About Your Pork

Tamworth 
Hogs

Our 2024 hogs were heritage breed Tamworths. Tamworth hogs are known to be a resilient, highly adaptable breed that was first recognized hundreds of years ago in England, but is thought to be descended from a line of wild Irish forest hogs. Tamworths are active, athletic hogs: their long snouts allow them to forage vigorously, and longer legs and a more slender build allow them to run quickly. Their body type tends to be long and deep, with excellent bacon and a moderate amount of fat. 

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Management: The pigs were raised on pasture their whole lives. We moved their paddock every few weeks, depending on weather and soil conditions. As we moved them, we sowed cover crop seed behind them to ensure new growth on the impacted soil. They spent a lot of time under a huge sycamore tree, which in early fall started dropping nuts that they loved to munch on.

Feed: In addition to what the pigs forage (which is quite a lot), we gave them a hog-specific feed from Sunrise Farms in Stuarts Draft, VA. The feed is a Non-GMO certified blend of corn, oats, and soybeans supplemented with seashell flour, kelp meal, alfalfa, wheat, several types of yeasts to aid digestion, and many micronutrients and minerals to ensure overall health. Typically, all of the corn and soy that Sunrise uses in its feed is grown in Virginia. For the last few weeks of their time on the farm, we fed the pigs a soy-free feed, also from Sunrise, enriched with peas and flax to promote the development of Omega-3 fatty acids. We also fed them veggie scraps, leftover whey from cheesemaking, and windfall apples, peaches, and persimmons from our farm.