Susanna Freymark
Harry Hogan is almost three. He spends his day helping his father scrape food from the back of the ute to feed the 75 pigs at their New Italy farm.
Or he toddles along beside his mother to check on the 15 goats. The ducks and guineafowl follow.
Dave Hogan and Sam Newcombe moved to their farm five years ago.
Dave was a concreter and Sam an exercise physiologist working on the Gold Coast.
Do they miss their former life? Not a chance.
“We were over the hustle and bustle of the Gold Coast,” Dave said.
“It’s been a good move.”
Despite knowing nothing about pigs, Sam and Dave initially got a few pigs to eat waste.
Now with 75 black pigs, Dave and Sam spend much of the day collecting food scraps from a local mushroom farm.
“They’re like dogs,” Dave says as he scratches Joe Hollywood behind the ears.
Joe is the standout pig – the movie star. An animal trainer is teaching Joe to run through a vegie patch on command for when he stars in a film.
Not that Joe has any inkling of his impending stardom. His snout is deep in the mushrooms and oranges Dave has unloaded in the paddock.
Hogan Farm supplies local bacon and there is never enough to meet demand, Dave said.
“We love our own meat. We won’t eat bacon from anywhere else,” he said.
And why would they when they have their own supply?
“We buy our beef from a Casino farmer,” Dave said.
There is a cottage for farm stays and a vegetable garden and fruit trees.
It gives visitors the chance to see the sustainability approach the Hogans take to farm life.
This pig change from the city life suits the Hogans.
Life is simpler – and Sam, Dave and Harry are loving it.
Follow Hogan Farm on Instagram to find out when their free range pork is available or go to their website for more information about staying at Hogan Farm.
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