Ian Smith owns and operates the Smith farm at Argyle, MB, in the family since 1953, but his claim to fame continues selling Natural Raised Pork.
Smith said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, his home delivery pork business continues strong.
Formerly a dairy farm, the Smiths began raising pigs on their quarter section near Argyle, Manitoba, in 1967. During the 80s and 90s, as pork production concentrated in huge hog barns across Manitoba and the rest of North America, the Smith farm stayed small, mixed, humane, and environmentally friendly.
“Because people are nervous about food, nervous about packing plant shutdowns hearing all this broadcast through the media,” said Smith in a recent interview as to why he thought business is good. “Customers that hadn’t bought from me for nine, ten years are coming back to me and buying again.”
After the initial adjustments to the realities of CORVID-19, Smith said lots of phone calls for pork kept him busy.
“I’m doing good, and of course, my price is a lot better than what I’d be getting from the normal market place,” he said.
Smith thinks they come back knowing his product is pretty darn good. While not down on other hog producers or the industry or nothing, he’s still old style. His barn has no pit system, but he cleans out the pens twice a day into the gutter, and the barn cleaner takes it out once a day, and fresh straw put down in each pen twice a day.
“I say that because the straw absorbs the moisture and the odour. So many people tell me they don’t smell the barn smell in the meat. People would probably disagree with me. I only can believe what my customers tell me,” he said.
Including one-time customers, he has a list of 960 customers since 2009. Some only bought one time, and others regularly.
“A wide range of people, anywhere from people that are on social assistance to doctors and lawyers,” he said of the wide array of people who like his product.
“Everybody eats, so it covers the whole gamut certified by the Winnipeg Humane Society. And between you and me, my tree hugger friends, I’ll call them, are some of my best customers. They want to be vegetarians, but they can’t resist that smell of bacon and taste of bacon,” added Smith.
Smith sells about 150 pigs a year from only 20 sows but gets cumbersome when ten or so customer’s phone and they all want half a pig each, that’s only five pigs. Others take a whole pig, so that helps.
“It doesn’t sound like its many pigs, but you know what? I’m on a quarter section, I have low overhead costs, and I rather sell quality than quantity,” said the proud farmer. “My price is above what I can get at the market.”
Crampton’s Market, which sells fresh local organic produce, buys about three hogs from him every three weeks year-round. When he gets enough orders, several pigs, like two, would be a minimum, and five off to BJ Packers at Beausejour, MB, a government inspected plant. Next, the carcasses go to the butcher’s, Tim’s Country Meats at Dougald, MB, who smokes, cuts, wraps, and makes the sausage.
The customer tells Smith how they want the pork processed; Smith relays the message to Tim, who prepares the order. When the order is ready, Smith picks it up and delivers it personally to the waiting customer at their front door.
When asked about a label on the meat packages, Smith said, “No, no! They know who I am, and here is why. I’m the farmer, and I want to meet the customer face to face, so they know who I am. A label is one thing, but to meet the person would be, I feel, more priority.” •
— By Harry Siemens
