Meet The Producer: St Piran’s Pork

In our latest journey behind the scenes, we chat to Nick Dymond of St Piran’s Pork about finding that sweet spot where non-intensive farming methods are used to produce high quality, affordable food.

Nick has been a pig and arable farmer for more than thirty years, yet he only joined Truro Farmers Market in the last six months. He says his interactions with customers at market have been revelatory, reaffirming the difficult choices he has made on his farming journey. Nick’s story is a fascinating one, as you’ll discover…

A long history of farming in St Erme

Nick is a fourth-generation farmer, from traditional farming country four miles from the centre of Truro. Historically his was a mixed farm, but in the 1980s farmers were encouraged to specify and the farm became focused on arable crops and pigs, with around 10,000 pigs at one point.

Nick describes becoming uncomfortable with the direction the farm was going in, and a growing feeling of disconnection with the land. “For a long time, we were a conventional modern farm, with high inputs and high outputs,” he explains. “However, as the years passed it gradually became noticeable that inputs were increasing but our yields had plateaued. In essence, we had overworked the land and we were pushing our animals too hard. We had lost that symbiotic relationship upon which good farming should be based.”

A change of direction

After hearing a talk about soil health around seven years ago, Nick realised that he needed to take a different approach for both environmental and moral reasons. “I hadn’t enjoyed farming for a long time by then and, listening to that talk, it became clear to me why. We were treating the soil as if it were a concrete factory floor, rather than a living, breathing ally.”

Back then regenerative farming was seen as ‘alternative’, but Nick says he’s never looked back from the decision to take that path. Nurturing the health of the soil is now his focus as he considers it the fundamental basis for producing nutrient-rich food. And for Nick, working with nature rather than against it has rekindled his passion for farming. “We’ve returned to working with the land in a way that my grandfather, and great grandfather did so I feel more connected to them now, as well as the land itself,” he explains.

A closed-loop system

Nick produces grains on 600 acres, using the principles of regenerative farming to decrease inputs and increase the health and nutritional value of the soil. “It’s not strictly speaking organic,” Nick explains, “we do still use some non-organic fertilisers. But we are gradually reducing their use as the soil recovers its natural structure and mineral content. We grow nitrogen-rich cover crops to lock in nutrients, and of course all that pig manure helps too!” The arable land and the pig operation complement each other perfectly, negating the need for fertiliser and food deliveries and therefore reducing environmental impact. “We’re hoping to become carbon neutral in a few years,” says Nick “It’s the complete antithesis of some intensive pig units, which ship in soya beans and therefore play their part in mass deforestation.”

The cereal crops form the diet of around 700 pigs onsite at any one time, which are kept in straw-bedded barns at low densities. “Our pigs grow 20-30% slower than commercial averages, because they have room to move around and they eat a more natural diet,” explains Nick. “We don’t use any chemicals or antibiotics, and our animal husbandry is of the highest standard. I know that people see ‘outdoor reared’ as the mark of quality pork, but for us we’re able to look after our pigs better if they’re indoors. We have very low levels of mortality, and they need less food, which is a positive thing from an environment perspective as well as an economic one.”

Affordable local food

When he decided to make the change to more natural, less intensive farming methods, Nick was adamant that he wanted his meat to remain affordable. “In Cornwall there are big wealth discrepancies and, especially now, working families can find it really hard to get by. I don’t believe that buying high quality, nutrient-rich, locally produced food should be an elitist thing. In fact, I’d love to help make it the foundation of every local schoolchild’s diet.”

Nick, who also sells his full range of pork on his website, tries to keep his prices at or just below the supermarkets ‘finest’ brands. “There will always be cheaper meat out there,” he says. “But I think you really have to ask yourself, if the meat you’re buying is that cheap, how has that been achieved? Even as a pig farmer, I wholeheartedly agree that people should be eating less meat. Reducing consumption and increasing quality is a win-win for both the environment and our health.”

Coming to market ‘a revelation’

Nick joined the market earlier this year as he was keen to sell direct to the public while keeping food miles minimal. “To be honest, before I started, I was terrified! I’d spent 30 years hiding behind my farm gate and not really engaging with the end consumer. The way that we’d previously run things we had relationships with commercial buyers – middlemen essentially. I’d always been told that all the public cared about was price, which is why we were trapped in that viscous loop of high inputs to achieve high outputs. It was incredibly demoralising.”

However, Nick received a pleasant surprise on joining our market community. “It was so rewarding, hearing the way people talked about food production. Every week I have positive conversations with marketgoers who are extremely well-informed about the issues facing us as farmers, and who are making considered decisions about the products they buy. It was a revelation and gave me faith that we can work towards fixing our broken food system, and it reinforced the path we’ve taken as regenerative farmers. The market is something I now looked forward to each week and I’m proud to sell meat that is high quality, affordable and locally accessible.”