We've been thinking about that for awhile. Thanks for the feedback Phillip.

Try Mangalitza

@@agostonbenedek1898 I raised one mangalitza a few years back. They ate giant knotweed,lambs quarter and other greens which I noticed were mostly ones eaten by people. The mangalitza did'nt eat grass. Maybe because he had many other choices including white oak acorns. .Or maybe he was just copying what his Berkshire pals ate. I raised that Mangalitza for over two years,mostly based on his friendly nature and unique look. Finished on barley and foraged acorns,which we supplemented with acorns raked up by the bushel from park and landscape oaks. The only pork chops as tasty were from a pure Ossabow and a couple of old Berkshire lines. But the Mangalitza beats anything for fine lard output.

Good question Barbara. Roughly finishing is changing their diet to something else than what they ate previously for some amount of time before slaughter to enhance flavor or types of fats in their body. I believe Brandon talks more about this is the Beef episodes. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bZp_adyBmcW1oHk.html. And he hopes to chat about it more in a coming episode. -Victoria

milk is magic pig food. I would feed it right to the end. Some people find it adds enough unsaturated fat to increase rancidity in cured meats to and unpleasant degree. In which case, you could finish only with corn.

Whey makes healthy pigs. Finishing them on whey adds good flavor. But it also elevates the unsaturated fat content which is prone to rancidity in cured meat hung for long periods in presence of oxygen. Before about 4 months, it is delicious. Beyond that, it becomes bitter. But that doesn’t matter much because the whole muscle cures hanging longer than 4 months tend to be heavily trimmed before consuming, whether or not the meat was whey finished.

@@brandonsheard1676 Thank you sir

@@brandonsheard1676 You are correct about whey and keeping/curing properties. Our neighbors used whey and skim milk in finish. They like our family cured their own ham and bacon. And ours tasted better at all stages with mostly barley finish.