Despite stench and hurdles, pig farmers enjoy sweet smell of success

The midday sun was scorching. Stacey-Ann Samuels had just taken a break from her online teaching duties. Along with her relatives Coleen McLeod and Diana Daley-Downer, Samuels was on her way to check on her pigs.

Barefooted, the women walked through the low but gently flowing water in the Sandy Gully to a section of the St Andrew community where their pig pens are located. McLeod even effortlessly gave THE STAR photographer a piggy back, saving him the trouble of having his milk can-sized frame being washed away.

Samuels, 34, McLeod, 45, and Daley-Downer, 31, have 104 pigs combined.

Samuels, who has 41 animals, said at first she was not enthused about pig-rearing and often turned up her nose when her husband came home with his clothing smelling like the pig pens.

"Sometimes when him used to come in with the clothes dem, I used to tell him to go outside. Everytime I used to cuss him about the scent. In late 2019, when there were talks about the pandemic and the devastation it may come with, we said it's best for us to invest in something before it reach Jamaica - just in case it stops us from working, (so) we would have something to back us up," Samuels said.

McLeod said she initially did not want to become a pig farmer either but accepted two pigs that her brother gave her in 2014. She said her drove of pigs grew steadily, but a flare-up of violence within the area caused her to shut down operations. She restarted in 2019. The women said the animals are not easy to care for.

"We go out as early as 6 a.m. because we have other jobs to tend to. We wash out the pen and feed dem, and just check to make sure they are all doing okay. We go through the dirty water, and trust mi, it is dangerous because there are times when lots of water is in the gully when the rain fall, and you just don't know when it a guh come down. You have to be vigilant, but we do it because we want to achieve something," Samuels said.

McLeod said that while pig-rearing is sometimes viewed as a dirty job, they are unbothered because the rewards are sweet.

"Whenever it is time for us to reap, we see our money's worth. Some people will turn up their nose at us and say dem couldn't manage the smell. People tell we say a man work, especially when dem see us in our waterboots, and so on. Some people motivate us and some don't. Some people are really negative and ask us how we smell suh, but mi always tell dem, that's the smell of money and nothing else," McLeod said.

Daley-Downer currently has 37 pigs. She has been rearing pigs for over a decade and has delivered hundreds of piglets.

"I am not afraid to deliver the piglets. I will literally go out and take out the pigs and cut the navel string. I am not afraid to get my hands dirty," she said between laughter.

She said she has weathered every storm, including crossing the gully to tend to her pigs even as gunmen trade bullets.

"I can't go out and beg a anyone a dollar. I just look out of my eye and do my thing. Mi remember one a the time mi and mi daughter over by the pen and the gunshot dem start and we just have to lay down in the pig pen on our bellies and wait until the police come before we could move," she said.