Wooly Pigs

Mosefund's First Batch of Mangalitsa

2009-07-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

Closeup of Mosefund's carcass: 2.5 inches or more of fat.

Mosefund killed their first batch of Mangalitsa!

They are about a year old, originally bred and farrowed in Washington (by Wooly Pigs), grown in the Midwest (Wooly Pigs farm#1 ), sold and delivered to Mosefund and finished in New Jersey on a special diet designed to optimize their fat quality.

I picked the biggest ones out last August, knowing that they'd be Mosefund's first pigs. They were about 40# the last time I saw them. From the moment they received the pigs, the clock was ticking - they started feeding them their finishing diet to prepare for their big day. In the meanwhile, they managed to make the New Jersey Star-Ledger in a story about Mosefund and Mangalitsa.

The pigs - famous all over New Jersey.

If they'd have been smarter, they'd have realized that when strangers get in your pen and others strangers take pictures of you, something is probably going on. When they load you in a trailer and drive you somewhere, something is definitely going on.

They look quite fat to me. That's a lot of leaf lard in that pig. It isn't easy to see, but these pigs were about 350# live. They were very heavy for being only one year old, evidence that we fed them on a high plane of nutrition.

Soon, Michael Clampffer will deliver the pork to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Elements (Princeton) and a few other fancy places mentioned in the article.

The Mangalitsa dinner at Elements (Princeton, NJ) is really going to be something:

9 courses
$130 for food. Alcohol additional.
first 3 courses done family-style

New Jersey Star-Ledger

2009-07-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

G. Chris Andersen and his pigs.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger just wrote about Mosefund and their Mangalitsa operation.

Vicky Hyman, the journalist, wrote a very good article. It is extremely informative, and I don't see any obvious mistakes. That says a lot; in any complex article, there are normally a few mistakes.

There's lots of neat things in the article:

Mosefund Farm is the only outfit east of the Mississippi raising Mangalitsas, and its first customers include Princeton's Elements, Restaurant Latour at Crystal Springs Resorts' Grand Cascades Lodge in Hamburg and Westchester County's award-winning Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is the New York equivalent of The Herbfarm. For example, they raise their own pigs too. Pig's from Mosefund's first kill are going to one of New York's most respected restaurants.

And then there's this:

Mosefund will also be hosting "Pigstock 2010" in January, a , three-day, hands-on class open to all on butchering, curing and cooking the pigs.

Michael and Mr. Andersen are just some of the Americans who are really excited about Mangalitsa. In my dreams, I'd be hosting two 3-day classes on Mangalitsa slaughter and processing (and having Americans fly in from all over to take the classes). It is amazing to me that Mr. Andersen is into that too, and has the resources to make it happen.

It wouldn't be happening if Mangalitsa wasn't so superb.

Sow Cannibalism

2009-07-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Bad sow.

Sow cannibalism, aka "savaging" is a problem with pigs and other animals. Here's some references:

Pig Progress: savaging, puerperal psychosis
The Pig Site: savaging of piglets
Google Books: Domestic Animal Behaviour and Welfare

The Pig Site lays out the common case clearly:

This is a condition mainly in first litter gilts that may account for up to 3% increase in piglet mortality.
Offending gilts can often be identified by their nervous apprehension at the onset of farrowing.
They have a "wild eyed" look.

That's fairly excusable: they haven't been through birth before and are very stressed. When stressed, pigs attack things.

Some Mangalitsa sows engage in cannibalism. I first encountered this in Austria. We saw an old sow that only had 3 pigs and asked why there were so few.

Christoph Wiesner explained that she'd eaten some of her piglets. He explained further that when the sows get older (this one was about 5 years old), some of them don't like the little pigs anymore, so they attack them. It doesn't take much for a sow to kill a little pig; she's got a mouth full of very sharp teeth.

As described in "Domestic Animal and Behaviour", the cannibalism Christophe described is an extreme variety of cannibalism - the sow purposefully maims the piglets. Other forms of cannibalism can be benign: she kills them accidentally and nibbles on them.

