Walk The Pork - The Producer - Rob Simonds of Scotts Field Pork

Rob was asked lots of questions by our guests about our herd of Large Black Pigs and the way that we farm them - a summary of the Q & A session is shown below:

 

Why are Large Black Pigs so rare and why did you chose them as a breed to farm?

Here at Scotts Field Pork we have 60 Large Black sows and in-pig gilts. To give you an idea of how important this is there are only 300 registered sows in the national herd.  We birth register all the pure litters that we have however do not register any of the sows until we are convinced of their confirmation & breeding ability. 

Although rare today at the beginning of the twentieth Large Black pigs were the choice of most small scale farmers.After the war however the demands put upon farmers to‘improve’ farming practices meant a decline in all the coloured native species in favour of the faster growing leaner white hybrid.

The advantage of the large black sow is they are very easy to work with. They have a fantastic temperament, they’re also reasonably productive and take good care of their piglets. The large black sow is absolutely perfect for outdoor pig farming, they don’t suffer from sun burn and produce the most fantastic pork.

How do you farm & why farm pigs in The Brecks? 

We rent a proportion of this 150 acre farm which is situated in The Brecks next to Oxburgh Hall. The pigs here are part of the crop rotation

Our system here is very simple. We bring a sow into a farrowing paddock a week prior to them farrowing, she then has her babies and suckles them for about 6 weeks. The sow then goes back to the boar and the litter stays in the same paddock for the rest of their life. The whole process from birth to slaughter, takes about 22 weeks. 

The reason this system works so well on this unit is because it is Breckland soil and it’s pure sand, this means that whatever the weather, we are still able to walk and drive around the unit. We leave the sows and piglets year round in their huts with plenty of straw.  Because of their docile temperament and hardy nature we actually lose lose very few piglets either to disease or being rolled on by their mothers both of which are problems you would face daily on a large commercial unit. 

What do you feed the pigs on?

We feed our sows, boars, gilts and fat pigs sow rolls, these contain crushed cereals, protein, minerals and vitamins. We feed our weaned piglets creep until they are big enough to move onto sow rolls. We control the amount of food our growing pigs eat so they don’t get too fat or too thin. About 60%of the overall cost of keeping pigs is buying feed.  The price of feed differs depending on the quality and quantity of crops produced each year.

Why do you use a Duroc as the terminal sire?

Most butchers want a big and lean pig and at Scotts Field Pork we utilize the Duroc genetics to achieve this. The benefit of crossing other breeds with Large Blacks is the progeny grow faster so I can take them to heavier weights without them getting too fat. When we first started, we bred pure Large Blacks and ended up with small and fat pigs. We use the Duroc boar not only because the pigs produced have a bigger carcase but this particular cross preserves intramuscular fat which keeps the juiciness of the meat produced.  We have to experiment to try and produce the best pig possible for our butchers. For many years famers have produced pigs the way they have been told to, but in my opinion this produces a fairly tasteless meat, here at Scott’s field pork we’re trying to change this. 

Why eat pork?

Pork is still very good value compared to other meats, because it is a lot cheaper. As a result of the horse meat scandal the price of beef and lamb has escalated however pork still remains competitive.