Lindsay Larson is the third generation to farm on her family’s land in northwest Wisconsin. Her community is home to countless chickens and cattle, but when neighbors drive by her farm, they are surprised to see a herd of pigs along the fence. At 28, Larson is pioneering a different way of hog farming.
“What they’ve read and been led to believe about hog farming is that pigs don’t go outside. They’re confined. So, to see my pigs outside, that just makes them happy,” says Larson. “There are people that don’t live by me but will go out of their way to see the pigs out…[they tell me] it’s the most amazing thing they’ve ever seen.”
The vast majority of U.S. hog farmers today raise their animals indoors in industrial animal operations. These factory farms don’t give hogs access to pasture or fresh air. Research shows that hogs raised in confinement develop heightened aggression and suppression of their natural behaviors. It can be dangerous for farmers who interact with the hogs, especially mature females, called sows, which can weigh between 450 and 650 pounds.
But because Larson’s pigs are raised outdoors with space to exhibit natural behaviors like rooting, roaming, and playing, she can safely go into the pens and pet her sows.
This way of farming is nothing new, but it is uncommon today. Larson says that it wouldn’t be financially feasible without a specialty market to sell her pork into. In exchange for high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices, specialty pork company Niman Ranch offers Larson a guaranteed market for her pork, rather than the volatile commercial hog market prices.
“With how small [my farm is], the commodity prices to sell just through a sale barn, there’s really no good profit on that,” says Larson. “There’d be no way that I’d be raising pigs without Niman Ranch. The security is what makes it amazing. No matter when I farrow, I know what the prices will be and that they will have that space for the pigs—that’s what really has kept me in.”
Getting started farming—hogs or otherwise—is increasingly difficult for young people like Larson.
In Wisconsin, agricultural land value grew by 14 percent on average between 2020 and 2022, compared to 2 percent between 2012 and 2020, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And for the land that is available, interest rates have risen sharply over the past decade.
“Just to be able to buy land and farm, you’re gonna be putting in almost a million [dollars] into it, at least,” says Larson. “To be able to get started nowadays is virtually impossible. And it’s very, very sad.”
Despite owning farmland, Larson’s entire family must work full-time off the farm to make ends meet. Larson spends 30 to 60 minutes caring for her pigs each morning, then goes to work as a large animal veterinary assistant. After work, she feeds, cleans, and moves pigs and completes other chores for up to four hours. The whole family works together on more time-consuming and difficult chores each weekend.
Larson says she cannot imagine doing anything else. After hours of manual labor late into the evening, she often finds herself spending an extra 10 minutes in the barn watching the pigs run around. Her camera roll is full of baby pig photos.
“I just love bringing those little creatures into the world…they love life. I’m creating this life that they love,” says Larson.
Larson emphasizes the importance of specialty markets to help educate consumers about the care that goes into raising animals sustainably and humanely.
“In commodity, your pork goes off to harvest, never to think about it again. And with Niman Ranch, I just had a friend who was out in California for the weekend, and he had Niman Ranch pork at a restaurant. I raised that,” says Larson. “What we do truly matters, and it’s paying off.”
Larson is optimistic that more consumers are learning about more sustainable and humane ways of raising pigs—and that they can support small farmers, like her, through their pork product purchase decisions.
“We pour our hearts and souls into these animals, into our farmland, and into anything that we do on the farm. And I don’t think a lot of people realize that,” says Larson. “The caring and the amount of work and time that we put into these things to create food for people…that’s what I want people to know about.”
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Photo courtesy of Lindsay Larson
