Milestones

We quietly hit a important milestone for our farm this fall, officially registering the first purebred Meishan piglets born and raised here. These gilts will join our breeding herd themselves when they mature and we’re so excited to see what they achieve.

When their registration paperwork came in the mail this past week, it was a moment almost four years in the making. We started wholeheartedly researching Meishans in 2022, broke ground on our property in 2023, moved to the farm full-time in 2024, and now, in 2025, can say we are retaining the best piglets we have produced so far to carry on our herd and the Meishan recovery here in Montana.

Jackstone Creek Lara, Ivy, and Elanor are all daughters of our favorite sow on the whole farm, Mab. Mab is an excellent and attentive mother, lovely to be around, and produces healthy, hearty piglets. Especially important for our high-welfare system where our sows are never confined to crates, Mab has never lost a piglet to rolling or crushing accidents. Her daughters will get to join her in the breeding herd next summer, mimicking the natural social structure of wild swine.

We are also retaining a daughter of our sow Titania. Titania throws very even litters that gain quickly. Not only is this young gilt the friendliest piglet in all of our grower groups, but she brings that size and strength to our herd lineage. (And yes, we love her for the fact she runs up to us for belly rubs at feeding time!)

Although a “behind-the-scenes” part of raising pork for our local communities, our breeding herd is the backbone of our farm. Without these wonderful pigs, we wouldn’t have a business. Raising our own “replacements” allows us to select for traits specific to our natural and sustainable system of raising Meishans, our Montana weather and climate, and, ultimately, the kind of pork that our consumers are looking for.

Jackstone Creek Lara

We’re so excited to take this next step on our journey.

Thanks for joining us for the ride!

(P.S. — We’re pig nerds around here, but we’re regular old nerd-nerds too. Can you guess what fandoms our new class of piglets are inspired by?)