When it comes to telling the story behind delicious pork products, there's one family farm hitting the mark through direct farm sales.
Award-winning Barossa piggery Gumshire Hampshire Pork are the only farm in Australia to self brand the rare breed of pig that's prized for making cured specialities.
Michael and Margaret Blenkiron set up the Gumshire family business more than 30 years ago, and now work alongside their son Shaun and his wife Amy farming and breeding Large Whites, Landrace, Hampshire and Duroc lines.
The family run about 3000 pigs year-round on 138 hectares at Keyneton, which is just a slice of the almost 323,000 head in SA. This represents about 14 per cent of the national herd, according to the Australian Pork Limited State of the Industry Report 2021.
Shaun runs the majority of the piggery in about 15 eco shelters, which are a sustainable hut that allows airflow and sun protection.
The business cannot be free-range, as it is located in the middle of the River Murray catchment zone, affecting waste run offs.
For Shaun this means the paddock to plate process for their enterprise and animal welfare is of the utmost importance.
All the pigs are fed with a mix of barley, wheat, triticale and peas sourced from local farms between Keyneton and Burra, which have minimal to no herbicide treatments.
"We want the feed product to be as natural as possible," he said.
The sows and growers (two to three months of age) get about 2.5 kilograms a day.
"The growers, per shed which holds about 250 pigs, goes through 4.5 tonnes a week," he said.
The pigs get their vaccinations as piglets and are antibiotic and growth stimulant free.
He said sex splitting the pigs had a big impact on their animal welfare in the past 18-months.
"The girls are growing better and are more happier too," he said.
"It's not as stressful on them.
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"We couldn't split sex them before because we only had one shed per group."
The family get a majority of their pigs processed at Menzel's Meats at Kapunda, keeping transport to a minimum and supporting local businesses.
They have between five to 10 days for the return of their meat products once the pig leaves their farm, which means the pork they sell from their farm is as fresh as it can be.
Aside from farm sales from their cool room, the family have an appearance at the Barossa Farmers' Market.
Amy attends each week with their Gumshire Hampshire range.
"It was suggested we should have our pork at the farmers' market and we decided it was a good way to value-add to the farm, since we were already doing the stud breeding side," Amy said.
She said the Hampshires offered something different to Large White and Landrace pigs as they had better fat cover than the white breeds, grow quicker and have more marbling.
"They taste better and we get the opportunity to teach people how our pigs are raised," she said.
"We also have the Pink Pork Mark from Australian Pork."
APL chief executive officer Margo Andrae said there had been an increased awareness of the supply chain and interest in how food reaches the plate was growing.
"The pork industry has the ability to provide consumers access to our beautiful pork products however they shop," she said.
"Channels such as farmers' markets and direct to door services allows smaller producers new markets to showcase their products.
"The pink Australian Pork logo on any pack means consumers can have confidence that they are buying a product made using 100 per cent Australian pork, which meets our industry's high standards."
Wirrabara Producers Market site manager and publicity officer Greg Pech said producers get a better price for their produce because they did not have to go through a middleman.
"Consumers can actually connect directly with the person that produces or grows the product their interested in buying," he said.
"Meat products certainly adds a bit more diversity to to market - I wish we actually had more of it.
"It would be a perfect opportunity for small goods."
- This is the third instalment in Stock Journal's paddock-to-plate monthly series, which showcases industries taking on this initiative.