The Idaho Pasture Pig
Idaho Pasture Pigs
We manage our farm for our family first, not only does it supply us with nutrient dense delicious food that we know from beginning to end, it is also a way to teach our children resilience, problem solving, and responsibility. Because management of our livestock is primarily done by my children and I, we had to take temperament in to account when choosing our breeds.
The Idaho Pasture Pigs are bred to have easy going, friendly, manageable personalities. They are a breed that I feel comfortable working with even our boar. While we always keep in mind that these are livestock animals not pets, so they do demand a certain level of respect, particularly breeding stock. That being said, my children are able to comfortably do the daily chores for the pigs. One of my younger kids is known to loose track of time just hanging out with feeders, making sure they are properly socialized he says, but I can’t get mad his momma is known to do that occasionally too.
Food is special to our family culture, it nourishes us, it delights us, and it we see each meal as a gift. We want to know where our food comes from, the life it had, and we want to eat food that is as close to the way God intended it to be.
From the garden to our pastures we have worked hard to find plants and animals that fit our land, family, and values. We want to grow things that thrive and if we are going to give our time, energy, and love to growing something, it needs to be special.
The Idaho Pasture Pig is just that, it is something very special. Let us share why we love this breed of pigs and why we chose this breed for our farm and family.
Temperament
PIG SIZE
Our feeders average 230 to 245lbs hanging weight at around 9-10 months of age. Our breeding sow is about 325 lbs and our breeder boar is about 450 lbs. These are on the larger side of the breed standard, but we felt that this confirmation better fit our needs.
Some growers have achieved a faster growth rate by free-feeding their pigs. The compromise with this is that while you may reach butcher weight faster you will compromise on meat quality and flavor. It is this quality that sets this breed apart, so we feel that if speed not flavor is your focus there are better breeds out there to achieve this.
Meat Quality
Their meat is beautifully marbled and full full of flavor. Our pigs are only fed 4lbs of non-gmo soy/corn freed daily, left over grass-fed whey and then left to graze on high quality forage for the remainder of their diet. This results in a slightly slower grow out than commercial breeds and heritage breeds but the little extra time we take makes all the difference in the quality of the pork.
Idaho Pasture Pigs love to graze and need to by supplied with quality forage to get the best quality meat that the breed is known for. Some breeders will supplement hay or alfalfa when forage is not available. We live in the southern gulf coast and are lucky to have forage available year round.
The pork chops are large and similar in size to a conventional chop that most people are used to. The IPP yields excellent quality and ample bacon. Large hams, shoulders, and beautiful jowl bacon.
Feed Efficiency
The ability to graze, not only improves the flavor but it also increases the feed efficiency, especially for our breeders. While our feeders will finish at ten months vs six on some heritage breeds. IPP feeders will only eat about 4-5 lbs when they have proper minerals and forage. Our breeders on the other hand are between 2.5 to 4 pounds depending on our available forage. Right now our winter forage is doing very well, so our 450lb boar is only consuming about 3lbs of feed.
WHy Not A Heritage Breed?
When we decided to start raising our own pork we had very clear requirements when looking for the right breed.
First they needed an easy going temperament that made working with them safe and pleasurable. While we found some heritage breeds that on an individual basis might easy going, it did not seem to be a breed standard, especially when it came to breeders.
While we knew we wanted a pig with a practical finished carcass size, we knew we needed a medium size that would be practical for a small framed women and kids to move, load, and work with on a daily basis. Here again the IPP met our need with a manageable size and great hanging weights.
Last and one of our most important considerations was finding a pig that did not destroy our land. Keeping our pastures beautiful and healthy is very important to us. We did not want to sacrifice our land to our pigs. We have worked very hard to preserve our soil health with rotational grazing and good pasture management practices so we needed a pig breed that would utilize the forage without destroying it. IPP’s have a medium length snout that turns upward. This up-turned snout allows the IPP’s to graze and makes it difficult for them to root.
Why Not a Kune Kune?
The Kune Kune breed met a lot of our needs like great temperament , ability to graze, and beautiful meat, but they had too many issues that made them impractical for our needs.
First it can take up to two years to grow out to harvest weight. We needed to be able to harvest several pigs a year for our family alone and the slow growing Kune’s just were not practical for this.
Secondly, the carcass size and specifically the pork chops were much too small to be practical for our family. The ratio of lard to lean meat also did not fit our needs. We value the fat (it is actually one of the best sources of Vitamin D and K2) and render all of our lard for cooking and soap making. Our IPP’s supply us with ample lard, while still giving us big, beautiful lean meat cuts.
