Thursday, April 16, 2015

Natural Ways To Raise Hogs

By Lianne Derocco


Factory hog farms produce millions of pounds of pork each year, providing much food for the masses. However, while the pork is produced in abundance, it is often raised in an unhealthy way. This includes using many types of unnatural products such as hormones, antibiotics and chemicals that are needed to keep diseases at bay. The amount of agricultural waste at these farms is also an area of concern, as the waste can be toxic and poses a threat to the surrounding communities.

In response to these behemoth factory farms, there is a movement afoot to return to a more natural way of farming. There are a variety of organic hog operations today that produce and handle hogs in a safer, more humane way. This includes providing a diet free of corn, soy and additives. While the latter feed components might provide large hogs, the swine raised with more natural feed are healthier for humans to consume, and the flavor is often much better.

These organic hog farms use feed that contains no types of medications or growth hormones. In addition, hogs are kept in more spacious pens than on a factory farm, and the animals are permitted space where they can roam and play. On some farms, there are even wallowing ponds where they animals can bathe themselves.

Keeping diseases away from the hog population is a huge priority on all hog farms, whether it is an organic farm or a large-scale venue. Typically, on both types of farms, animals that are new are not placed with the general population until it can be ascertained that they have no infectious diseases. It is also recommended that few people have access to the animals in general and that workers not move from different sections of the farm without changing clothing and boots to prevent the spreading of disease.

There are also products that can be used to deal with hog waste more naturally, further reducing the need for chemicals on a farm. AgraSphere can be used for deep pit waste and the AgraSphereLGT can be used with lagoon systems. Both use the same mix of naturally occurring proprietary microbes and these will prevent a crust from forming in your waste system, as well as reducing sludge.

Each of these two types of spheres can simply be tossed into your waste systems and need not be mixed in, as they will simply begin releasing healthy microbes around the clock as soon as they are added to the waste. Not only will you see a reduction of sludge, the product will reduce flies and odor and even improve the nutrient value of the waste for use with crops.




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