3 reasons we love the guinea hog
-Jim Isbell, Simple Pastured Meats
It’s fall. For our pigs, that means acorn season! Whenever I walk through our pasture, I see several black, hairy pigs clustered under one of many oak trees, devouring fallen nuts. They are guinea hogs, a popular breed among small farmers in our part of Arkansas.
Why do farmers love to keep these hogs? Here are what we believe are the top three reasons:
1. They don’t get too big. Guinea hogs range between 100 and 300 pounds, which is great for small to medium-sized pastures. Their smaller size also makes it easier and less dangerous to provide emergency veterinary care. Fortunately, that’s not often needed (see #2).
2. They’re hardy and do well on pasture. Guinea hogs have a broad palate and can gain weight and fat from eating forage alone. This means guinea hogs are ideally suited to life on grass and wooded pastures. And they’re a great choice for farmers who want to use little to no commercial feed.
Guinea Hogs were expected to forage for their own food, eat rodents and other small animals, grass, roots, and nuts, and clean out garden beds. The hogs were also kept in the yard where they would eat snakes and thus create a safe zone around the house.
–The Livestock Conservancy
3. They’re delicious. Guinea hogs produce a nicely marbled, tender meat that is a bit redder than the pork you’ll see in the store. They’re so delicious that they have been included in the Ark of Taste, a catalogue of endangered heritage foods maintained by the Slow Food movement. In fact, we enjoy guinea hog so much that we decided to feature it in our first pork samplers.
If you’re just getting started with farming, we highly recommend the guinea hog. It’s also a great breed to consider if you want to buy meat from a local farm.
Learn more
Pigging Out (Cornell University)