Lucky to be alive: the bad sow's three surviving piglets

This came up today because one of our star sows savaged one of the first pigs that she farrowed. She typically weans 8 to 9 pigs, substantially more than the breed average of 5.5. The herdsman was really looking forward to her farrowing today, because he had justifiably high expectations.

This morning, he heard a pig screaming. It kept on screaming and sreaming, which is unusual.

The herdsman finally discovered that sow #22 had attacked her litter's first newborn piglet, minutes after birth. She'd bitten off one foot, one leg and ripped open its belly such that its guts were coming out. Yet it wasn't dead, so it was screaming. The herdsman euthanized the piglet by knocking its head on the ground.

Later on, he saw a pig drop out of her vulva (smacking the floor) while she was standing and eating. That's unusual; normally sows lie down to give birth, and the pig just slides out. It looked like maybe the whole litter was going down the tubes. Yet a bit later, she was lying down, letting 4 pigs suck. She wasn't done farrowing when we talked, so maybe she'll have more than four piglets.

A number of points came up in our conversation:

1) She can still be worth keeping. If she weans more than 5.5 pigs, she's doing better than average, savaging or no.

2) Because the breed is known for savaging, taking drastic action isn't indicated. E.g. if she's produced otherwise good gilts, keeping them would be fine. The same for her boars. We won't cull her offspring just because of her bad behavior.

3) Maybe she just had a bad day. Maybe if she'd woken up on the right side of the pen, she wouldn't have savaged that pig.

4) Although we really despise this sow's savaging, she's just a sow. She isn't a human. She doesn't have the impulse control that humans have. If pigs were conscientious creatures, able to delay gratification and resist the urge to lash out, they wouldn't be pigs.

5) We'll probably give her another chance. Hopefully she won't savage the pigs next time. of course, the problem will probably get worse over time. But until we've got replacements expected to be better than 22, she's worth keeping around.

If humans behaved like pigs, we'd take measures to protect the pigs, at the expense of the mother's freedom. E.g. we'd restrain the mother, preventing her from attacking her newborn baby. As mentioned in this book, farrowing crates, can help to protect the pigs from sows: unless the pig walks right in front of the sow, she can't bite him.

Some people attack farrowing crates, because they restrict a sow's freedom (even if only temporarily). Those people have probably never had to euthanize a savaged pig. People who work to prevent (directly or indirectly) farmers from taking care of their animals (with things like crates) are causing unnecessary death and suffering.

Seam Butchery, Rib Pullers

2009-07-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

I had a customer thank me for putting up seam butchery videos.

The people who like those videos really like them. While I was doing the work to make them available, I didn't know who would appreciate them. In general, my experience with Wooly PIgs has been like that; I never would have expected people to be so enthusiastic about this stuff.

Deboning a belly with a rib puller.

I was talking with Michael Clampffer of Mosefund, where they'll have Christoph supervise students killing and butchering pigs in January. He told me you can order rib pullers here.

If you google "rib puller", you'll find, among the results for the devices, this info about professional rib puller salaries. If you had to do that job hours every day, the rib puller tool wouldn't seem so fun.

Provenance Farm Update

2009-07-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Provenance Farm - Taylor Falls MN, (651) 583-2252

With most outdoor pig operations, the pigs erode the pastures, because of overstocking. Also, if you get busy and don't move them around, they'll ruin stuff to the point where it can't recover.

Mosefund's pigs turning a pasture into dirt.

It has gone that way at The Herbfarm, Mosefund, Wooly Pigs's Farm #2, etc.

Original pasture at Provenance Farm

Provenance Farm (651-583-2252) is the only Minnesota producer of Mangalitsa. They keep their pigs in Taylor Falls. It is clear the pigs are well cared for.

When we saw Provenance Farm's photos (see here) a lot of us were skeptical, because we figured it would just be a few moments before they'd destroy that beautiful (and tasty) grass. It was too good to be true.

But it isn't a trick!

As Christina of Provenance Farms explains, they move the pigs every 4-5 days. If you've got enough space and you move those pigs around, it can work.

It is nice to see someone keeping Mangalitsa outdoors without ringing the pigs and without lots of erosion or pigs digging out trees they've killed.

