Big Ideas, Real Impact.
Stillwater Farm Iberian Heritage Sows
Our primary focus is on our Iberian heritage sows and keeping them happy and healthy is our paramount commitment.
We believe happy pigs make better breeding stock and produce healthier and more flavorful pork. Adding to their natural lounging in wallows, the running, ripping, and rooting through the pastures is great exercise and helps develop the muscle with it’s featured marbling.
When a gilt (female pig that has never had a litter) is of weight (240 to 275 lbs.) and age (at least 9 to 11 months) and in her second or third heat cycle, she is ready to be bred The breeding boars are carefully chosen for their genetics and matched to the sows for best offspring results.
Stillwater Farm is committed to our Mama’s having a strong bone structure before breeding, having good maternal instincts, as well as docile people-friendly dispositions with their healthy pigs on the ground. We shoot for breeding our sows when they are ready to be good mamas and not just when they are able to get pregnant.
A sow's gestation period is 114 days. We try to avoid farrowing in the dead heat of Summer and in the Winter, though East Texas winters tend to be mild. Though we might breed animals in the Summer for weaning in the Fall, our preferred schedule is November/December breeding for late Winter/early Spring farrowing, and January/February breeding for late Spring farrowing. Whenever pigs are born we are ready to provide conditions in which both the sow and piglets will comfortably thrive in their growth and development.
The prime time for producing great litters is from 16 months to 48 months. During this 32 month period we expect to have approximately 4 to 5 healthy, thriving litters before they are taken out of production.
A pasture full of rooting pigs is a sign of a living ecosystem.
We name, ear notch, and ear tag our sows, as well as castrate piglets identified as feeders not breeders.
This enables us to keep impeccable records of a farm application called Farmkeep. We also weigh our sows and pigs regularly on the farm with our Way Pig scale system. Our naming system is as follows:
Iberico– our purebreds will have names that begin with the letter “I” — Iolanda (84), Isabel (639), Irene (14), Inez (13), Ina (44), and Irma (650).
Berkshire– our Berkshire crosses will have names that begin with “B”— Betty (4), Birdie (20) Bitty Carol Ann (03), and Barbara (11)
Meishan– our Meishan crosses will have names that begin with “M”— Molly (652).
Red Wattle– our Red Wattle crosses will have names that begin with “W”— Wilma (372), Winnie (21)
Crossbred pigs with the required percentage of these three breeds will be registered as the first known Iberian Grazers in America and the registry will be established within the next 12 months on this new breed.
The Grazers will feature all of the best of the Iberico foundation and have the hybrid vigor that will create greater litter sizes, faster development, docile temperament, and muscle tone that makes for the best smoked and aged country hams and prosciutto in these parts, or anywhere. The sows in the Sowshare Partnership pool for 2026 are as follows:
Iolanda (84) with 8 healthy piglets (purebred Iberico)
Isabel (639) with 12 healthy piglets (Iberian Grazers)
Irene (14) with 9 healthy piglets (purebred Iberico)
Inez (13) with 9 healthy piglets (purebred Iberico)
Ina (44) with 9 healthy piglets (purebred Iberico)
Betty (4), had 8 healthy piglets that are in our feeder program now, she will farrow in July a litter of Iberian Grazers and the first to born at Stillwater
Farm–the Texas home of the Grazers
Birdie (20), had 8 healthy piglets that are in our feeder program now, she will farrow in July, a litter of Iberian Grazers and the first born at Stillwater Farm–the Texas home of the Grazers
Note: The Iberian Grazers farrowed by Isabel 639 are the first in America to be registered.
The Stillwater Farm Iberian Pig Regenerative Farm aspirations represent a forward-thinking approach to agriculture—one that combines profitability with purpose and is dependent upon partners to make it work. Through premium product development, disciplined herd management, and innovative partnership structures like SowShares, Stillwater Farm cultivates not only exceptional pork, but a model for how agriculture can reconnect people, land, and food in a meaningful and sustainable way. Being a SowShare Partner brings more than potential profit and the taste of great pork into the light of day. It brings an opportunity to participate in a model representing healing our environment while growing, safe, flavorful food of a premium variety. A SowShare partner can own and know your sow by name and visit the farm anytime to see our practices at work. A SowShare partner can cook your pork to your satisfaction and share meat with family and friends.
SowShare Partners
A SowShare partner is living into an understanding of what it means to think longer and fuller, beyond merely self and what is mine, to eco-friendly farming and food production and being a good ancestor. My next after retirement after 42 years as an ordained United Methodist pastor, and 28 years at Lovers Lane UMC, involves a radical commitment to being a good ancestor.
What that means to me is thinking long, being a good steward of the farm, caring for the soil, planting trees, humanely raising animals, and partnering with my family on this 6th generation family farm. Anything I can preach and teach about regenerative farming to my family, partners, and others is time well spent.
