As a third-generation farmer, Randy Hutton Jr. always knew he wanted to raise his own family on a farm. He has farmed in the Chesapeake Bay watershed since the early 2000s and now works full-time with his son, Matt, growing corn, soybeans, and wheat while humanely raising pigs.
“I’ve always liked working; the challenge of [farming], the freedom of it, the personal responsibility of it,” says Hutton.
The Huttons have built a small-scale, diversified farming business that can support the next generation financially. But this is not typical for a family farmer in the United States.
Consolidation throughout the agricultural sector has made it difficult for small, independent farms like the Huttons’ to survive. The number of farms in the U.S. decreased by 72 percent between 1935 and 2023, while the average farm size nearly tripled. Only 4 percent of U.S. farms now control two-thirds of total agricultural land, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Many small-scale farmers struggle to make ends meet: in 2022, 40 percent of American farmers worked 200 or more days off the farm.
“Our area is very big into poultry. And getting into poultry got very, very expensive…because infrastructure [costs] really ramped up,” says Hutton, who decided poultry farming was not the right fit for his family. Instead, the Huttons chose a different path. In 2016, they began pig farming by joining Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers. Niman Ranch members uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices, and they receive a stable, premium market for their pork products. This allowed Hutton to diversify his income without going into debt. He could become a livestock farmer by using existing infrastructure or building barns that could be repurposed for other ventures if he decided to change course.
“It was realistic, affordable, and it started generating money pretty quickly,” says Hutton. “We had the labor, we had the desire…and pigs turn around fairly quickly. It didn’t take long for us to be in it, to be selling the end product to Niman Ranch and getting money right back in.”
Hutton credits this network for allowing him to hire his son, Matt, on the farm full-time: “It’s given us year-round work, year-round cash flow income. It’s profitable. It’s been a really good thing.”
Niman Ranch’s core principles of environmental stewardship aligned well with Hutton’s existing farming practices. Hutton grew up working to build soil health through methods like no-till and cover crops, because Chesapeake Bay Watershed soils are typically low in organic matter. Now that he raises pigs, he can apply nutrient-rich solid manure to the family’s grain fields, helping to build soil health further and reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers—a benefit for both the environment and his wallet.
And for Hutton, pig farming has not only improved soil health and yield but also reminded him why he loves farming.
“Grain farming is very rewarding, but there’s basically zero contact with consumers,” says Hutton. “Now, we feel like we’re producing something that goes right to people who are going to eat it. And that changes the investment and how we look at things there.”
Hutton feeds his grain crops to the pigs, which produce manure that he uses to nourish the ground and repeat the cycle. While grain farming has a distinct season, the pigs require daily tasks and maintenance year-round. Hutton explains that this makes him feel more connected to his farming work and the customers who consume his products.
“Livestock changes the focus of everything,” he says. “It makes it all seem like it fits whole again… it completes the loop.”
Hutton hopes that companies like Niman Ranch with a stronger connection to consumers will help to get more people interested in where their food comes from.
“Maybe it reverses that trend, where people start realizing a little bit more that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store,” says Hutton. “There is somebody out there that’s actually raising this [animal] and putting time into it and caring about it.”
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Photo courtesy of Niman Ranch
