Christian and Brittany Watts traded a downtown apartment for a Camden County, Mo., farm
MONTREAL, MO. – Christian and Brittany Watts are enjoying life on the farm, raising kids and pigs in rural Camden County, Mo.
“We’re originally from the Willard and Nixa area,” Christian explained while sitting at an outside picnic table, waiting for his children, 7-year-old Jason and 5-year-old Riley, to arrive home on the school bus. “We were in an apartment in downtown Springfield, and we knew we wanted to get into a farm setting.”
When the opportunity arose through a friend, they found themselves relocating to rent and work a farm outside Montreal, Mo. After six years, they are now in the process of buying the 20 acres where they raise hogs, while Christian also works as a road grader operator in neighboring Laclede County. Brittany has been a stay-at-home mother in recent years, which has been important since Riley was born with cystic fibrosis.
While they may have started with married life in more urban areas, agriculture is not new to Christian.
“My grandfather, Jim Watts, had a farm in Dade County when I was growing up and I always spent as much time there as I could,” he recalled.
When they first moved to Montreal, they began their farming operation with sheep, but they soon discovered sheep were not the right livestock for the Watts family.
“We were already raising a couple of pigs for our own meat, and we just found them to be a better fit; easier to maintain. And then with COVID, the price of pigs skyrocketed and we had folks who were wanting to raise their own, or wanted us to raise a pig for them. Since then, it’s been pretty much word of mouth and repeat customers, and we do have great customers.
“Pigs are easier to raise, too, in that you don’t need any big equipment.”
The Watts raise crossbreds, Yorkshires and Berkshires. Christian estimates they sell 80 to 100 piglets a year, although he says that number keeps going up each year.
“We also sell halves and wholes, mostly right here off the farm. We sell those at 6 months of age, 300 pounds,” he said. “We sell both the borrows and gilts, although I will keep back a gilt sometimes when we are switching out a boar. We’ve sold some at farmers markets but the trick is to be there every week, consistently and we haven’t been able to do that yet. We’re hoping to do more of that next year. We are getting into raising fat hogs, selling direct to a meat processor in Richland. Our name is finally getting out there so that helps.”
Being a family-ran operation, the Watts kids are active in the farm, and the family wants pigs that are not aggressive around the children.
“I don’t worry about my kids around them,” Brittany said. “We won’t keep a mean pig so they’ve not been a problem.”
“We like raising them real gentle and our kids really enjoy them, too,” Christian added. “Pigs and kids go well together as the kids really do love the pigs. We keep about 10 adult hogs and lots of piglets. It’s hard to keep track of exactly how many at any given time. The kids especially love it when it’s ‘pigging time’ and new piglets are being born. It’s good for them to learn about life and death as sometimes a new one is born dead or is crushed.”
Pigs at Watts Countryside Farm are raised outside, and offered free-choice feed.
“We do our best to raise the little ones outside rather than in pens, and we are hoping for better results that way,” Christian explained. “We feed an MFA soy/corn 18-percent mix for our growing hogs and of course, the garden scrap vegetables. For the momma sows, we use a soybean/alfalfa mix to help with their milk supply. Other than that, we use a dewormer and that’s about it.”
Christian added pigs have fewer health issues than sheep and goats.
“They are easier than sheep or goats in that they don’t have the same tendency toward parasite problems,” he said. “Of course, sheep and goats are grazers, eating grass so that makes them tend to have more parasite problems. Pigs are in the mud but basically, they stay pretty healthy so that again, makes them easier to maintain.”
Christian has big plans for the future of Watts Countryside Farm, but those plans might be too big for some in the family.
“Well, in a few years I’d like to see a big hog barn on the hill over there with 1,000 hogs, but….”
Brittany shook her head with a smile and a definitive “no.”
Christian looks to fellow producers when he needs advice needs on small farming options.
“I read a lot on Facebook as to what others are doing. There’s a homestead-type site on YouTube with a farm-to-table theme that has also been really helpful,” he said.
Moving from a downtown Springfield apartment to the farm has been good the family.
“We’re enjoying life out here, raising what people want, in terms of pigs and chickens. We butchered 100 meat chickens recently as well. Raising pigs and chickens and our kids, all on the farm, at the same time,” Christian said with a grin.
