Some of these pigs are ending up in regional slaughterhouses — rather than being butchered at home — and this can make it even more difficult for Northwest producers to secure a date for their animals to be processed.
Some of the younger Midwest pigs — known as weaners — will spend months fattening on farms, where they risk introducing new pig diseases to Washington and Oregon. These maladies include a stubborn coronavirus called porcine epidemic diarrhea , which struck the Midwest in and caused the deaths of eight million newborn piglets in the first year of the epidemic.
Though vaccines have been developed, they are controversial because they may cause stress in pregnant sows. Pigs brought into Washington state are supposed to carry certificates that indicate they originated from a farm where the virus is not present.
But Dr. State agricultural inspectors in recent weeks have tried to track the newly arrived — an estimated 4, in Washington alone — and check for proper documentation. They are finding some sold directly from the back of trucks that pull into makeshift parking-lot markets advertised on social media posts. Others have showed up at auctions, such as those held each week by the Chehalis Livestock Market, where the pale pink pigs from the Midwest, tails docked to prevent them from getting gnawed in close confinement of their birth farms, offer a contrast to the long-tailed furry animals raised by most of the local farmers.
The market operators say they had an offer to bring as many as 2, of these pigs to the auction. They said no, because there would not be near enough buyers. The U. Long before the arrival of the novel coronavirus, the trend toward confining animals in large-scale facilities, and the increasing concentration of the slaughterhouse industry, had come under attack from critics who say the price for this meat fails to account for the full cost of production.
In , the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Production noted the water pollution caused by the wastes that have escaped from the massive concentrated animal feeding operations. It cited health risks to workers that include exposure to toxic gas and dusts in the farm operations and high rates of injuries on the processing lines.
The Pew Commission also called attention to the widespread and routine use of antibiotics in large-scale operations to prevent and treat diseases that contribute to a broader crisis of resistant strains of bacteria in humans. In , Washington was the focus of an outbreak that underscored the dangers of such bacteria. That year, more than people were sickened by a never seen before Salmonella strain resistant to four different antibiotics that was tracked to pork processed at Kapowsin Meats , a Pierce County slaughterhouse that no longer operates and likely obtained the suspect meat from Montana farmers.
The risks of antibiotic resistant bacteria were spotlighted in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that noted such strains now kill some 35, people a year. Issa says she has yet to resort to these medications for the Mangalitsas, whose outdoor life and constant foraging helps to build up their immune systems.
Her farm is called The Sheepish Pig , and spreads along a coastal tract of largely cutover land — once scheduled to be a housing development — that offers striking views of Puget Sound and Mount Baker to the north. Issa had an unusual path to farming. Then, in , she and her husband, who operates a logistics firm, and five boys moved to Kingston, where her interest in animals that could help clear brush from the land led to the arrival of the first Mangalitsas in The Mangalitsas, which almost disappeared from eastern Europe during the Communist era, have enjoyed a renaissance during the past 20 years as a genetically pure throwback to an earlier era of animal husbandry.
They have much smaller litters than the pink pigs raised in the Midwest, and grow much more slowly. This year, there is the added stress of trying to figure out how to get this meat to market. For the first time, she is selling some whole animals to consumers who will then have them killed and butchered by custom slaughterhouses, which are allowed to work without USDA inspectors so long as the products are not resold.
Meanwhile, for retails sales. Since the pandemic hit, small slaughterhouses — like their much larger counterparts — have been scrambling to develop new protocols to try to protect their workers from COVID and increase capacity. Mangalitsa pork is very high in healthy monounsaturated fats and also a delicious source of Vitamin D. Our mangalitsa are raised on pasture and woodlands and their diet includes foraged acorns in the fall and barley for finishing.
Our pigs are pretty spoiled, with lots of belly rubs and scratches behind the ear. They are friendly and playful and silly.
Mangalitsa are quite different to raise because they have small liters of only 5 to 8 piglets and they grow very slowly, reaching harvest weight at 14 to 18 months versus other hogs who reach harvest weight at 5 to 7 months.
The price of our pork reflects some but not all of the increased feed and care costs. Our sheep are Katahdin and Dorper crosses. The lamb is sweet and mild.
Lambs are generally harvested at 10 months. Our sheep and lambs are fed hay we grow using organic practices on Grandma's 80 acre historic farm which has been continually farmed since We generally harvest 2, or more bales of organic hay each year, ensuring our lambs and sheep have plenty to eat, even in winter. We have farming in our blood.
My parents are both Australian and grew up on enormous sheep stations. We have generations of farmers tracing even further back to Wales and Scotland. Our family of 5 boys assists with farming chores when I can chase them down to help on weekends.
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