Raising pigs the natural way – outdoors

That’s what Jeff Linton is doing, after studying a farrow-to-finish operation in Scotland. And, so far, it is proving a cheap and healthy way to operate

by MIKE MULHERN

It has the feel and look of a small subdivision. The houses are all the same and the neighbourhood is awash in noisy youngsters who chase through the grass while their mothers sit around the pool.

The difference is that this subdivision is on 2.7 acres of seeded pasture, surrounded by three strands of high-tensile electric fence, and the residents are all pigs. The pool is a wallow and the mothers don’t so much sit around it as lie in it.

Better Farming - August/September 2011