We brought 3 Berkshire cross piglets home that day. It was December and they were just weaned. We started out feeding them bagged corn and table scraps. We usually raise our pigs to butcher right before the heat of summer comes to keep down on the fly population. "Grass fed pork" kept lingering on my mind so I decided to see if the pigs would eat the alfalfa hay since grass was an unlikely find this time of year in Arizona. To my surprise, they liked it, so we changed their diet to hay and table scraps. The smell was reduced and we weren't getting any fly problems. The bad part was that were growing very, very slowly. I was determined to keep them on this diet, convinced that we were going to have nutritious pork for the family.

Butchering time came and the pigs were no where near butchering size. We got busy with different things and before we knew it, it was monsoon season. The pasture began to green up as it does this time of year, and we stopped feeding hay to the cattle and goats as they were happy to graze all day. We finished the field fencing around 5 of our acres and began to let the pigs out. Again, being a city person, I was shocked to see the pigs eating some of the grasses, tree cuttings, and weeds. We begin testing them by letting them out to pasture and not giving them their hay. Every evening they'd come waddling back to their pen with round, happy bellies. The smell totally disappeared as they stopped using their pen for a bathroom. Not to mention there was no fly problem. Being clean animals, they come home to their pen for sleeping, taking a mud bath or simply lounging around in the heat. They still eat all the table scraps and are friendly little gals. They come and greet us whenever we come around. And I'm happy to report that they have stopped putting their snouts on my leg, however, I have to be quick to pet them before they get too close. Do we like Aunt Fanny, Harrieta Ham, and Lizzy Lard? Absolutely. They are happy, content little pigs.

And yes, they are getting bigger. By the end of Monsoon Season (September or so) they should be ready to go. They will be around 10 months old which is 3 months longer than it normally takes us and is 5 months longer than a person in the business of raising pork. The good part is that 4 months of that time, the cost is only the electricity it takes to pump the water out of the well for their water and mud hole. If "Grass Fed Beef" is best when the animal is eating freshly growing grasses, then our "Grass Fed Pork" should rank high on the nutritional scale.

Our mistake of having to keep them throughout the summer has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This wonderful learning experience is our new way of raising pigs. Well, at least... until our next mistake.

Shelly Curtis