The Pig Club Project came out of a frustration on how much food waste there is in our county. BILLIONS of tons of food are regularly dumped into landfills or plowed under in the fields. We as a society talk about food waste, but I see very little action doing anything about it. Society for St Andrews does a tremendous job at getting food out of the fields and into people’s hands.
Corporations even with good intent “donate” massive amounts of food to food pantries. Essentially it is a tax write-off and a dumping ground for food waste. This is where we come in.
The Pig Club Project from what we can tell it is unique. The idea came from a TV series Wartime Farm from the BBC, and during WWII citizens of the UK were asked to create pig clubs. Where each household would contribute food scraps to a communal pig. Each house couldn’t feed a pig, but together they could pool their resources. When time came, they all shared in the meat which was very scarce at the time.
Due to the legal restrictions on feeding food waste to pigs we came up with the club. Legally, you are allowed to feed your own pig food waste, but not allowed to feed it to pigs to sell. What we are selling is membership to own a pig. YOU own the pig, we feed, house, and care for your pig, with the given parameters of the club. Below is a except from the pig club contract.
Contract between Wolf-Beach Farms and Member Pricing. As a member, you are able to purchase a ½ or a whole pig share.
The shares are priced to reflect the final “Live Weight” of the finished pig, not inclusive of processing. There is a $100 non refundable deposit for your pig. It is YOUR pig. You will get an ear tag number for YOUR pig. What you are paying Wolf-Beach Farms for is the care and maintenance of YOUR pig. You own the pig. You may visit your pig or examine the feed by making an appointment (we get busy and make sure you have our attention, and we can cover biosecurity protocols with you). For ½ pig your deposit will be $50 respectively. You will be co-owners of said pig and as such processing date/weight must be agreed upon. We will do our best to facilitate this, however before any deposit is accepted, the end date will be agreed upon.
We are feeding your pig pre-consumer foods from a variety of sources including but not limited to damaged/blemished/overripe produce, damaged/expired packaged cereals/grains, and protein sources from various sources including chicken, beef, fowl, eggs, beans, protein powder/shakes. All of the food/feed items were intended for human consumption. These items were donated to food banks and for one reason or another not passed to clients. The reason being; difficulty to process portions to clients, insufficient volume to give to clients, spoilage, overage (they get too much volume to distribute) to clients, lack of interest from clients (they do not take the free items), mislabeled items (package says exp 2009 but is misdated and 2019, or is wheat based but labeled wheat free). When available food sources are unavailable the pigs will be fed a commercial general pig feed. At no time will your pig receive post consumer (people touched/ate it. Restaurant waste/household waste). YOUR pig is pasture raised so sunshine, open field, grass, roots, grubs, and anything they may encounter while digging around in dirt. We cannot account for everything they may encounter naturally.
Here is a link to the regulations on feeding pigs such materials.
https://www.chlpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Leftovers-for-Livestock_A-Legal-Guide_August-2016.pdf
We are charging $2.00/lb live weight for the pigs at time of processing (care and feeding) starting 2022. The live weight vs. carcass weight as some people will retain the heads, ears, roast a whole hog which those parts are included. Being that it is YOUR pig you may process however you like whenever you like. We prefer to use Rice Quality Meats in Spencer Indiana or Fender Four Star Processing also in Spencer. The use vacuum packaging and butcher wrap respectively. There are a wide variety of pricing for processing which you will pay. Average processing is $0.70-$2.00/lb hanging weight (about 70% of live weight) depending on how you have it processed. For basic cuts, and wrap/vacuum packed use $0.70/lb. You can also choose to have “kill and chill” processing which they will kill, gut, and chill the hog for roasting or processing at home. This fee is approximately $80 total. You will pick up your processed meat at the processing facility. Smoking and hanging adds additional costs. Because of the variability it will be up to you to determine what is ideal. We will take in pigs at approximately 300lbs unless otherwise instructed.
We do not medicate animals unless medically necessary. In which case records are kept, and any medications that need to have a withdraw time before processing may impact processing date. Whenever you are ready for your pig to be processed notify us and we will schedule the next available date at the mentioned processor depending on desired packaging. If you want 150 lb pig for a BBQ roast let us know. We will update photos and approximate weights along the process. In the event something would happen to your pig and it is not available to process, an alternate pig will be made available under the same program, at no cost, or a refund of your deposit.”
Here is a video of what the pigs typically get and some additional information.
If you would like to learn more about the Pig Club Project or want a copy of the contract/sign up use the Contact Us form or connect with us on Facebook.
Some examples of what the pigs get fed.
