Growing the whole hog

It sounds like a narrow strategy but it’s delivering broad benefits.

The Simmons are bucking the trend for quick and easy-to-cook cuts, but it’s a profitable strategy for the Melanda Park Pork free range pork operation.

They capitalise on the newfound fondness for nose-to-tail eating among trendier inner-city eateries, but say going one step further – to produce certified organic pork – is not justified due to the “hassle” of its onerous regulations.

Melanda Park Pork runs about 100 sows on its 400-hectare property nestled neatly between Sydney’s north-western fringe and the foothills of Blue Mountains, “but it’s hard to know exact

numbers because of the turnaround,” Mr Simmons said.

“Our operation works on a three week cycle.

“Every three weeks we have sows farrowing, piglets being weaned and our artificial inseminations as well.

“We sell suckling pigs at six weeks of age and porkers at 18 weeks, but there is variation throughout the year.

“In winter, the pigs stop growing and we have to up their food intake or they just stop growing because they burn so much energy staying warm.”

Melanda Park’s sows are fed from nearby stores, slaughtered locally and delivered by the producer.

“Delivering direct to our customers makes it competitive for the customer to buy free range,” Mr Simmons said.

“It’s actually a bonus for everyone. By the time it gets to the customer (our pork) is not that much more expensive than conventional supplies.”

Melanda Park sells its premium, free range product at a competitive price, compared with conventional pork, by cutting out the middlemen from the supply chain.

“We get a 30 per cent premium on top of the conventional price,” Mr Simmons said.

“We are a bit unique and it is because of our location in the Sydney Basin we have access to a close market.”

Opportunity lay in restaurants’ and butchers’ taste for free range, Mr Simmons said.

“The market is growing – our customer base is definitely showing strong demand for it.

“The restaurants we deal with want a product that will help distinguish themselves.”

Peak pork marketing group Australian Pork said the nose-to-tail trend was growing, as would the benefits for producers.

“Chefs are getting creative,” said Australian Pork head of marketing Peter Haydon.

“It’s a positive trend for producers.

“The more balanced the demand for the whole animal the more money a producer gets.”

Mr Simmons said his customers’ demand did not extend to organic pork, which he said added challenges for farmers.

“Producing a free range pig outdoors is hard anyway, so to go one step further and produce organic is even harder again.

“To produce a good quality carcase you need a toolbox full of tools. If you go into the organic side of it, you are tipping out most of your tools.

“It’s too difficult to produce the sort of pig we wanted to organically.

“There are just so many issues with the organic food chain.

“The abattoir here is not organic and none of the meat delivery facilities are either.”

Mr Simmons said under organic certification regulations, it was “almost impossible” to control the common problem of mange mite.

“The only way that we could control that mite was with a conventional chemical treatment,” he said.

Feed was another issue.

“Pigs can’t survive on a vegetarian diet. The amino acids they need really only come from proteins in meat.

“If you don’t get it from meat it has to be substituted with a synthetic protein, but you are not allowed to use that synthetic protein under the organic regulations.

“You would have to use an organic meat meal and there is not enough in Australia to go around.”

MATTHEW Simmons of Melanda Park Pork in the Hawkesbury says genetics for free range pork, produced outdoors, are lagging behind the industry mainstay of indoor breeds.

Free range producers look to heritage breeds, which are suited to living their life under the stars, but their birthing rates are an anchor on production, said Mr Simmons.

“We have to find a pig that does well in the paddock, and the pigs that do that are heritage breeds but they produce less piglets.

“Free range genetics are 20 to 30 years behind the rest of Australian pork genetics.”

Compounding the piglet production problem with heritage breeds was their appearance and growth rates.

They take longer to grow to weight and typically have black hair, which can be off-putting for consumers, he said.

Melanda Park’s herd “started with heritage breeds including Saddleback, Tamworth, English Large Black and Berkshire”

“None of them were any good for commercial production,” Mr Simmons said.

“We crossed them with English Large White and Landrace boars to produce our current herd of sows.”

Mr Simmons is optimistic about the future of free range genetics.

“But the free range industry will need to be big enough to warrant a free range company investing properly in genetics, someone with something like more than 2000 sows,” he said.

More established free range industries have achieved this already, so he hopes an improvement is a matter of time.

“In England, over 40 per cent of sows are outdoors, so all their genetics are tailored to producing pigs to do well outdoors.”