Richard Hazell has been producing organic pigs near Tetbury in Gloucestershire for the past ten years but his commitment to organic farming and protecting the environment goes back much further than that.

His current farming operation rears pigs to Soil Association Standards which demand that pigs lead a healthy, natural life with access to pasture and they are fed no routine drugs or any other additives.  The pigs have plenty of space to roam and practices such as tail docking or teeth cutting are banned.  Richard’s pigs spend all of their lives outside in the fresh air.  They all have access to huts with warm straw beds and in the summer they are given mud wallows to cool them.

 

Sows that are due to give birth are kept in groups of four but with individual huts with straw beds where they can suckle their piglets.

After four weeks the individual huts are replaced with larger, communal ones and at eight weeks the piglets are weaned by removing the sows who, by then, have no milk and are glad of a rest!

 

At twelve to fourteen weeks the piglets are sorted according to sex and moved to separate finishing fields where they stay until they are ready for the abattoir.  Throughout their lives they have access to as much organic concentrate feed as they need in free access feeders.