Humane treatment of harvesting animals matters at Master Blend Family Farms, where we pridefully manage our grassy pastures and natural canopy. We design our facilities for the well-being of our animals. We are working hard to change the landscape of the pasture pork industry.

At our farms, we subscribe to the animal welfare position put forth by the National Pork Producers Council. Everything we do, from improving the standards of production efficiency to our industry-leading focus on environmental stewardship and animal welfare, stems from our commitment to providing the best quality product at the most affordable price.

 
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Genetics

Through professional relationships with a variety of genetics specialist across the country, we are constantly working to produce animals that have the most desirable traits such as large litters, fast growth rates, efficient feed conversion and nutritious healthy pork products. Geneticists associated with us have over 40 years of experience & have developed a reputation for providing premium breeding stock. Their staff works on specially designed farms to collect, process and deliver the semen from only the finest breeding stock for use in our production process, thereby ensuring that the hogs we produce for the market will be of the highest quality.

Pasture 1 —Gestation

All of our adult female hogs (sows) have pastures designed to ensure their comfort and well-being during the breeding, gestation and farrowing (the birthing process for pigs) cycles. When the sows are open or unbred, they run on the pasture with an adult male hog (service boar). The service boars to our litters come from the very best, genetically superior, adult male hogs. Top notch specialist with years of experience take special care in selecting our service boars to insure the best possible combination of desirable traits for today's consumers.

Pasture 2 — The Nursery

The nursery pasture is designed to meet the special needs of newly weaned pigs. Nursery pastures have 2 sets of infant waterers to provide the right amount of water as the young pigs grow. Typically, twenty or more pigs are placed in each pen. The pen is sized to ensure plenty of room for the pigs to move around, play and get exercise. Each pen also has its own feeders. The young pigs are fed a series of specially formulated feed diets during their stay at the nursery; formulations which meet the changing nutritional needs of the animal. Pigs in the nursery are looked after by personnel who are trained to understand their special needs.

 
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Pasture 3 — The Market Lots

In the market lots the animals have bigger stainless feeders and pairs of waterers, which are very similar to the nursery pastures, except they are quite a bit larger in order to accommodate the continued growth of the pigs. This gives them plenty of room to move around and get exercise.

During their stay, approximately 22 weeks, they grow from 50 pounds to market weight of approximately 260 pounds. At this time they are loaded onto the stock trailers for transport to a processing facility.

Master Blend Family Farms became AWA certified on August 8, 2013.

Pigs typically stay in the nursery pasture for approximately eight weeks. During this time they grow to about 50 pounds. Once pigs reach this stage of growth they are moved to a third set of pastures, known as a market lots.