Farmer Spotlight: Craig Good of Good Farm in Olsburg, Kansas

We met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.

The Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”

Duroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.

Craig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.

Over the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.

Craig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.

Craig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”