In 2011,we bought our first group of sows and boars.It was not long before we were selling our stock to butchers and restaurants,which made us decide to turn our attention to serious farming.
At present Pieter Bouwsema has just completed a holistic farm management course and we are in the process of implementing these principals on our farm.Besides the farm Pieter is a trained registerd nurse.
Michelle Webb grew up on a farm in the Warrumbugle Region and has studied Agriculture Science,and has been teaching Agriculture at the local high school for a number of years and is continuing to teach part time .
Owner
Owner
Daughter
Son
We have both studied Permaculture and this has been a major influence in how we have developed our property,manage our animals and plan our cropping rotation and pastures.This is one of the reasons we started a free range pork enterprise,pigs are such intelligent,social animals and need to be able to express their natural behaviour. Along with the pigs, we also run a flock of sheep, have horses,chooks and two working dogs.
Our farm is about 1000 hectares of which 900 hectares is set aside for conservation.We share a boundry with the Binnaway Nature Reserve.There is an incredible amount of iconic Australian wildlife here and many threatened species of birds.We run our farm in such a way that it minimises the impact on the wildlife,for example,restricting access for the birds to the pig feed.We both have a life long interest in nature conservation. None of our feeds are medicated due to maintaining a healthy environment,we are able to keep the use of medications to an absolute minimum.We are a small family run free range producer and we believe free range farming is humane.We transport our pigs with minimal stress and our crops are naturally fertilized by our pigs and crop rotation.Our farm is subdivided into 22 paddocks and at present we use 17 of these for our pigs.This in turn minimises parasites and erosion as well as giving the paddocks time to recover.This also keeps the animals and our land healthy.
We have been buying pigs from Pillar Rock Pork for the past couple of years.The free range pork is extremely popular with our customers and we have in fact just had to increase the amount we buy in the last couple of months.Pillar Rock pork is a very reliable producer and we always get our required amount of pigs right on time.Very happy Butchers.
We ordered a full pig for a spit BBQ for a family gathering from the butchers and it was absolutley delicious and we were informed it was Pillar Rock Pork.I would highly recommend it.
“ Pieter and Michelle have been supplying high-quality, ethically raised pigs to Feather and Bone since 2012, from their beautiful property on the fringes of the Pillaga, and are valued and trusted producers.”