You can purchase our pasture raised pork year round based on availability!  See below for prices and more information on how we raise our pigs.

Pork Price List (per pound):

Bacon……………………………………..	$6
Sausage (hot or regular)………….	$4
Pork Loin……………………………….	$7
Pork Chop (bone-out)……………..	$6
Pork Chop (bone-in)……………….	$7
Ribs………………………………………..	$6
Shoulder Roast……………………….	$5
Country Style Ribs…………………..	$6
Ham Steak………………………………	$5
Brats……………………………………….	$5

**Hogs are raised humanely; diet consists primarily of pasture, spent grains and corn.  Antibiotic and hormone free.  USDA certified processing, vacuum-sealed, and labeled.

 Contact us if interested in purchasing a whole or a share!  We will raise the pigs to your weight specifications!

 

About our process:

On March 19, 2016 – the last day of winter – we brought our first pair of feeder pigs to Slippery Slopes Farm.  Our first pigs were a Hampshire/Yorkshire mix (“Bacon” and “Porkchop”) which is a lean meat, good for eating!  We have since experimented with a few different breeds.

Click here to read about different breeds of swine!

We keep our feeder pigs in a 16×16′ pen made from used tube gates.  After a couple weeks they have completely tilled up the ground and we pull their pen across the pasture, “pig tractor” style. We plant ladino clover and turnips in the freshly turned and naturally fertilized soil.  The quality of the pasture is important as it contributes to the health of the animal, which contributes to the quality of the meat.  When the pigs are first weaned, they need a diet made up of about 18% protein (this decreases as they get older.)  In addition to pasture we supplement with corn meal from Hilander Feed in Georgetown, spent mash from our friends at Country Boy Brewery, extra or damaged eggs from our ducks (hard boiled first), and garden/kitchen scraps.

Click here to read about sustainable uses for brewers’ grains!

The pigs’ shelter is made from a 275 gal IBC tote that sprung a leak, and the trough is made from our old top bar bee hive.  We don’t like to buy new things around here – re-purposing saves money!

Here is a video showing the process of moving the pig tractor across the pasture:

Once the pigs reach about 5 months of age, we need to weigh them to determine processing times.  We built a “pig weighing box” out of pallets and chained it to a 440 lb game scale that we lift with the bucket on the tractor.  We lure one pig into the box using hard boiled eggs… at 5 months “Bacon” weighed 170 pounds!

4 weeks later the above pig tipped the scale (literally) at 280 pounds, having put on over 100 pounds in a month!  Time to process!  In total, our pigs live a very happy life for about 6 months.  They go to a USDA certified processor in Cynthiana, C&W Meat Packers or Bardstown Boone’s Butcher Shop if we want cured bacon and brats.

Here you can see how we lure them into the trailer cage… we back it into the corner of the pen, pinch the gates closed around the trailer, and pour cracked corn onto the floor.  They go up the ramp and in!  It is usually very easy… except for the one pig that got out momentarily and went for a joy run around the farm until our fantastic coon hound chased him back to us.  That was exciting.

….And just like that we have about 300 pounds of meat in the freezer!

 

About our breeders:

By the conclusion of 2017, we had butchered 5 pigs with 2 more nearly ready, and had also chosen a pair to breed: Sir Loin and Mia Ham.  We have raised both since 6 weeks of age.  Sir Loin is a mix of Chester White and Landrace, and Mia Ham is mostly Duroc with some Chester White as well.  Both looked strong and healthy and had good temperaments!  Here they are as babies:

 

Here is Sir Loin in the summer, around 1 year of age, having shed his winter coat and weighing in around 300-350 lbs.

February of 2018 – Mia Ham (around 1 year old) successfully farrowed 10 piglets!  We had kept a close eye on her for a week straight but when it came down to it she needed no help from us.  We found her nursing 7 babies on Feb. 28, she delivered pig #8 in front of us, and then #9 and #10 came shortly thereafter.  We kept them under a lamp due to night temps in the 20s, and castrated 4 of the 5 males at one week of age.  We plan to raise 4 males for ourselves and our customers, sell the females for $50 apiece, and then hopefully have another farrowing in mid to late summer.

Here are the piglets at 4 days old – all are strong, feisty and healthy!