Wooly PIgs: Midwest Farm #2

2009-07-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

Mangalitsa pigs are the kids' favorite.

Previously, I posted photos from one of our Midwest farms. Here's photos from another of our farms.

Most of the time, I devote this blog to the outstanding quality of the food we produce. E.g. as Gourmet described it - "The Magic of Mangalitsa Pork".

Of course, Mangalitsa production is a family enterprise. It is great to see Americans in the Midwest raising one of the world's best-tasting pig breeds, feeding them the best possible feed. When I consider the history of pork production in America, it seems crazy to go all out this way.

We are going to produce an astounding amount of high quality pork in 2009 - approximately 10 times as much Mangalitsa as last year. People who know about fat quality might suspect quality will drop (based on producing in the corn belt)- but rest assured, quality won't drop, because we've brought in the special finishing diet. Hopefully we'll grow it on the farm next year.

Mangalitsas crowding the fence - typical pig behavior.

One thing that's funny is how the pictures don't change. Here's a photo of Donauschwaben in Old Hungary (more info) with their "Mangalica" pigs.

And here is a photo of our producers, proud to be raising the best-tasting pigs in America:

American Mangalitsa Producer

The next generation learns pig fattening firsthand.

Mangalitsas cool off cheek-to-jowl:

The erosion and soil compaction is palpable:

More pigs on the way - purebred and 75% Mangalitsa pigs:

Group Lactation

Mangalitsa sow

This next set of photos is very cute. The farm has other pigs (non-Mangalitsa) on it - but the kids' favorite pigs are the Mangalitsas:

Got some food?

Outdoor Farrowing

2009-07-05T05:27:00.000-07:00

Mangalitsa sow in an outdoor stall.

Bruce King has a sad post about a sow losing some piglets while farrowing outdoors. The weather has been warm (80s) lately, but it doesn't take much to kill a little pig. Besides getting crushed, piglets die of exposure, infection and other causes.

In general, people farrow indoors because it greatly reduces mortality and morbidity.

Farrowing outdoors can still be optimal economically though, because some consumers will pay more for pigs farrowed outdoors. Even if consumers don't pay more, it can pay to farrow outdoors because the low cost of facilities balances out the extra deaths - explaining why outdoor farrowing is still common in warm places like Missouri.

I've talked with people who farrow pigs and sell them to a large "niche pork" producer. As one guy said, he generally farrows 5 to 9 pigs per sow per turn, depending on the weather. If the general consumer ever makes the connection that "naturally raised" = unnecessarily dead piglets, we may see sentiment move against primitive pig keeping systems. At a minimum, if animal lovers knew the facts, they'd probably be in favor of farrowing crates.

Video on Sow Housing Options and Tradeoffs

Most people don't know about pig production, so they don't understand that there's many ways to keep them indoors.

For example, these Mangalitsa pigs farrow in pens. There doesn't seem to be a heat source for the pigs, but there's a rail to help prevent crushing. It doesn't look easy to clean though, so there could be various diseases in the building itself, continually infecting the piglets from turn to turn.

These F1 Mangalitsa sows farrow in crates. They've got a heat source in the corner for the piglets, explaining why they crowd there. Everything is set up for easy cleaning, like a hospital. This facility is better than the first, in terms of reducing mortality and morbidity - but it looks the ugliest (like a hospital) and bothers some consumers. I would want to be born on that farm, if I had a choice.

In general, getting the farrowing right starts will controlled breeding. A lot of small farmers just have their boars running with their sows. The boar breeds the sows when they come in heat. The farmer never knows exactly when that sow will farrow, because he doesn't know when she came in heat. When sows farrow in the wrong place (easy to happen if you don't know when she'll farrow), the piglets die or suffer, as explained in this video.

As soon as you've got farrowing facilities, which are expensive, you want to avoid putting sows in them unless you know they'll farrow soon. Hence the need to control the breeding. One way is the "heat check" the sows regularly (e.g. once or twice a day), to see if they are in heat. But that sort of routine isn't very compatible with other things. You might as well just run pigs all the time, if you've got the facilities and skilled labor to do it.

