Livestock

Many years ago a number of different breeds of livestock existed throughout the world. With the commercialization of livestock, breeders selected a small number of breeds that met their economic needs and production practices. These breeds were then bred to achieve specific traits and soon after every other breed began to disappear. This left a number of livestock breeds that had been around for hundreds of years close to extinction. Over the last few decades, organizations like the American Livestock Breeding Conservancy began working to restore these rare breeds and bring them back from the brink of extinction.

Unfortunately, the traits that worked for commercial farms are not well suited to small farmers who shun commercial practices. These rare breeds of livestock have valuable traits and we wanted to highlight the benefits of these breeds, and that is one of the primary reasons for starting Heritage Lane Farms..

We started with Large Black Pigs in November of 2008 and have since added Mulefoot pigs, Navajo-Churro sheep, Southdown Sheep, and Oxford Sheep. Each of these different breeds come with their own histories and distinct personalities. Our Navajo-Churro sheep are very flightly and easily startle at even the smallest movement, no doubt traits left from being in the Southwest desert with lots of predators. Our large black pigs are very personable, even too much at times, and will quickly come running whenever they see me. Our Oxford sheep is very curious and will always come and take a look at what I am doing. .

These breeds grow slower than commercial breeds. Our pigs and sheep will take almost a year to get big enough to butcher, whereas, most commercial breeds of pigs reach maturity in 5 months and sheep around 7 months. Although slower to grow, the extra time is well worth the taste.