Riverdog Farm Case Study
Riverdog Farm is an organic swine farm located in Guinda, CA. In order to meet the requirements to be organic, the farm raises their hogs under very specific conditions.
This hog operation has been in business for 10 years and currently has approximately 300 hogs. Of the 300, there are 60 sows, 10 boars, and the other 230 are either gilts or piglets.
Many different breeds of swine are used and mixed to get the best qualities of each.
According to Li Schmidt, the guide for the field trip, the farm is in the process of creating its own breed, the Riverdog Red. In creating their own breed, Riverdog Farm is attempting to meet the market specifications of their buyers. However, they still face many challenges in their business.
As an organic hog …show more content…
Thus, the hogs have about 5 acres of open air, soft dirt per enclosure versus the smaller, concrete often found in nonorganic swine facilities. Another benefit of this type of enclosure is that manure management is labor free because it naturally degrades over time. The only area that is cleaned is the farrowing pen, as it is more enclosed than the others. Usually, this area is cleaned once per week. The manure produced and cleared in this area is used as fertilizer for the farm’s vegetable production or used as compost.
As previously mentioned, Riverdog Farm is an organic vegetable producer.
Therefore, the pigs’ diets are typically composed of 40% farm milled produce and 60% purchased feeds. All feeds are certified organic. The purchased feeds are pellets that are designed to meet the nutritional needs for the hogs that are not met by the vegetables alone. As such, the standard diet is corn and soybean based plus the vegetables, such as cowpeas, rye, sunflowers, and triticale, produced on the farm. Micronutrients are provided by the feeds the farm supplies, like kelp, which provides iron. Additionally, the farm has an agreement with Cowgirl Creamery and Three Twins Ice …show more content…
Therefore, the hogs are not sold as certified organic, but are marketed as organically raised.
The lack of nearby, organic-certified slaughter and processing facilities is a major challenge faced by Riverdog Farm. Transportation all the way to the consumer is also a problem for the farm. The slaughter facility is about 30 minutes from the farm and the processing plant is separate from the slaughter facility. Then getting the processed pork to buyers increases the cost even more so. However, the farm does not lack demand for their meat. This poses another challenge in that they cannot fully meet demand because the farm does not have enough money to expand while keeping the same quality of production that they have now. Another challenge in this industry is the growing number of regulations for organic farming. Farmers and processors must pay to be certified and inspected as organic, in a number of different areas, such as Humane Animal
Certification. This is why the nearby slaughter and processing facilities are not certified organic. While their processes likely meet organic standards, they have not paid for the
This hog operation has been in business for 10 years and currently has approximately 300 hogs. Of the 300, there are 60 sows, 10 boars, and the other 230 are either gilts or piglets.
Many different breeds of swine are used and mixed to get the best qualities of each.
According to Li Schmidt, the guide for the field trip, the farm is in the process of creating its own breed, the Riverdog Red. In creating their own breed, Riverdog Farm is attempting to meet the market specifications of their buyers. However, they still face many challenges in their business.
As an organic hog …show more content…
Thus, the hogs have about 5 acres of open air, soft dirt per enclosure versus the smaller, concrete often found in nonorganic swine facilities. Another benefit of this type of enclosure is that manure management is labor free because it naturally degrades over time. The only area that is cleaned is the farrowing pen, as it is more enclosed than the others. Usually, this area is cleaned once per week. The manure produced and cleared in this area is used as fertilizer for the farm’s vegetable production or used as compost.
As previously mentioned, Riverdog Farm is an organic vegetable producer.
Therefore, the pigs’ diets are typically composed of 40% farm milled produce and 60% purchased feeds. All feeds are certified organic. The purchased feeds are pellets that are designed to meet the nutritional needs for the hogs that are not met by the vegetables alone. As such, the standard diet is corn and soybean based plus the vegetables, such as cowpeas, rye, sunflowers, and triticale, produced on the farm. Micronutrients are provided by the feeds the farm supplies, like kelp, which provides iron. Additionally, the farm has an agreement with Cowgirl Creamery and Three Twins Ice …show more content…
Therefore, the hogs are not sold as certified organic, but are marketed as organically raised.
The lack of nearby, organic-certified slaughter and processing facilities is a major challenge faced by Riverdog Farm. Transportation all the way to the consumer is also a problem for the farm. The slaughter facility is about 30 minutes from the farm and the processing plant is separate from the slaughter facility. Then getting the processed pork to buyers increases the cost even more so. However, the farm does not lack demand for their meat. This poses another challenge in that they cannot fully meet demand because the farm does not have enough money to expand while keeping the same quality of production that they have now. Another challenge in this industry is the growing number of regulations for organic farming. Farmers and processors must pay to be certified and inspected as organic, in a number of different areas, such as Humane Animal
Certification. This is why the nearby slaughter and processing facilities are not certified organic. While their processes likely meet organic standards, they have not paid for the