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outdoor reared pork

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    #2
    whelan2
    Registered Users Posts: 29,601 ✭✭✭✭whelan2


    Ohs cousin has outdoor pigs. He's doing well out of it www.thewholehoggs.com



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    #3
    Stationmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 887 ✭✭✭Stationmaster


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058271747/outdoor-reared-pork

    A good few very small farmers doing it for themselves/farmers markets/online sales etc but the costs are fairly tight if you had to get it into a supermarket at the prices they'd want it for I'd say.

    We do a bit ourselves and just sell to the locals but I'd want to be getting €12 to €15 a kilo to make it worth my while or a bit less if selling in bulk.



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    #4
    phormium
    Registered Users Posts: 3,342 ✭✭✭phormium


    M&S have a range of this, UK imported of course but handy if you don't have local farmers market selling it. Just happened to see it yesterday when I was there.

    The Irish market is fierce small compared to UK, one decent city over there would be as many people! Much easier I'd imagine make a living from it in those circumstances.



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    #5
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,500 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119882730#Comment_119882730

    One of the outdoor-reared suppliers is charging nearly 5 euros for a 200g chop to be fair the others are not charging as much but you would easily make get 12 euros a kilo.



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    #6
    _Brian
    Registered Users Posts: 18,579 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    We’ve often reared a few pigs for the freezer. It’s not cheap. The meat is amazing but works out expensive.

    last two years we’ve killed a heifer for the freezer. Again the meat is amazing but with the beef it’s a saving compared to buying good beef.



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    #7
    blue5000
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,667 Mod ✭✭✭✭blue5000


    Got some yesterday at €10 per kg, he was saying he had an organic pig farmer complaining that he was selling it too cheap, €20 is what organic pork would be worth. In fairness organic pig ration is over €1000 per ton, what I bought isn’t organic, just outdoor reared.

    Looking forward to a roast. The big bucks are made doing a pig on a spit at some special event.

    If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.



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    #8
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,500 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    I personally think organic is nonsense but outdoor reared is a different thing. The idea of non factory farming need to be decoupled form organic which is a different and very idlogical issue.



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    #9
    _Brian
    Registered Users Posts: 18,579 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119888960#Comment_119888960

    Agreed.



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    #10
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119888960#Comment_119888960

    Outdoor pigs at anything other than marketgarden scale is like the somme. Used to be more pigs than people in Suffolk doing the outdoor pig job, hundreds of sows set up in moveable pens for when the ground gave up and a feed cart could no longer be dragged about in all sorts of weather on ground akin to the beach.

    Pure missery all round



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    #11
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,500 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891595#Comment_119891595

    Where do the brittish supermarkets get outdoor or outdoor breed pork? Someone must be making money from it.



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    #12
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,829 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891683#Comment_119891683

    It's a niche product, ultimately pigs are like outdoor chickens but worse.


    50 hens on an acre of ground will have it reddened and poisoned with nitrogen from their dirt, it would take the plow to restore it.


    Not saying I'm against it, it's an idea I'm playing with, well a version of it but pig meat and poultry will become exclusively for the rich if they are only grazed products



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    #13
    Waffletraktor
    Registered Users Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Waffletraktor


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUgyivQI8J0
    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891683#Comment_119891683

    There's any number of setups in the arable areas that have sandy dry land mainly on the east coast and south. Alot of the pig job nowadays are the animals owned by companies and farmers take them in on a B&B set up with a flate rate and bonuses on performance. Once your away from the market garden setup its no different to commercial indoor. There is no money in any type of farming dealing with the supermarkets



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    #14
    snowcat
    Registered Users Posts: 1,218 ✭✭✭snowcat


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119888960#Comment_119888960
    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891531#Comment_119891531

    Why would you think rearing animals without weedkillers, unnecessary antibiotics artificial fertilisers from Russia and free range as standard practice and protecting animal and insect habitats be nonsense?

    60 % of baby food is now organic as mothers value the food going into their kids. Go look at the choice in Lidl or Dunnes they are all organic If you are not at least considering organic you are one of the dinosaurs of farming.



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    #15
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,500 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891774#Comment_119891774

    All right not nonsence maybe faddy is a better word Lidl do it because it sell parents want what they precieve as the best for their baby, I'm all for less meat eating I'd rather eat less meat and pay more for a better produced product.



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    #16
    snowcat
    Registered Users Posts: 1,218 ✭✭✭snowcat


    Its fairly obvious no matter what metric you base it on that organic is a better produced product. Chicken is the stand out one. Battery chicken which is a horrendous product is fork ready in 3 weeks. Organic is a minimum of months

    Organic chicken is up their with organic beef as it is an elite food stuff that most people cannot afford even though it is still only the price of fillet steak.



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    #17
    _Brian
    Registered Users Posts: 18,579 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119892088#Comment_119892088

    ahh whatever.

    your comparing apples with oranges.

    if you sat down to sample two chickens both outdoor raised at pasture at low densities, one organic and one not organic there would be no difference in taste, appearance nor nutritional value. Heck the chickens would have the same quality of life. And pasture rearing birds doesn’t need chemicals spraying nor fertiliser.



