Pig keeping

This little pig cant go to the market

Featured in Lifestyle block Nz

Words by Mieke and Simon Couling

6 min read

Converting pigs to pork needs to be as thoughtful and humane as possible.

And converting pork to profit needs to be practical and economic.

Pigs are a wonderful addition to

the self-sufficiently-orientated

lifestyle block. They contribute to the recycling of leftover food products (from the orchard, vegetable garden, kitchen or dairy shed), they provide compost, will plough up land in preparation for planting and then, when the time comes, will provide plentiful meat. Pork is a versatile meat, and if using the whole pig as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (from River Cottage fame) advocates, the variety of dishes able to be produced from one pig is outstanding. There is more to a

pig than bacon and chops!

Berkshire

We personally have a bias towards

Berkshire meat for its delicious, juicy,

yet tender flavour, but any free-ranged,

home-grown pork is a hundred times

better than the pale stuff available at the

supermarket.

The Berkshire breed has been tagged as

high priority in terms of conservation and

we believe if more people tasted Berkshire

pork it would soon become popular. It is known as the Kobe of pork in Japan and the American Berkshire Association make the most of this highly lucrative market. Given the right conditions to produce and market this meat, the future for NZ Berkshire meat could be very promising.

Happiness

The other, perhaps more important part of our concern is about the animal’s welfare. Many people who raise their own pigs for slaughter do so for predominantly ethical reasons. Raising your own pigs allows you to know exactly what the pig has ingested and how happy and healthy the life of the pig is. Ethically, lots of us feel better about eating an animal that has had a good life rather than a harsh, cruel and short life. Many raise their pigs in total harmony with virtuous philosophies, they ensure the pigs are well fed, have good shelter, entertainment, space to roam, dig and root in, a wallow and do everything they can to keep the pig healthy and happy. But then when it comes to slaughter time they load the very nervous pig onto a trailer and transport it to a local home kill butcher for slaughtering. The one time we did this, it was a horrific experience to see this previously calm and happy pig become a shaking, nervous wreck. This went directly against our philosophy of thinking about the animal’s welfare every step of the way.

Barriers

So why is it so difficult to buy Berkshire

pork in New Zealand? It seems that a large

portion of blame for this can be attributed

to the legislation around home kill.

The laws in New Zealand (and most

other Western countries) regarding

pork meat seem somewhat illogical and inconsistent. The frustration brought about by the legal barriers small-scale pig keepers face is no joke. Anecdotally, we know that there is a high demand for free-range pork and a great possibility to bring many of the rare breeds back into favour. New Zealand is also in a wonderful position to encourage people to eat locally grown, ethical food. But none of this can be stimulated or realised by the small holding or lifestyle block owner due to the current legislation. We’re passionate about everything to do with pigs, including the end of their lives, and also about making free-range pork more accessible to the general public.

Profiting from pork

The first of our concerns is the near impossibility of sharing or selling home kill pork. The legislation states that it is illegal to trade or sell home kill meat. It may only legally be consumed by people that are direct family, or household and farm employees. Meat that is being sold must go to a registered abattoir for killing, but there are very few registered abattoirs that will kill a ‘backyard’ pig. This is not about the money, although no doubt there are plenty of pig keepers who would love to recoup some of the costs involved by selling meat. For us, this is more about restricting New Zealanders from having easy access to what we believe is better food. The legislation does not encourage the population to have easy access to a variety of rare breeds and hence the downhill slide for many of these breeds is on-going. We totally understand and support the health and safety rationales behind the legislation and don’t dispute these for a moment. New Zealand’s pork industry has done a remarkable job of maintaining a high level of farm biosecurity and remaining fairly disease-free. However, we don’t believe making it difficult for the small pig keeper to share and distribute their product is the answer. Is it really that challenging to have a set-up where the small pig keeper also has access to a rigorous and regulated system to check the meat? It seems inconsistent for legislation to be so restrictive for the purposes of keeping the population safe from potentially unsafe home-grown pork, while at the same time allowing untested raw pork to be imported

from various countries, which may or may not be PRRS-free. If we want to bring rare breed pigs and other livestock back into favors and encourage the general public to eat locally, we need to find a way forward that enables a backyard farmer to share and sell meat in a safe and practical manner.

5 things to know about feeding pigs

Making sure our pig population is not fed uncooked meat waste is an important part of keeping exotic epidemic diseases such as foot and mouth disease and the swine fevers out of New Zealand, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries. Feeding animals meat risks spreading these diseases if they were ever introduced into New Zealand.

1

All food waste that contains (or has come into contact with) meat must be treated before it is fed to pigs by heating it to 100°C for one hour. This requirement applies to commercial and household food waste.

2

Food waste that you know to be meat-free and that has not come into contact with meat can be fed to pigs without further treatment.

3

A supplier of food waste is required to ensure untreated meat or untreated food waste containing meat is not fed to pigs, either by heat treating it themselves (it’s a good idea to ask for written confirmation that they will treat it), or being satisfied the person it is supplied to will do so.

4

Feeding pigs food waste that doesn’t comply with the rules or allowing such food waste to be fed is an offence that can land individuals a fine of up to $5000, while corporations can be fined up to $15,000.

5

The rules apply to pigs that are destined for the dinner table and pet pigs alike.

The frustration brought about by the legal barriers small-scale pig keepers face is no joke. It is about respecting the animal and providing them with the best possible end of life.