ROMEO, the horny hog that escaped custody and fathered 60 offspring in one whirlwind day of porcine romance, is the driving force behind one of the success stories of Queensland primary industry.

Julia Powell and partner Shane Muller are riding the international wave of free-range grazing with their boutique piggery near Ingham in Queensland’s north – and they owe it all to Romeo.

Both began their working lives far removed from sows, boars, piglets and the mud their charges are so fond of wallowing in.

Julia worked in fashion design and hospitality in London, Shane was a chef, and the they headed north not to pursue a career in agriculture but to escape the city.

They settled on 10ha near Ingham with duck, geese, a vegetable patch and a few pigs while Shane went fishing off Hinchinbrook Island just a few kilometres away.

But Romeo the amorous boar had other plans. He escaped from his pen, seduced pretty much every female pig on the farm, then spent the night getting drunk on sugar cane stumps, grunting happily in his personal patch of mud.

media_camera Julia Powell and Shane Muller at their Backfatters piggery near Ingham. Picture: Mark Calleja

Less than four months later Julia and Shane watched on aghast as 60 piglets arrived in the world.

“So we figured, now we have a piggery,” said Julia, a one-time vegetarian who registered the piggery with the Department of Primary Industry and began selling bacon and ham at Townsville markets.

Word quickly spread about their brand “Backfatters” and its open-range, chemical-free, animal welfare philosophy in a state that does not formally recognise free-range piggeries.

Backfatter, the only piggery in the state using purebred Berkshire pigs – the Wagyu of the pork world – has been finalist three years running in the ABC’s Delicious Food Awards.

“We make our animals our priority. We take care of them from their birth to their death, which we ensure is pain free and without trauma,” Shane said.

Now in partnership with Christine Della Vale, a grazier from the Whitsundays who runs Beefalo and who shares the couple’s ethical philosophy on animal production, Backfatters and Beefalo products are appearing in retail stores across the state including Flannery’s in North Lakes and Chermside, and Sourced in ­Teneriffe.

The couple, encouraged by the backing their venture has received from north Queenslanders embracing the slow food movement, are planning a village based on their philosophy. It is centred around their farm in Braemeadows.

Products of Backfatters and Beefalo will be on show at Regional Flavours at South Bank in Brisbane this weekend.

Originally published as Horny hog’s big day out