Happy in Nature!
Wilsch Family Farm was formed when Lauren Wilden and Jared Schmidt (WIL+SCH) moved to Northwest Iowa. For more details around this read our story. We have long desired to create a small and sustainable family farm that proudly supports our community and future generations.
We raise our animals in the most natural way possible, allowing them open access to pasture and wooded areas throughout our farm. We support and practice sustainable farming for our animals and our environment. Constant rotation allows us to be good stewards of the land, tapping into the natural resources it provides our animals while allowing us to fertilize and contribute back to the soil. Just the way nature intended.
Our hogs are pasture born and pasture raised. We believe that the attention and care we provide our animals produces a more quality product.
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Free range has become a very popular marketing buzz word but not without gray areas. An animal can be raised in a building with a small space and still be considered free range. Free range to us means allowing animals to embrace their natural instincts, foraging for much of their day on pasture and in wooded areas.
We believe that all animals should have access to their natural habitat. Sows give birth in small A-frame huts, always having access to pasture and our fat hogs have the freedom to roam, root, forage and eat a variety of items that we plant. In the wintertime, the pasture is limited so we plant and collect items specially to account for the change in seasons. Those include but are not limited to cold-hardy grasses, kale, alfalfa, clover, barley and field peas. In warmer months, our meat birds are rotated through alfalfa fields and our egg laying chickens have access to our yard which consists of white clover and roam a lot of the farm.
Another very popular buzzword… What does it mean to be “Humane”? To us, this means that animals have full access to outdoors, to experience and embrace their natural tendencies to forage and root. This is one of the many factors that makes us unique. For example, did you know that pigs love black walnuts and all chickens love dirt baths? We do because that is how we raise them. We spend countless hours collecting walnuts, apples, pumpkins and other fruits and vegetables as snacks. This helps give them variety in their diet, even in the winter. We also raise our meat birds with access to dirt so they can naturally keep themselves clean.
We appreciate the organic movement and utilize many organic practices. For example, we use NO insecticides or pesticides on our farm. In addition, we feed our animals non-GMO food and rarely use antibiotics (once in 5 years!). In farming, animals can be raised as organic but have no access to nature. Here is where we feel that we differ, allowing our animals to be fed high quality feed while living most of their lives outdoors to forage around.
There are many health benefits from pasture raised animals. They are more balanced in their omegas, essential vitamins and nutrients. There is a vast difference in our animals being pasture raised, free range with a balanced diet compared to animals raised in confined spaces. Studies have found that free range and pasture raised animals have higher omega content than salmon.
Remember the slogan “The Other White Meat”? Our pork is NOT white. It is red with great marbling which gives it better flavor and doesn’t dry out as easy as confined pork. Our pigs are a blend of heritage breeds including Berkshire, Hereford, Duroc, Hampshire and Spotted Pig. The combination of these breeds along with how they are raised makes our pork taste so good!