This explains why people specialize, and why we only see a few different ways of keeping pigs in America. E.g. you'll have a small number of people running a large number of pigs (like these Iberico) in a very focused, modern way, or a smallholder running a relatively small number of pigs, chickens, turkeys, cattle, etc. It doesn't pay to be in the middle. E.g. you probably aren't going to have a small 4-crate farrowing house, next to the rabbits, turkeys and chickens. You might have 4 pens though.

Around 80% of Iberico are produced intensively.

Making it even more extreme: you aren't likely to see someone with a small number of sows kept in a gestation crates (small metal cages to hold pregnant sows during their pregnancy) - you either won't see them at all, or you'll see a lot of them (e.g. 200+). Over time, the minimal numbers that are optimal keep going up and up, as things get more efficient.

I've heard restaurants are the same: a lone chef can feed a few. One chef and an assistant can probably do meals for 15 people. Any more and he needs a lot more help. So you've got various modes that are optimal - and nothing in between.

When you do things small-scale, you can't be excellent at all of them, but there are advantages to it. If you are a smallholder and the pig business tanks, you get out of the pig business until it recovers. If you specialize in pigs, you are stuck.

Mangalitsa and Chef Schneller

2009-07-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

Chef Schneller's roasts.

I don't know how I missed this, but Chef Schneller, who teaches butchery at the CIA visited Mosefund and wrote about it:

My grandfather Karl Schneller grew up in the southeastern portion of Austrian, near the Hungarian border. My Aunt Mary was born in Hungary and our family has a long food history that maintains many of the specialties from that area of the world. My father would make Speck in his butcher shop that was the same as my Austrian grandfather made. The Mangalitsa is a breed of hog from this part Europe. It is considered by many as the best tasting pork in Europe and is prized for its fat. It is unique in that it has a thick sheep-like wooly coat and does very well in colder climates.

That's really something. I'm guessing his family is from Burgenland. In Burgenland today, there's people producing traditional products from Mangalitsa, like these and these.

Luce's Landing; Kobe Beef Sliders and Mangalitsa hotdogs

2009-07-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

Keith Luce with a Wooly Pigs brand Mangalitsa-sired pig.

Keith Luce of The Herbfarm has opened a restaurant in New York.

It looks like he'll implement some of the innovations he brought to The Herbfarm:

Essentially I am working on a restaurant–farm concept that focuses on the land, farm, and artisanal breadmaking, cheesemaking and some charcueterie.

If I heard about someone doing this who wasn't Keith Luce, I'd be inclined to think they were just doing it to get attention and be trendy. Having eaten his products, I know he'll do it seriously.

I like this part of the interview:

Speaking of which, will you be bringing some of your wooly pigs (Mangalitsa pigs) to the new farm?

Yes, I will start raising wooly pigs there.

It is funny to see the company name "Wooly Pigs" used that way. To avoid genericide, we need Keith telling people that he really wants to raise "Mangalitsa pigs", "Wooly Pigs brand pigs", "Wooly Pigs brand Mangalitsa", "Wooly Pigs brand woolly pigs" - the awkwardness of which explains why he said what he said.

In any case, The Herbfarm just served some Mangalitsa hotdogs, pictured above. Also on the plate - some "Kobe beef" sliders. I'm wondering if they flew in the Kobe beef from Japan or used Washington-rasied Wagyu (purebred or otherwise) beef. I'm going to guess the latter.

If Mangalitsa hotdogs become as popular as Kobe beef sliders, that would be something.

2009-07-04T04:32:00.002-07:00

There's an article in the New York Times about a special salami that some collectors are hoping to import to the USA. The salami was given out at the Venice Biennale:

“And then it became a practical one of, ‘Well, how are we going to get this thing here?’ ” she said. “You can’t mail it. You can’t fly with it, or it might get seized.” The museum has yet to work out the particulars fully with customs officials, but she said: “I think we’ll be able to get good guidance on this from other institutions. I’m not worried — we’ll get the salami.” (For now, it is filed in Mr. Heneage’s bookshop refrigerator.)

I'm skeptical. That meat was either produced under USDA inspection or it wasn't. If it wasn't, the USDA is going to want to keep it out of the country, based on previous outbreaks caused by uninspected meat.

