Fackler Couple Returns to Farming With Kunekune Pigs
Butters and Puddin’ love head scratches. Taryn McNeal obliged the kunekune pigs pushing their wiry-haired snouts up to the openings of their pen, Puddin’ grunting for attention the whole time.
“He’s a big baby,” Taryn says. “Big huge baby.”
Beaver Creek Farms is near Fackler in Jackson County. Once upon a time, Taryn’s family farmed the land and raised cattle, horses, ducks and chickens. Time and loss led the family to scale back and lease their land to another farmer, but McNeal hopes raising and breeding kunekune pigs will help reshape her family’s approach to farming.
The breed is native to New Zealand, and kunekune means “fat and round” in the language of the country’s Māori people. Kunekune pigs have become popular as pets due to their calm and friendly personalities.
Beaver Creek Farms’ small kunekune operation began as a Valentine’s Day gift.
Leo and Helen Frassrand, Taryn’s grandparents, bought the 398-acre spread in Jackson County before she was born. Her father, Johnny Johnson, worked on the farm, and Taryn spent her childhood chasing after her father while he worked.
“My daddy was a heck of man,” she says. “He would fix anything, run anything, drive anything. There wasn’t much he wasn’t good at.”
When Leo Frassrand died in 2009, the farm was already transitioning from cattle to row crops. Taryn’s grandmother and father managed the farm. Her father became ill in 2019 with what was diagnosed as a rare fungal infection that spread to his brain. By the time doctors determined what was happening, he had suffered multiple strokes and was on life support. The family was devastated when he died.
“He was our glue,” Taryn says. “He was the 1 that held us all together.”
It was just Taryn, her grandmother and her aunt, and the farm was too much for them. They leased the land to a neighbor who farms soybeans and corn on it.
As the only grandchild, Taryn was always told by her grandmother that the land was a legacy and birthright, and McNeal says she always hoped to find something the family could do with the farm other than lease it out.
Then, in 2021, she met Adam McNeal.
On the couple’s second Valentine’s Day together, Adam bought Puddin’ as a gift for Taryn. The male kunekune piglet was meant to be a companion for her pet pot-bellied pig, Bacon.
In her research of the breed, Taryn learned kunekune pigs do not root as aggressively as other breeds; they are referred to as pasture pigs because they eat grass and rarely root deep holes as they forage.
The breed is known for its short legs as well as short, upturned snouts and pot bellies. Kunekune pigs are also recognized by the fleshy wattles that hang from their jowls — although not all kunekune pigs have wattles. The standard length for Kunekune pigs is 4 feet. While smaller than other breeds of domestic pigs, the females can still weigh 120 to 200 pounds, and males can weigh between 200 and 300 pounds. While popular pets, homesteaders and hobby farmers also are drawn to the breed’s fattier, marbled meat.
Taryn was inspired.
“If pigs could be perfect, this would be a perfect breed of pig from everything I was reading,” she says.
She bought 3 more kunekune pigs after seeking advice from the same kunekune breeder who sold Puddin’ to Adam. That is how Butters, a male, and females Maggie and Petunia came to join Puddin’ at Beaver Creek Farms more than a year ago. They make their home in the farm’s old horse barn. She and Adam are still adding farrowing stalls for when they do begin breeding.
The pigs and farm are registered through the International Kunekune Pig Society. There are also 7 kunekune farms in Alabama registered with the American Kunekune Pig Society, including farms in Arab, Dutton and Fort Payne.
Although the Beaver Creek name has endured, the farm’s logo now features a pig. Taryn McNeal hopes her days of chasing her father around the farm will help her in this new venture.
“Taking that step to push us into something else to get us back on our feet, I hope that he’s proud of me,” she says.