they can do well on constant pasture rotation. My AGH are a prime example. They don't grow the same way, they love mixed pasture and they barely root at all if they're rotated quickly enough. (Assuming, of course, mixed pasture. I can't imagine pure grass would meet their needs)

by law pastured pork doesn't really mean anything other than going outside for one hour a day. You are right, it doesn't mean grain-free, but it should. Pigs do not need grain although they like it. I have never given grains to my pigs and they thrive although they do gain weight slower, but it doesn't matter because they cost me absolutely nothing to feed. All I do is give them water. They are very healthy.

maybe you almost have to feed them some grain.

9 months from birth or from weaning (and if so, what age do you wean?) I love my AGH, but if IPPs can get similar pasture performance at that kind of speed and be ready for Christmas harvest after spring birth (finishing on mast) then I may have to consider them.

@@priestesslucy3299 Hello, I wean between 5 and 6 weeks. It just depends on the momma and how well the piglets are fairing. I castrate after about 1 to 2 weeks old. And, I harvest them around 9 months old from birth. Again I do not feed my pigs grain or supplemental feed. I do provide blocks of salt and minerals. It's true that all pigs root but some root more or less than others. They all will root if you do not supplement their feed but with IPPs if you move them to fresh silvopastures often so they can forage their own food they will have no time to destroy a pasture. I like to move them three to four days at a time on quarter acre paddocks. With that they will only create a minimum disturbance to the pasture eating like goats do, all the brambles, weeds and small layer of grass. It helps that I've removed all non-fruit bearing plants. I strategically have beech, date, walnut, oak, apple, peach, pear etc. Trees surrounding my pastures so no matter the season there is always something hearty falling to the ground for the pigs to eat. I raise 4 sows and their piglets in this rotation harvesting only the piglets. They will eat my grass down to a very low level along with everything else on the ground with this rotation and only root small and few areas. I notice the ground partially rooted or around their waterer where they like to create wallows in the summer to keep cool. When I move them I overseed with a mixture of healthy weeds like field peas, lambs quarter and dandelion. With this I've learned that raising pigs can be very inexpensive. I also raise Jersey Giant chickens and three guinea fowl for meat that I rotate directly behind the pigs to eliminate or reduce flies and other insect pests. I don't feed the birds either, only minerals and water. guineas are territorial and aggressive. They will protect my chickens from small fur predictors and Jersey giants and turkeys are the only birds that can hold their own with the guineas. I'm sure you could get them to butchering weight months faster, maybe 6 months if you fed them but I like my pork with a low level of outer fat and just well marbled meat. Fat tastes better in the meat and most outer fat gets discarded by the butcher any way so why feed grain to get fatter faster? And if I can harvest 30 to 40 pigs once a year for virtually no out of pocket costs then im happy with that.

Good day everyone. Nice video, Cryptocurrency still remains one of the best online investment mostly when it comes to Bitcoin. being the largest asset so far, although bitcoin trading and making good profits from trading bitcoin seems to be a bit difficult for most people out there because they make the wrong approach and strategy when it comes to trading. As a trader, so for i have been successful trading bitcoin because i was smart enough to do some research on making good profits daily and got to find out about a working strategy and signals provided by a pro trader known as Richard Bruce. During my first month i was able to grow my portfolio from 2.40BTC to a total of 4.7BTC with Mr Richard daily signals which you will agree that is a very good profits, so i would say don't rush and sell off, grow the little you hold with a very profitable signals. You all can reach out to him on Instagram (@richard_brucefx)

care to bust it?

@@TheFarmsteadMeatsmith Some grasses they do eat, ask any farmer that raise pigs outside a barn, I can agree with you in the term pastured pork, I would call it free-range pork, and fed with a fantasy world of grains, as pigs will eat almost anything.

@@TheFarmsteadMeatsmith It's been busted all throughout this comment section.

What’s the breed?