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Logo of Lindy Land & Livestock featuring the text "L3 CO" and the tagline "Unconfined, Unconventional, Unbelievably Good." The design emphasizes a rustic and agricultural theme, suitable for a livestock business.

Our Practices

Our Pigs

This is where it all starts. Without healthy, active, and diverse species of plant life and animal activity, our soil would be pretty lifeless. And because we choose to carefully monitor all this activity we are promoting the following: increases in soil organic matter, diversity in the soil microbiology, increasing moisture holding capacity, and harboring many different species of insects.

The animals are rotated off of a particular paddock and onto a new one. This allows time for the pasture to rest and recover. Rooting, manuring, and bedding are just a few of the activities the paddock see’s during it’s rotation. This is the exact behavior we want and expect because before moving animals to the next paddock, we broadcast a mix of clovers, pumpkin, watermelon, forage collards, and grasses to added to our ongoing plant diversity. If left long enough, we would eventually see nothing but dirt, but because we measure daily feed intake, we can establish when the items in the pasture that the animals desire have diminished. This sets the stage for the next rotation.

On a given pasture, we are able to rotate the animals roughly three times over each paddock. Because of lots of sunlight, moisture, and nutrients, the pasture is able to self-sterilize and repair. Not only is the regrowth happening of the existing plants, but also a good share of the broadcast mix we added prior to using the paddock.

We are continually sampling and measuring the regeneration of the soil that our pastures are on. This gives us a measurement and an indication of progress. Because each pasture is not used for animals year after year, we allow time for other uses. Those other uses include corn, soybean, oats and just plain rest.

What We Offer
A black and white pig peeks out from a mound of straw and manure on a farm, showcasing its playful expression in a rural setting.
A herd of black and white pigs grazing on a grassy field, showcasing their natural behavior in a farm setting.
Two small dogs standing on a wooden platform near a barn, with a large animal partially visible in the foreground. The scene captures a sunny day on a farm with green grass and a rustic red barn.
Two adorable piglets with black and white markings exploring a grassy area, surrounded by dirt and greenery.
A black pig approaching a red barn on a sunny day, with a rural landscape and plowed field in the background.
Group of black and white pigs grazing in a green pasture, showcasing healthy livestock in a natural farming environment.
Two black pigs interacting in a snowy field, with patches of grass visible beneath the snow. The scene captures the pigs' playful behavior in a winter landscape.
Close-up of a black and white pig resting on green grass, with another pig partially visible in the background. The image captures the pig's distinctive features, including its ears and snout, in a natural farm setting.

Equipment

Raising livestock in this manner can be time-consuming. Maybe we’re a little more particular. Making sure that clean water is available at all times can be a challenge, but just filling pails on the ground is not an answer if you’re after no wallowing. Compound that by setting up rotational grazing, and fixed infrastructure isn’t necessarily feasible. So we assembled what we already knew and set about designing something to suit our needs.

Shelter

We use different sized galvanized steel portable shelter structures. They’re moved as we rotate paddocks, which gives us the opportunity to not be locked into fixed infrastructure.

Water

Providing clean water, in volume, and on-demand without having mud around pigs is challenging. Our “Smart” water skid is completely portable and is moved with the animals as they graze in their paddocks. The water skid offers a filtered, and pressurized water delivery through stainless steel water nipples. The pig gently applies pressure to the toggle in the center of the nipple and water is gently delivered across their tongue into their mouths. Eliminating common drinking containers and places for bacteria and parasites to grow and hangout. When the temperatures start to drop outside, the “Smart” water skid has been programmed to circulate water more frequently through an on-board tankless water heater that heats the returning water and the holding tank inside. Being solar powered, with the heat provided by portable LP tanks, keeps water flowing in temps testing -40 deg F!

Evaporative Cooling

Water hitting the ground is music to a pigs ear, and they’ll come running to make the most of it. The “Smart” water skid is able to plug in flexible tubing based evaporative misting system that has been setup to run for 2 minutes out of every 10 minutes when the ambient air temperature exceeds 82 degrees Fahrenheit, and increase in run time as it gets warmer. Evaporative cooling allows us to influence a greater amount of air and take advantage of the additional cooling effect of the breeze. Throughout the summer heat, we’ve yet to experience any of the signs of heat stress that can be associate to an animal that really doesn’t sweat (lack of sweat glands in pig skin).

Feeder

We use outdoor bulk hog feeders constructed of galvanized metal hopper and fiberglass cone. These feeders have a unique design to minimize feed waste. The animals turn a multi-spoke wheel in the bottom of the round feed trough to activate the feed sweep located inside the bottom of the hopper. Keeping feed in the feeder where it belongs until eaten, not scattered about.

Electric Fencing

Without electric fencing, a lot of what we do would be extremely labor intensive. These berks are not slow, in fact, there’ll be no catching them in a foot race. We use poly wire electric fencing. Along with all the other things a sow teaches a litter, our animals are also trained to respect the portable fencing as early as a week old. Come time to wean, they have been conditioned to know what the fence is there for.