Welcome to Dundeady Free-range Farm
Hi all, my name is Shane Kenneally and I come from Dundeady 9mls west of Clonakilty on the southwest of Ireland. I started out with four hens and a few ducks in a house we were renting. When we bought a house on an acre it had an old stable.
We increased eventually to 44 hens selling eggs in our honesty box at the gate. I convinced my wife to allow me buy two pigs ” two pigs and no more”. I researched varying pigs and settled on KuneKune pigs as they seemed a bit rarer and “non rooting“, and we soon found out that was not necessarily true!
Having never had pigs it was all new to me and a huge learning curve, I fenced off a quarter of an acre and converted a 12 x 10 garden shed. We bought our first set of pedigree Kunekune pigs one gilt and one boar. There temperament is excellent and very friendly. A few months later we obtained another two year old Kunekune “Winky” and her boyfriend on hire “Donal” a smashing Scotsman. We learned so much over the weeks, learning when in heat, matching rituals, escape artists, etc., eight weeks later and Donal returned home, and the waiting game began. June 18th Winky farrowed and despite having a beautiful maternity ward for her she farrowed outside; she got mastitis, and we ended up bottle feeding for a while. We lost two piglets out of ten she had, with lots of late nights, sleeping in the farrowing shed. Only two pigs and now up to thirteen, I was going well, Amy my wife was great feeding pigs while I worked night shifts. When they were ready, we sold our piglets and enjoyed the well-earned break.
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I then decided that I wanted to venture into pork, I bought two weaners from a fellow IPs member and so it began. I acquired some land off my cousin adjacent to my own land and segregated our stock breeding vs fattening. I kept Winky in with the weaners. KuneKune pork is very rare in Ireland and when the opportunity arose to buy four purebred nonregistered KuneKune’s I bought them, now we are up to nine. I have researched a lot about fattening Kunekunes, kill ages, weights, etc., and decided we would develop these Kunekune piglets and learn for future pork production.
I came across some Idaho pasture pigs, having never seen them before I was intrigued and decided to googled them and I discovered they were bred for meat production, being a crossbreed of the Duroc, Berkshire, and Kunekune. They are true grazing pigs that are very gentle-natured and have great personalities. We bought five piglets to add to our growing family and be able to provide something different to our customers. I must emphasis without the help of the Irish Pig Society we would not be where we are today, a great bunch of people with a wealth of experience and always at the end of a phone should you need advice.
Outdoor Reared Free-range Pork is the way forward, ensure you don’t get left behind and join the IPS today