Mangalitsa Head Versus Wild Boar

2009-07-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

Hank Shaws's blog has a neat photo of a wild pig's head and a Mangalitsa head. The wild boar was skinned and the Mangalitsa wasn't, and the heads aren't cut the same way, but you can see that the Mangalitsa head is ridiculously fat.

Bakers Green Acres and Mangalitsa

2009-07-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Some Mangalitsas at Bakers Green Acres.

Bakers Green Acres has some nice photos of their pigs on the web. Their pigs got used at the Grand Traverse Resort in MI, exposing a bunch of people to their unique pigs. As they write about the event:

Resort Executive Chef Ted Cizma had received a whole hog and processed it on Monday. Tuesday evening he and his staff served fried pork belly at the event. It was fantastic. Even though the pig was not mature the meat had the flavor we remember of our standard mature hogs. It also had a great deal of belly meat and fat such that it could provide the material for pork belly. Our experience with standard hogs was that you couldn’t get a decent belly off them unless they were a minimum of 2oo lbs. dressed (this one was about 120). We were very impressed with how the Mangalitsa pig performed. Chef Scott had prepared some of the lard. He rendered the lard, added some spices (I wish I could remember which ones), then whipped the fat enough to make a butter with it. I tried it on a garlic melba toast. It was very good. I’m not a big fat eater, so wouldn’t want much of it, but the flavor was good. The butter had a lard flavor, but it wasn’t as strong or heavy as I remember lard I’ve rendered from standard hogs.

Mosefund's Rolling Pigs

2009-06-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Michael Clampffer of Mosefund sent me the picture above. Their pigs climb up the bales and roll down them, hitting the pigs below.

Mangalitsa listed by "Daily Fork" as one of 2009's in Vogue Foods

2009-06-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

The Daily Fork lists Mangalitsa, along with things like fennel pollen and grass fed lamb as "In Vogue Food Items of 2009".

I'm happy that Mangalitsa attracted their attention.

There is a big difference between Mangalitsa and the other listed items like grass-fed lamb or fennel pollen: that other stuff has been around, but its popularity has recently increased. Mangalitsa, in contrast, is new to the Western Hemisphere. It is quite rare now, but there's reason to think, based on European lard-type pork production figures and the embrace of Mangalitsa by quality-sensitive consumers, that Mangalitsa can develop a lasting presence in America.

The stage we are at with Mangalitsa is something like Wagyu in the 1990s: appearing in high-end restaurants. Right now, The French Laundry (Yountville, CA), The Herbfarm (Woodinville, WA) and Monsoon (Seattle, WA) serve Mangalitsa regularly.

In the end, I think Mangalitsa will have a bigger impact on American eating habits than Wagyu, because we will process Mangalitsa into convenient foods like salami.

More "Mangalica" PR

2009-06-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hungarian stamp honoring the Mangalitsa breed.

As I mentioned before, LaTienda is marketing "Jamon Mangalica".

They have a new press release, which, in addition to making claims I've already discussed, says that "Mangalica" is pronounced "mahn-gah-lee-kah".

In Hungarian, the "c" sounds like "ts" - so the Hungarian spelling "Mangalica" sounds like the English spelling "Mangalitsa". You either choose the Hungarian spelling or the American spelling. Each has its tradeoffs - but they both sound the same.

I'm happy La Tienda will be promoting Mangalitsa products (although I've got some reservations), because the more they promote the breed, the more it will help Wooly Pigs and other American producers to sell our Mangalitsa.

"National Culinary Review" on Mangalitsa

2009-06-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

Reprinted from The National Culinary Review, June 2009, Vol. 33, #6 ©2009 The American Culinary Federation, Inc. All rights reserved.

The National Culinary Review's June 2009 issue has a 4-page article on pigs. The Mangalitsa gets a lot of ink. The article mentions Michael Clampffer, CIA graduate, traveling to Europe to learn how to fatten and process Mangalitsa pigs from Chef Manfred Stockner of Zum Weissen Rauchfangkehrer.

I know Chef Stockner reads this blog sometimes. He will surely recognize the photo at the top as his own dish, photographed in Vienna. I've seen photos from Chef Stockner's kitchen all over the web. For example, the pig you see here is the same as the two carcass photos you see here.

