Simon Price

The farmer

Simon Price is a free range pig farmer and has been rearing his animals in idyllic Devon for over 35 years. He is 100% committed to sustainable, regenerative and ethical farming practices. “To be a free range pig farmer, you need a lot of resilience to the British weather and what it can throw at you,” says Simon. “But most of all, you need passion and belief in what you are doing and the way the animals are farmed.”

The farm

Higher Weston Farm is nestled among the cliff-top fields above Sidmouth in Devon. It boasts a diverse range of habitats and coastal landscapes, and features a lovely wooded valley. There are large paddocks for the pigs to roam around in, with deep straw huts for them to shelter in at night and to protect them from the elements. The pigs are moved onto new paddocks every 18 months to give the environment time to recover and ensure the animals live on healthy soil.

The pigs

Simon rears Landrace/Red Duroc/Hampshire cross breeds, which are perfectly suited to living outdoors. “I want my pigs to be able to display all their natural behaviours, like rootling around the earth and mud wallowing,” he says.“It’s better for the animals and contributes directly to the quality of pork produced.”

All Simon’s pigs are free range gilts (females): born, reared and finished outdoors on the farm’s cliff-top fields. They are kept in groups of no more than 25 and are fed vegetarian wheat-based pig pellets from the time they are weaned at around four to five weeks. The gilts take approximately five months to come to the right weight for the production of pork and bacon.  

This type of farming not only has the highest animal welfare standards, it produces the best tasting pork. The meat has an even distribution of lean and fat because the pigs have had the freedom to walk and run around the paddock.