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    #18
    hamburgham
    Registered Users Posts: 1,039 ✭✭✭hamburgham


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891708#Comment_119891708

    I don’t think it would be a bad thing if chicken and pork were more expensive. There would be more respect for it and less food waste.



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    #19
    hamburgham
    Registered Users Posts: 1,039 ✭✭✭hamburgham


    I’ve stopped eating pig meat because of the animal welfare issues. I really miss toasted ham and mustard sandwich’s and rashers. I saw a programme on intensive pig farming and I just thought, no, no more. Would definitely pay a premium for outdoor reared pork if it was easily available.

    I have after seen herds of pigs out in fields in England but never here.



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    #20
    muddypaws
    Registered Users Posts: 3,610 ✭✭✭muddypaws


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119892781#Comment_119892781


    I'm the same, I lived in Wiltshire in England and am used to seeing outdoor pigs, it was a shock when I moved home and found out how few pigs live outdoors here.

    Check out Andarl Farm in Mayo, I get my free range pork delivered by DPD from them. Definitely worth paying the extra for, you'll have to cook the ham for your sandwiches but yourself you can freeze cooked ham.



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    #21
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,500 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891714#Comment_119891714

    Except for the crucial fact that the pigs have more room and its a slightly more natural environment for pigs, there are 'factory' organic farms it does slightly vex me that people always associate organic with animals gambling along on green pastures being hand fed by the farmer and his wife living a 'natural' life. I know where free-range supermarket eggs and free-range chicken come from and how they are produced. I love the quote from a free-range turkey producer, I think it was nationwide he said...no more than ourselves they don't like being out in the cold and wet so they choose to spend most of the time indoors at least they have the choice though.



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    #22
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,829 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119892767#Comment_119892767

    Well the current situation where nearly all food and agri product in the world is cheaper than a decade ago is horrendous.


    Society has no respect for food, food security or farmers now .


    It's a problem everywhere but it is acute in Europe.



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    #23
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,829 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891774#Comment_119891774

    Or maybe you have looked at the maths. There can be a certain nobility in poverty but it is not fun.


    I've had some experience in organic production, one would want to be very careful going in to it and presuming that the demand is there or that consumers will even entertain it can be very expensive mistake.


    In certain niches there are opportunities, certainly but...



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    #24
    mr.stonewall
    Registered Users Posts: 1,799 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119893103#Comment_119893103

    Looking at the few necessities that everyone needs, shelter, warm, food and water. In the western world our value system is out of order. The only thing Irish people value is a home, just look at the media at the moment. Warmth people are up to high doe about the price of energy. On the water front just look back 10 years ago and you will see the water protest. Food at no time has featured. Western societies have got used of the supermarket principles of stack them high see them cheap. Urban living has done this as people have became more detached from these key needs. If you compare this the rural folk it's different. Here we have to fun our own well, fuel is gathered from windflew, food is often provided from our own land.

    If something is in high demand people value it. Just look to the care folks put on their latest iPhone or designer puppy

    In Ireland we have a housing crisis, and energy crisis, what will be next?? Food or water, that will be the big question



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    #25
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,829 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119893139#Comment_119893139

    It's more than just western society, in Asia it's as rough for farmers regarding price but there is still some appreciation in Govt and society that food production is of some value.


    Due to our geographical location we'll be ok for water and given the quality of the land we'll never be short of food, we produced enough food in the 1840s to feed 20mn.


    In a concerted effort now feeding 50 or 100mn would be targetable.


    From Nigeria to the start of central China the land is mostly poor soil, and only producing thanks to incredible levels of fertilizer application, at that their yields are low.


    The approach to everything seems to be broken..



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    #26
    phormium
    Registered Users Posts: 3,342 ✭✭✭phormium


    Well I was back in M&S by coincidence today, had to go where the driver was taking me! Bought some of the outdoor reared pork sausages, damn nice! Would buy them again, haven't tried the rashers yet.



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    #27
    Stationmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 887 ✭✭✭Stationmaster


    I outdoor rear 2 pig litters a year - sell some of the weaners and kill 6 to 8. The meat is unbelievably good. I think something like 95% or slightly more of pork consumed in this country is from 'intensive' farming so reared indoors and driven on from day 1. My pigs take at least 7 months (and usually 8 or closer to 9) before they're ready to be killed. I'd love to upscale a bit (maybe 3 or 4 sows max) but there's very little supports there and it's a big gamble because whilst the locals I'm selling the product to are delighted with it, it is very hard to expand the market and justify the costs.


    We're happy out though as we've great quality pork products ourselves all year round!



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    #28
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,829 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    Is there a lot of minding in sows and bonhams.



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    #29
    Base price
    Registered Users Posts: 11,280 ✭✭✭✭Base price


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119899034#Comment_119899034

    No, only good electric fences and a straw bedded house/shed for a sow that is farrowing along with access to a water trough and of course feed.

    I really miss breeding the pigs - other than horses they are by far my favourite farm animal.



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    #30
    Stationmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 887 ✭✭✭Stationmaster


    Yea, I'd agree with everything bas price said. A really enjoyable animal to work with. A good fence and a bit of shelter and you're 99% of the way there. A fierce intelligent animal and also very sociable. The only animal I've worked with that will keep they're bedding area clean. They have to get meal every day alright which is one of the big drawbacks to getting into them commercially especially now with the price of stuff.



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