Later in the article, the Mangalitsa gets close to a page about how special it is, and how promising its future in the USA:

Reprinted from The National Culinary Review, June 2009, Vol. 33, #6 ©2009 The American Culinary Federation, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mangalitsa Dinner in Princeton

2009-06-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Michael Clampffer told me that the restaurant Elements in Princeton is having a Mangalitsa dinner. The guest chefs are Aki Kamozawa, Alex Talbot. Aki and Alex run the interesting blog "Ideas in Food", which features things like powdered lardo,

Mosefund Farm Finds Market for Exotic Mangalitsas

2009-06-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

Mosefund made their local ag paper: "Mosefund Farm Finds Market for Exotic Mangalitsas"

It will be neat to see how people respond to their first batch of pigs.

Small Farms in Spain in Trouble

2009-06-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

When I discuss Spain's pig sector, I normally mention the Iberian Black, a breed similar to the Mangalitsa.

I saw an article today about Spain's small pig farms going under:

Alberto Herranz, director of pig traders' association Ancoporc, predicted that some of Spain's less profitable pig farms would close in a the next five years.

"What we need to watch out for is whether or not this shift will leave production in the hands of large concerns, and if slaughter rates will be the same," he said in an interview.

Ancoporc estimates that 33 percent of Spanish pig farms on average raise less than than five head per year, and 25 percent less than 120 per year.

5 head of pigs per year is a hobby. The returns someone can get from fattening 5 hogs is almost nothing, because it doesn't take much labor or land to do it.

They don't mention it in this article, but the transformation in Spain's pig sector is like that happening in Southeast Asia: smallholders are exiting the business as some producers modernize things. The modern producers are much more efficient than the small guys.

Anti-Microbials in the News

2009-06-17T12:34:00.001-07:00

Anti-Microbials are in the news. I'm happily surprised the Chronicle quoted so many people - vets, scientists and farmers explaining that treating animals improves their welfare:

"Our experience in veterinary medicine is that the use of measured, extremely small amounts of these compounds actually lowers mortality rates and reduces pain and suffering of livestock and poultry."

People who raise animals under regimes that forbid treating them with modern methods are in a jam: they know their animals suffer unnecessary morbidity and mortality, but the rules forbid them from taking steps to prevent unnecessary suffering and death.

All siblings, the wormy pigs are 12 and 15 pounds, while the uninfected one is 90 pounds.
Yearbook By United States Dept. of Agriculture

There's nothing romantic about dead, sick or stunted animals - yet that's what you get if you don't give them what they need to be healthy.

In the end, I think the tide will turn against standards like "Naturally Raised" when consumers come to understand the toll they take on the animals and the producers (who have to deal with the sick, dead or stunted animals on a daily basis).

Whidbey Island Mangalitsa

2009-06-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

Are there people who live on Whidbey Island and want to eat Mangalitsa pigs raised and slaughtered on Whidbey Island?

I got an inquiry today from a farmer there. He'll buy more pigs if there's more demand. If you are interested, please send me an email - hp@woolypigs.com

His case is interesting: a friend gave him a pie whose crust was made with Mangalitsa fat. The fat quality was so outstanding he wound up calling me to see about getting some pigs. This is another example of someone being exceptionally impressed by our fat quality.

I hope that one day it will be possible to go out and get tamales made from Mangalitsa lard, filled with Mangalitsa pork. That's a pig-based dish that uses up the meat and the fat.

Animal Byproducts Good for Little Pigs

2009-06-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

Wild boars - big and small, prefer carrion.

A customer asked me if my pigs are fed a vegetarian diet. I explained that they aren't - because the best way to take care of little pigs is to make sure that they get the animal protein they need to develop well. Of course, pigs being fattened for slaughter have entirely different needs (even though they fight over meat).

I've written about this before. The reason I bring it up yet again is that in the course of doing nutrition research, I came across the following studies which suggest that denying weaner pigs animal protein (to please certain customers) could be bad for the pigs' health - just as traditional outdoor farrowing leads to unnecessary mortality:

Influence of a Vegetarian Diet Versus a Diet with Fishmeal on Bone in Growing Pigs

The effects of spray-dried blood meal on growth performance of the early-weaned pig

Pigs wag their tails when chicken is for dinner.

