Need your financial support in seven days!

Car/Truck Bike Selling Your Ride

Health/Health Home/Garden publish your service

All goods sell your things

Publish your courses in all categories

Owners sell apartments for sale to publish your listing

Browse notifications

If you are looking for "I am a spy", dating or LTR, this is your ideal choice.

October 26, 2021 Food and Beverage »Food and Beverage Functions

Phelan O'Connor is the co-owner of South Hero's Pigasus Meats and has been a vegetarian since he was a child. While studying at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, he never thought about his own diet before he started working on the school farm. While caring for beef cattle there, O'Connor witnessed firsthand how animals interact with the land in both positive and negative ways.

"Every small change you make—where you put a group of animals, what you feed them, how you move them—has a big impact," O'Connor said.

"Fired Up" is a semi-regular series that explores how Vermontans are responding to the climate crisis.

Are there any suggestions for the series? Send it to the coordinator Elizabeth M. Seyler.

While in college, O'Connor, now 31, also learned that all forms of agricultural food production affect the planet. He explained that from an environmental point of view, vegetarian burgers made from a single crop of soybeans are not inherently better than hamburgers from a well-managed, grass-based livestock operation. Even wild foods, such as game, can change the natural environment. "The white-tailed deer also has an impact," he said.

In recent years, agriculture has made headlines for its contribution to the climate crisis and increasing vulnerability to extreme weather. O'Connor and his 33-year-old wife Kelsey believe that these two problems can be solved by prioritizing investment in soil-based animal husbandry.

The couple insisted that the way they raised pigs and chickens provided a good life for the animals, produced nutritious food, and "cared about the most important thing: the earth itself," Ferran O'Connor said. "We try to put soil first. One way we do this is to use our animals."

Pigasus is one of 11 farms in the first cohort of the Northeast Organic Agriculture Association under the Jack Lazor Memorial Soil Health Stewards program of the Statewide Jack Lazor Memorial Soil Health Stewards in Vermont. It lasted from April to October this year and helped farmers expand their knowledge of soil fertility and pasture management. 

O'Connors and a small team are raising 330 pigs and managing 1,600 laying hens on the 170-acre conservation farm they purchased in 2017. Eggs and sausages. The flock produces approximately 44,000 dozen eggs each year, which are also sold to restaurants and retail stores in northwestern Vermont. The pork from the farm—from whole pigs to sausages—is transported to local restaurants, some farm stalls and specialty markets.

During the pandemic, the farm’s e-mail list jumped from 60 names to 300, and there was a comparable increase in sales.

On a recent Monday morning, Ferran O'Connor was standing in a 2.5-acre paddock with 59 pigs. These animals took root, gnawed grass and surveyed three tourists. "We keep a lot of curious animals," he said.

Pigs and chickens spend about half a year outside, moving from paddock to paddock on the 65-acre ranch. In this carefully managed rotation, nutrients from animal excrement improve soil health, and animal activity stimulates the growth of plants below the soil surface. O'Connor explained that after the pigs left, the chickens entered each enclosure, looking for insect larvae in the manure and trampling on vegetation, which created "armor" for the soil.

He described his pigs as "dummies", a mix of traditional breeds that perform well on pastures, including Yorkshire, Duroc, Tamworth, Berkshire, and Gloucestershire Old Point . Jeremy Wood, the head chef of Dedalus Stowe Wine Bar, buys whole pigs from Pigasus and uses 100% of each animal in his dishes, such as roast pork chops with mustard sauce and hazelnut preserves and orange pig head roulades. The fact that pigs are raised in a humane manner on the ranch meets Wood's ethical sourcing goals. He said it also "produced some of the tenderest and most delicious pork I have ever eaten."

Pigasus is the only farm in this year's soil health manager queue that does not raise cows, sheep or goats. Unlike those ruminant animals, pigs and chickens cannot thrive on grassland alone, but O'Connor said that well-managed pastures can meet the dietary needs of pigs, which is more than most people think. "We get 20% to 30% of their nutrition [from] from improved forages," he explained.

O'Connor said he was grateful for the information he received through the Soil Health Manager Program and his connections with other Vermont farmers. "There is always more to learn," he pointed out.

O'Connor and his wife are from Virginia and Western Massachusetts respectively, and neither have an agricultural background. But they were attracted by Warren Wilson's work and met there. They moved to Vermont in 2013 and hatched their new business at the Stone Pond Farm in Fairfield before purchasing their Southern Hero Farm. Kelsey also worked as a pediatric nurse in Burlington, and the couple had a 7-month-old son.

Ferran O'Connor has a red clover, the state flower of Vermont, tattooed on his right arm. "People say,'You must like Vermont very much,'" he said with a smile. "But when I got a tattoo in college, I didn't even know that I was moving here." He said that he decided to plant clover because it is good for pollinators, provides powerful nutrients for grazing animals, and is beneficial to fixation in the soil. The nitrogen makes it available to plants and animals.

When O'Connors bought their farm, they faced a lot of work to improve soil health. Many fields have been hayed for many years without much investment in the soil. It takes time to build the fertility of supporting nutrient forages, and rotation grazing is a labor-intensive method.

