Pork

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2024 will be Moonlight Ranch’s third year raising pork! After some trial and error in our first year, we have settled on raising Gloucestershire Old Spots, a heritage breed known for hardiness and adaptability to our wet climate.

Our beautiful little piggies are helping restore forests, farms, and gardens by acting as blackberry removal, weed mitigation, and natural tillers. This year, they’re moving through the forest of our Springfield farm to root out invasive blackberries and open up the soil for the native grasses, legumes, and forbs to move back in. This allows them to enjoy a natural diet of blackberries, along with any other naturally occurring forages they desire. In addition, we supplement them with local, organic produce from farms we partner with (like Upriver Organics and Sweet Leaf), organic fodder that we grow ourselves, excess raw milk from our cattle, and an organic hog grain from Scratch and Peck. The produce and fodder has greatly decreased our pigs’ reliance on grain, making them a much more sustainable meat source. We’re excited to continue to hone this alternate feeding method.

The pigs get to enjoy their own stretch of paradise, basking in fresh wallows and moving around the forest, while we get to enjoy their antics and robust personalities.

As with beef and lamb, we harvest pork, after the animals have gotten the full spring and summer seasons to forage all that the farm has to offer.