Lessons learned - pig harvest 2017

We spent all season with the pigs trained to and confined by electric fence, moving them to new ground by opening up new areas and enticing them in with food and fun.  And lots of patience.  After the first time, they never seriously tested the fence, only touching the electric a couple times during moves when they got confused (pigs don't see very well), or by accident (which we've done ourselves more than once.)

But we don't own a livestock trailer so when the time came to get the pigs to the processor we elected to hire a rented trailer (paid by the hour!) and ask the pigs to cross through a hole we made in the electric fence (new concept to them) and step up (which they had never done before) into the trailer (a strange new place) in order to get food in the trailer (but there were still some things to root up in the pasture enclosure).  In order to get the pigs to go the direction we wanted as quickly as possible we decided to embark on a process of rapidly condensing their pasture so that the walls of the electrified fence closed in on them into a tighter and tighter space with the electric fence surrounding them and closing in tighter and tighter, their only escape being the strange and unknown trailer.  Or crossing the electric fence.

This was not a wise decision.  Also, we can testify that if you train them to electric, treat your pigs really well and give them plenty of space and fun stuff to do and unlimited food and water in their pasture, they will not cross that electric fence unless you, the farmer, are really, really, really stupid. 

And that's why we didn't end up cramming the pigs in a trailer to harvest them in November but instead harvested on farm in December with Lonestar, a local mobile livestock harvest small business.  We're also switching to a different type of electric fence that doesn't cost over $100 per easily-destroyed section, and will recycle our current electric setup (after repairs) for some other exciting uses to be announced soon.

This was a very valuable lesson for us.  In the additional month the pigs gained quite a lot of weight.  We aren't happy about that, because it means they finished over the ideal size for our customers.  They also ate a lot more food -- far more food than they made up for in weight gain.

This was a painful, stressful, but useful lesson to learn.  At least it wasn't painful or stressful for the pigs.  We are big fans of mobile livestock harvest now.  

Anchor Ranch After Dark

OK, OK, that was kind of a click bait title.

We received a Fenix headlamp as an early Christmas present.  I don't know the model and anyways this isn't a plug for Fenix, but the point is it puts out about 1000 lumens on max setting and can do that for several hours which means I can take photos like this one:

Working at night by headlamp

(Photo: New portable-ish pig shelter, halfway completed.)

One of the main sources of extra work we had this year was keeping the pigs sheltered.  Since we move them regularly they don't always have access to the shelter of a tree.  Part of living on pasture is that they do live in the elements, but we also don't want to force them to lie in the baking sun all day, or spend all day in the cold rain.  Keeping pigs inside electric wire is relatively easy so long as the pigs are happy and content where they are.

This year our solution was setting up a tarp for them strung from T-posts.  However that meant pounding in T-posts every time we moved them (sometimes into very hard and rocky soil) and tying up the tarp.  It also meant going out to chase the tarp when what is essentially a giant sail snapped its ties, going out to rescue the tarp when the pigs climbed on each other ("piggyback") to reach a corner and tear it to shreds...basically it meant buying a lot of replacement tarps and, in addition to moving the shelter, a lot of extra work repairing it.  Usually in a storm, at night.

Thus we're experimenting with a more permanent mobile pig shelter for the future.  Iteration 2.0 features cattle panels bent in a half-cylinder and attached with heavy-duty fence staples to pressure-treated 4x4s braced with pressure-treated 2x4s.  Corrugated deck drain covers the sides and a tarp covers the top but this time the tarp is attached with baling wire.  Which probably deserves a blog post some time soon because baling wire definitely wins the prize of most used item on the farm.  

The result isn't likely to be completely pig proof, as pigs are more destructive than an unsupervised two-year-old.  And it can be dragged over flat ground from point A to B , but it isn't exactly "easy" to move.  But it is likely to be an improvement over what we've tried up until now.  We're looking forward to seeing our 2018 pigs trying it out!

Our pig cut list December 2017

Just a quick update with a list of what we decided to do with our with our whole hog.  More updates to come soon!

Head: Kept to make head cheese.

Tongue, Jowls, Neck, Backbone: Kept to make sauces or to braise.

Offal, Lard, Soup Bones: Kept.

Shoulder: Cut as roasts (Boston Butt boneless roast and picnic shoulder roast).  Cut off some of one side as country-style ribs.

Loin: Kept one crown rib roast and cut the rest as pork chops one inch thick and frozen in packages 3 chops to a package.

Ham: Cut one fresh ham in half.  Cured another ham and center-cut for ham steaks.

Belly: Kept one fresh pork belly cut in half for roasts.  Cured and cut the other as bacon sliced and packaged in 1 pound packages.

A note on cured meats

What is cured meat?

Cured products such as bacon are typically (more on this later) made by adding nitrates or nitrites to a brine mixture.  (A nitrite is basically a nitrate minus an oxygen atom.)  A standard cure uses sodium nitrite.  An alternative is to use something like celery powder.  Celery powder is naturally high in sodium nitrate. 

Nitrates and nitrites

Besides celery, some other vegetables such as spinach contain relatively large amounts of nitrates.  A large percentage of the nitrates you consume probably comes from vegetable sources, not cured meats.  The human body converts some ingested nitrates into nitrites.  Regardless of the source, your digestive system normally handles these with no problem. 

If, however, something goes awry in your digestive system, sometimes nitrites in meat can instead convert to nitrosamines, which you may have heard may be a risk factor for cancer.  It's up to you how much weight you give in the real world to laboratory findings that something is a statistically significant risk factor.  Entire books have been written about what "statistically significant" really means.  Nitrates in fresh vegetables don't normally turn into nitrosamines because most of these vegetables don't contain amines, since amines are normally associated with proteins.  No amines, no nitros-amines.   

It's not clear what are all the factors that can contribute to nitrosamine production.  Could the quality of the meat (CAFO vs. pasture-raised) be a factor?  Could what the animal ate be a factor?  Could the addition of chemical preservatives or artificial colorings be a factor?

There is no such thing as "uncured bacon"

Simply put, there is no such thing as "uncured" bacon.  Bacon is by definition cured.  And most "nitrate-free" bacon is not nitrate free at all: products labeled as such simply contain nitrate from celery powder (and will have a small note that this is the case, under the gigantic "Nitrate Free" label).  Since this nitrate is consumed with the meat and not as a fresh stalk of celery, it gets digested along with the same amine groups present with a standard cure.  So...if there is a health risk, is this reducing it at all?  In fact, it might be easier to measure how much nitrates and nitrites are added to a standard cure than it is to determine exactly how much is naturally present in any given batch of celery powder used for curing.  

You can make your own nitrate-free* cured meat

(* Well, "no nitrates added" would be more accurate.  Since nitrates occur naturally, you'd have to somehow remove them all to be "nitrate free".) 

Cured meat products are typically made with added nitrates or nitrites, but obviously cured meats have been around a lot longer than synthetic sodium nitrite or celery powder.  The benefit of including nitrates and nitrites in the cure is that doing so significantly reduces the risk of botulism.  However, you can find plenty of recipes for how to take pork belly and salt-cure it at home using a homemade brine.  It's like home canning: there are risks, so it's important to know what you are doing.  But it's certainly possible and plenty of people do it all the time.

We take no sides in the health debate.  It's possible one or other type of cure is healthier.  We don't know.  We simply encourage you to educate yourself and make whatever decision you think is best for you.  We hope this explanation helps with that!  We do think that cured meats are nutritious and delicious, and therefore worth eating and appreciating in moderation.