Special Report

Forest hogs, grazing hogs and other happy pigs.

Will Winter became a veterinarian 40 years ago and in 1980 he became a holistic vet. Today he raises grass-fed hogs at Cannon Falls, Minnesota. “You can turn a farm into the Garden of Eden”. He says he doesn’t need to sell people on how healthy pastured pork is, all they have to do is taste it.

He stresses the first thing one has to do is get their soil healthy, “When you have healthy soils you have healthy plants and when you have healthy plants you have healthy livestock.” Once the soil is healthy, you want to establish a medley of plants, “We don’t want a field of alfalfa or a field of just peas.” He also notes pigs love nuts, apples and pumpkins…they want a variety.

For the winter, he bales up barley, wheat, rye, corn stalks, milo or similar crops which allow the hogs to root around and find the grain.

Winter raises Berkshires but notes there are numerous breeds of hogs suitable for pasture.

AUDIO:Winter talks about pastured pork 9:43 mp3

Read more from Will here: