Here is a feature article from the Fall, 2006 Issue

Thompson Farms helps customers
live high on the hog

By Jennifer Whittaker

There was a time when southern families looked forward to the first killing frost of late fall or early winter because that meant it was cold enough to butcher and dress the hog that would provide the family’s year-long supply of pork.

Thanks to the father-son team of Raymond and Andrew Thompson of Brooks County, it’s still possible to enjoy the taste of homegrown, homemade pork products, without having to set foot near a pigpen.
Raymond (left) and Andrew (right) Thompson take inventory of the pork products offered at their retail store in Dixie, Ga. The Thompsons raise the hogs they slaughter to make their all-natural pork products.
"As long as I can remember, since I was a young boy, we’ve always killed a hog, and Daddy made sausage,” Andrew recalls. “We made sausage for our family, employees and church members. He made some good sausage, and people really liked it.”

The Thompsons once grew hogs on their farm in Dixie, Ga., to sell to packers who bought them to make pork products. But after hog prices dropped to the point where it was impossible to make a profit, the Thompsons decided three years ago they would try their hand at making and marketing their own pork products.

“Our processing business is the reason we still raise hogs. Hog farming is practically extinct in this part of the country because we don’t have a commercial market,” Andrew explains. “With hog prices dropping down, it was either get out of the hog business completely or open up a retail market to sell pork products so we could stay in business.”

The Thompsons are raising hogs much as they were raised on southern farms years ago using an open range system instead of housing the hogs in barns. They have about 200 sows on their farm that are divided into groups of three to four and placed on half-acre grass paddocks. Each paddock has huts the sows can use to get out of the weather and a wallowing hole filled with fresh well water.

“We’re raising these hogs with no antibiotics, no steroids and no animal byproducts. We try to raise them as humanely as possible,” Raymond explains.

The sows farrow about two litters a year, weaning an average of ten piglets per litter, Andrew says. The piglets nurse their mother sow for six weeks. After they are weaned, they eat corn and soybean meal.

At Thompson Farms, sows raise their litters on half-acre grass paddocks. “Everything does better in sunshine,” Raymond Thompson says.
“It’s more labor intensive, raising hogs this way, but in the long run we think we put out a better product rather than if they’re totally confined,” Raymond says. “You don’t see any stress in the hogs.”

The hogs grow for five to six months until they reach the optimum slaughter weight of 250 to 270 pounds. The hogs are sent to a Moultrie processor for slaughter. Each week the Thompsons review their meat inventory and customer requests to determine how many hogs they need to slaughter and how they will process the hogs to supply requested orders.

The Thompsons may use traditional methods to raise their hogs and an old family recipe to make their sausage, but the facility where they process the meat on their farm is state-of-the-art and USDA inspected. They use smokehouses made of stainless steel that meet state and federal food safety requirements to cure their country hams, bacon and sausages instead of the wooden smokehouses of yesteryear.

“We’re inspected by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture. We document the temperature of the meat when it comes in after slaughter, and twice a day in every cooler that holds fresh meat until it is sold,” Andrew says. “We also have to document every step the meat goes through, for the smoked products we cook.”

Although the smokehouses are sterile stainless, they still require wood to give the meat their natural smoky flavor. The Thompsons burn peach wood instead of the more commonly used applewood.

“We’re trying to make a sausage that tastes like it did fifty to seventy-five years ago,” Raymond says. “We have people that come in and tell us that our sausage tastes like it did when they were a child, and that makes you feel good.”

The Thompsons’ main products are smoked and fresh sausage links and patties, pork chops, bacon and ham. But, the Thompsons also sell pig feet and have even had customers request a hog head. Recently, the Thompsons began a catering business serving pork barbeque and smoked meats, southern side items and homemade desserts.

“We use the whole hog,”Andrew says smiling.

Until recently, the Thompsons were restricted to selling their pork in Georgia due to inspection regulations, but since they recently became USDA certified, they can now ship their products next day via UPS anywhere in the country. Their retail store is open from 8 a.m.–6 p.m., Monday-Friday and from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays.

Customers can reach the Thompsons using their toll-free number 1-866-463-9218 or by emailing them at tfsmokehouse@
thompsonfarms.com.