In early spring, pigs move three to four times a day to protect the fragile, moist soil and ensure that they do not overgraze the newly emerging plants. In summer and autumn, the time of animal rotation depends on the growth of the grass, but on average every 12 to 24 hours. Most operations include the use of temporary electronic fences as a cordon to guide pigs to adjacent fresh paddocks. Through practice, the team succeeded. "We can move 60 pigs in about five minutes," O'Connor said.

Although it may seem counterintuitive that grazing can help build soil health, he explained how biting leaf tips prevents the development of seed heads and stimulates plants to emit deeper roots. In turn, this will suck more carbon into the soil, build soil structure and help plants better tolerate drought periods.

O'Connor explained that the rest time between animal rotations is also the key to optimal farm health. In the fast-growing spring, the paddock may only need 25 to 35 days to recover from grazing. In midsummer, it may take 90 days. "Managing the soil is actually managing rest periods," O'Connor said.

The Pigasus team is also actively improving the variety and quality of forage. In August, they planted turnips and grazing 12 acres of Brassica, alfalfa, clover, and chicory. Pigs are natural rooters. When the forage quality is low, they will root instead of eating grass, which will disturb the soil more than ideal. "This is not the easiest way-to graze pigs," O'Connor said.

To build soil, manage water flow, and nourish plants, farmers are experimenting with adding composted winter animal bedding to three fields in the form of haystacks.

Above the pig farm, O'Connor walked to the long curving haystack, which looked like a huge brown caterpillar, walking across the lower slope of the pasture. He picked a handful of plants from the underside of the shed, where the growth was obviously more luxuriant than above. "These are good feeds for pigs and are good for pollinators," he said, pointing to red and white clover, straw, meadow grass, plantain and dandelion. "I am very interested in these dandelion leaves."

O'Connor explained that the haystacks also help disperse and absorb precipitation on the slopes. When the water reaches the haystack, “the water absorbs nutrients and fertilizes the land. We work hard to keep the water on the farm,” he said. "This is how we have the greatest impact on our communities, landscapes, and even the lake."

The Northeast Vermont Organic Agriculture Association created the Statewide Soil Health Steward Program in memory of the late Jack Lazor, a pioneer organic farmer and co-founder of Westfield Butterworks Farm. Through equipment cooperatives, farm visits guided by grazing experts, online gatherings, and informal networks, farmers from 11 farms in Vermont (including Pigasus Meats) deepened their understanding of soil fertility and pasture management.

"Having strong, healthy soil allows you to be more resilient to drought or heavy rain," said Bill Cavano, NOFA-VT's Soil Health Manager Program Coordinator. "It can better retain nutrients and moisture. It can resist erosion. It produces more and better feed. It can also absorb more carbon."

The $15,000 plan was funded by Stonyfield Organic with a $5,000 gift from Jack Lazor. The Lazor family and Organic Valley provided matching funds.

Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of Stonyfield Organic, knew and admired Jack Lazor in the early days of the organized organic farming movement in the late 1970s. "We are from the same tribe," Hershberg said. "Jack is a shining example of a successful small organic farm business."

He said that Hirshberg's understanding of "soil health is essential to ecological stability" can also be traced back to a long time ago. "It is too late to stop climate change. The key here is adaptation and mitigation," he continued. "The only way we can do this is to take the carbon out of the atmosphere-the carbon we have put in and will continue to enter the atmosphere in the coming decades-and put it back into our environment. The soil. Do it. The best way to get to this point is to sequester carbon in the soil, which is what organic farming does every day."

Anne Lazor, co-founder of Butterworks Farm, came up with the idea behind the soil health steward program after NOFA-VT asked her for advice on how to use Stonyfield's gifts. She said that her husband, who died in November last year, was keen on building and protecting the soil.

Annie recalled that when Jack was alive, they rarely ate the fourth piece of hay. "We will only leave [this] beautiful hay crops. All the other farmers shaved their fields...They don’t understand. They are willing to cut for us, and we’ll say,'No, we are putting It is left to the soil.'"

Annie said that in this spirit, she asked NOFA-VT to develop a plan, "This can really inspire farmers to pay attention to what is under their feet, under the crops, and under the feet of animals."

The original print version of this article is titled "Paying for Dirt | Flying Pork and NOFA-VT Soil Health Steward Invest in the Earth"

Labels: Food and Beverage Function, Fire, Southern Hero, Phelan O'Connor, Flying Pork, Soil Health, Northeast Vermont Organic Agriculture Association, Jack Lazor Memorial Soil Health Administrator

More food and beverage functions »

Burlington Beer opens Taproom-Restaurant in its namesake city

Help you through the time-saving fun of Thanksgiving

Novelist Thomas Christopher Greene designs restaurants for landmarks in Montpellier

Since 2014, "Seven Days" allows readers to comment on all stories published on our website. Although we appreciate these suggestions and insights, it is time to close them-at least temporarily. Although we support freedom of speech, facts are a matter of life and death during the coronavirus pandemic, and now "Seventh" magazine prioritizes responsible journalism instead of easing online debates among readers. To criticize, correct or praise our report, please write to us to the editor. Or give us a hint. We will check and report the results. When we have better management technology tools, online comments may be restored. thanks for reading.