Most consumers who say they want vegetarian pigs probably don't know how unnatural vegetarian diets are for pigs. If they knew how denying piglets animal protein can hurt the piglets' development (without making humans any safer), they'd probably start insisting that piglets be fed appropriate (and traditional) nutrients like cooked chicken heads.

Rye and Triticale - Excellent for Fat Quality

2009-06-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Master Butcher Marcel Kropf

One Austrian expert I know swears by the addition of rye or triticale to a barley-based ration. He is a custom butcher, so he's killed countless pigs, finished different ways on different farms. He's been able, over the years, to learn what feed makes fat that is hard, white and without off flavors.

One American Mangalitsa producer asked why wheat, rye and triticale improve fat quality in pigs over a barley-based diet. He wanted a scientific justification for our advice.

I couldn't find any information in English (to be expected). I did find a German-language PDF that explains why rye is such a great thing to feed pigs. In a nutshell:

Rye is low in PUFA, so the resulting fat keeps and doesn't taste off.

Rye is low fat, so the pigs have to synthesize the fat. That gives the fat a neutral taste.

Wooly Pigs and other Mangalitsa producers take fat quality very seriously. If you read reports from Mangalitsa consumers, they often bring up the incredible fat:

Fat in desserts - The Magic of Mangalitsa Pork

"But the other night my final tablespoon of mangalitsa fat transformed an ordinary ..."

"Porcine Foie Gras"

"But even the fat is special..."

"Creamy and intensely flavored this is beyond any bacon you’ve ever tasted."

and so on.

Of course, some people also bring up the incredible meaty flavor of Mangalitsa - but it is the fat that usually impresses them so much.

After writing this, I ate a bit of my own Mangalitsa lard and was struck by how light and clean-tasting it was.

Mangalitsa Production in USA as of June 2009

2009-06-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

The map shows farms who are either fattening Mangalitsa pigs or about to take delivery of pigs.

The ones offering pigs to the public are listed on the woolypigs.com website.

Google Books on Fat Quality

2009-06-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

Laurence Mate, in his post about Stan Schutte's Mangalitsa market hogs, quotes "Swine in America", a book written in 1910, when lard-type breeds like the Mangalitsa were very popular:

Since about the beginning of the present century there has been much written and printed in advocacy of what the writers term ‘bacon’ hogs, and the importance if not necessity of giving more attention to their production and less to what are disparagingly designated a ‘lard’ hogs; extolling the higher prices and the virtues of lean pork and the superiority of the lean or non-fattening breeds and types, including Razor-Backs, all claimed as yielding the much-coveted streak of lean and streak of fat.

I suspect he got that material from Google Books. Google Books is useful to people who raise lard-type breeds or who want to produce pork ideally suited for cured products, because it has complete books from the 1800s and early 1900s, when lard-type hogs and fat quality were important topics.

If you just use Google Books to search for "quality of bacon", you can find all sorts of useful information, which is consistent with our modern understanding of fat quality. To demonstrate this, here are some excerpts from various books available via Google Books. Some are from the 1800s and some from the 1900s:

Experiment Station Record By U.S. Office of Experiment Stations

The Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853 A Detailed Catalogue of Its Contents ... By Dublin. Great Industrial Exhibition (1853), John Sproule

Swine husbandry in Canada By F. C. Elford, James Burns Spencer

Treatise on the Breeding and Managemnt of Live Stock In which the Principals and Proceedings of the New School of Breeders are Fully and Experimently Discussed By Richard Parkinson

First principles of feeding farm animals a practical treatise on the feeding of farm animals: discussiing the fundamental principles and reviewing the best practices of feeding for largest returns By Charles William Burkett

Bulletin By Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station

Google Books is one of my favorite Google services. I appreciate it more than my local public library. It took minutes for me to round up that information. It didn't cost me anything. If one didn't have Google Books, you'd have to pay researchers to visit libraries and find the information manually, which would be completely impractical.