Preparing pork belly: Odd barn yard flavor This might be a very silly question, but I'm sort a pork newbie.

Anyway, I recently went to the butchers and bought a big slab of pork belly, to make crackling.

Immediately, I noticed it had a very "farm-y" smell. I rinsed the pork belly but the smell was still there, mostly in the skin. I prepared it by steam cooking it in the oven for about three or four hours. But the smell made it impossible to eat, as the barn yard stench permeated the entire pork belly. It was nothing like what I'm used to when eating pork belly in a restaurant for example.

My question then is: Did I screw something up in the preparation, or did I get a bad piece of meat or what happened?
Having raised hogs I can say that the actual feed can make a difference on the taste and  smell of the finished product.  Clean feed and a clean lot can make a difference.  There is also a difference in hogs fed on an open lot (grassy) v.s. a confinement.

Corn blend with soy protein - one flavor.  Alphalfa pellets, another flavor.   Open lot with wild onions or other strong products, another.   Wood lots (acorns etc) another.  It depends on what is desired, as these also will impact the texture and fat content percentage.