Red Wattle Heritage Breed Hog on Pasture at Blessing Falls Farm
October 4 update: Our fall pork is sold-out. Please contact us to be added to the waiting list or to be notified early about our 2017 pork.
Our heritage breed, pastured hogs are about a month away from being ready. These are the Red Wattle breed and have been raised with full time access to our pastures where they can graze, root, run, and just lay around – to be a true pig. They are kept in with electrical fencing which we move regularly to give them access to fresh grass. Pigs cannot live on grass alone so we supplement their food with conventional (non-organic) corn and hog feed.
As with our beef, our pigs are free of antibiotics, synthetic hormones and implants. These are not vaccinated and have had no drugs of any kind. They are handled gently, never hit or abused in any way. They were born a few miles away on a local farm that practices these same humane, natural, sustainable methods.
We expect these to weigh around 250 pounds. We’ll sell them by the half or whole. A half should give you about 60 pounds of packaged pork in your freezer. You can have the half processed any way you like, including cured ham and bacon, pan and link sausage, along with pork chops, ribs, roasts, hocks, lard, etc. Since this is our first pork, we’ll offer halves at the introductory price of $4 per pound (plus processing costs paid to the butcher), based on hanging weight. A half hog’s estimated hanging weight should be around 75-85 pounds. When your half is ready, you’ll pick up directly from the butcher – at either their main shop in Westphalia (15 minutes east of Temple) or from their Hutto shop for an additional convenience fee. For more on processing costs and hanging weight vs. live or packaged weight, see details on our grass fed beef. The processing costs are similar to beef though hogs yield a higher percentage of packaged pork vs. hanging weight than beef does, typically about 75%. You’ll get even more usable pork from a pig if you can use the feet, lard, head, and organs.
We have a very limited amount of pork this year (it’s our first year, and if it goes well we hope to raise more hogs in 2017). You can reserve a half with a deposit of $80. Just contact us and we’ll get back with you regarding the deposit details.