We rotate our hogs through forests, continually moving them to fresh forage. Pigs are omnivores, and unlike ruminants, they thrive in woodland environments. They forage on grass, leaves, nuts, roots, insects, fruits, berries, shrubs, and nearly everything above or just below the ground.

Our hogs roam the woods in groups known as “sounders,” generally comprised of no more than 50 hogs per sounder. The pigs in each sounder will spend their entire lives together, rooting, feasting, and sleeping piled on top of one another.

Pigs are incredibly social creatures. They form an intimate and complex social hegemony with their sounder-mates and, more than anything, fear separation. This is why we never single out any pig, but from start to finish, we always keep them in the comfort of their companions. 

Once we train our piglets to hot wire in our training pen, we move them to the woods, where we give them fresh half-acre paddocks.

When a positive level of disturbance in the forest floor is reached (not too much, but enough to help regenerate healthy forage and an appropriate tree density), we move the pigs to their next paddock–generally every 1-2 weeks.

Before we move them on, we sow the land with cover crops, native grasses, and local wildflowers. The pigs trample these seeds into the soil, helping to regenerate the land that recently nourished them. When the pigs leave an area, the diversity, wildlife habitat, and natural ecosystem processes improve significantly.