When my son was in high school, he raised a pig for his Ag class. He also showed it at the fairs and shows.
I had forgotten about it until now. He raised one, two years in a row and then sold them. We never butchered them for our own use. But now that we've decided to produce our own chickens, eggs and vegetables, maybe a little pork might be a good idea too. The folks that bought our pigs said they were excellent meat. It wasn't all that expensive to have them butchered and packaged I didn't think. Something like $ 125. to $ 140. at that time. It's been several years, so I'm sure it's more now.
Raising a pig was really pretty easy, even though we didn't know much about it at the time. His Ag teacher was very helpful.
Anyone else got any experience with this ?
Anyone raising a feeder pig ?
Hi there,
my parents raised pigs when I was a lass. They were really really smelly! Ugh! Just make sure that they are downwind!
My parents made a deal with the local supermarket and got boxes of cookies and produce that were past their peak freshness for cheap or free. That was one way they made it affordable.
Good luck!
It isn't really hard. If you can find a store that will give you their pitched produce, etc. or a local cafe' that will let you have the scraps they throw away(you may have to take the entire days trash and go thru it yourself)it will make it a lot cheaper. Pig feed isn't cheap but may be your only way to do it. If you use corn, try to do crimped, rolled, cracked, etc. or it may go right thru the pig unchanged. If you have some land where it can get grass that would be great. However unless you put rings in the nose it will soon ruin the land with rooting.
We now butcher our own pigs when we get one. We like to get them about 90#. The meat is so tender and sweet at that size and there is almost no fat. Just shoot it in the head, skin it out like a rabbit or deer, and cut it up the same way. A circular saw will make short work of bones or you can use a hand saw. At that size bones aren't that large or hard. You will bet about 40# of meat from a pig that size. Just thinking about it makes me think of getting one. If you have a local livestock sale barn and a way to get it home, small piglets with ruptures, injured legs, etc. go really cheap. Some farmers will even give them to you if approached nicely. At least they did that for us. We often got extra baby pigs the farmers knew the sows could not raise because the litter was too large. She only has so many teats and more piglets than that means someone just doesn't do well. Day old breads and baked goods may fill the pigs stomach but add nothing to the body nutritionally. Only ww bread will do that. I hope this helps you make the decision.
Peggy, I met a man who raised piglets over the summer, to sell in the Fall. He also raised a large garden and sold produce. He fed all weeds, and plants no longer producing to the penned pigs. He augmented as above, and they were very well fed, with lots of greens in their diet.
When I was a child, all "compost-type" green waste was fed to the pigs, with mash mixed in. Since we had cows, any milk past its prime went to them as well. Scraps of stale bread, etc., whatever was being thrown out. A "slop bucket" was kept in the shed just off the kitchen for dumping into, then Dad would carry it out to the pig pen to mix in the mash. They eat quite a diverse variety of food. And a nice mudhole is greatly appreciated in hot weather. They lay in it to cool off. Surprisingly enough, most of the mud falls off when they dry off. Hope this helps. BAM
Hi Peggy,
Well, we are in the pig business, so I'll try to answer your questions. First of all, let me tell you that if you are only going to have a few pigs, your table scraps will be sufficient if you let them graze on grass, as well. We have about 80 pigs and they do not smell. When they start smelling is when they are stuck in a barn and it is wet and never cleaned out. Ours forage a few acres and have some woods, which they love as they like to root for nuts.
We know someone that raised pigs solely on what he got from a bread store each week. The pigs had little nutrition, were very fatty and terribly unhealthy. All that bread and sweets are not good for the pig, a little here and there is okay. Greens, veggies, etc are good for them. Never feed a pig any type of pork leftovers. It makes them cannibalistic and they tend to eat their young. We also supplement ours with some feed and I'd have to ask DH what our formula is, but again a diet of just cracked corn is not good for them; they need other things.
We have wonderfully flavored lean pork and cannot keep up with the demand at the farmers' market.
We use no antibiotics or hormones on any of our animals. Our barn houses, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, and beef and they all get along tremendously. But then they are allowed to roam the farm, so to speak. The little piglets are known to hide under my swing or under a tree and jump and scare the fire out of me. Our goats are not penned up at all, neither are our chickens. We've recently built a poultry house for our turkeys, but only because the owls are killing them quickly. They don't bother our full-grown chickens.
We take our pigs to a USDA facility to be processed. The optimum weight for a pig to be slaughtered is around 225 to 300 lbs. They can trim the fat and probably the total cost for one is about $130 and that is having our bacon smoked, etc. We get a lot of prime cuts made and it is some of the best pork you could ever have. Our butcher was so impressed with our meat, that now he buys his pigs from us to sell at his store after processed.
Hope this helps and if you have any other questions, I'd be glad to answer them for you.
Have a great day,
Kathy
Thank you Kathy, sounds like you know all the ins and outs of raising pigs. Thank you for all the information on how to feed them. I know that when my son raised one, it was kept down at the Ag barn at school for some of the time. While it was kept there, it only got mostly grain / feed from the feed store. I believe it was probably a little more expensive to do it that way, not being able to suppliment his diet with the goodies from table scraps. However, the meat processor said the meat was excellent. So I'm sure that the diet and feed is important to meat quality.
I didn't know that they could be cannabalistic. Thanks for that tip.
What breed do you raise ? We had a duroc and a hamp. Our favorite was the duroc, as he was easiest to handle, more laid back.
Peggie,
That's so ironic, because one year we had 58 durocs and they were the most unruly pigs we've ever had. We said we'd never own another. We have hamp, york crosses but bred to a Tamworth (very old variety) that are long and lean and are known for wonderful bacon and tenderloins. They have a reddish tint to them as well and are good natured. Tamworth are close to a wild boar and we've had no problems with them.
If you have any questions, feel free to call on me anytime.
:) Kathy
This message was edited Aug 1, 2006 5:25 PM
That is ironic about the Durocs. Maybe we just got lucky and got a good one. It's a good thing, since it was our first experience. We were raised in the city and knew nothing................still don't feel like we know much.
Maybe with all the help and encouragement, we will get up enough nerve to try it again. It seemed well worth the effort. Only thing that concernes me now, is that our son is grown and no longer around to help. Not sure if I'm much match for a pig if it gets out of control.
If we get another one, I think we will probably go way overboard making a secure pen. LOL But that can't be a bad thing.
Reading all your posts makes me think I really want to do it again. Thanks for your helpful info.
I can't remember if we had them castrated while young. If we did, it was done by the breeder that sold them to us. Is that something that needs to be done to raise one for meat ?
If you get boar pigs, then you need to castrate them. That makes them a barrow. The meat is more tender and tastes better if you do. It is not crucial and don't fret if you don't, it's just better meat. My DH does his own....I want no part of it. They recently did 25 of our males. He can tell your DH how if he'd like to know.
The only time I've ever seen a very bad pig (except those dang Durocs) is if they aren't fed on a regular basis and if you have pregnant pigs or recently mommas. My DH can go near them, but everyone else is off limits. He's had a few chase him.
Also, loading them into the trailers is not always fun...I help with that!
Just love on them and pet them and scratch them behind their ears and they will know you well and love you and not harm you. Never let small children around them alone. And don't forget to have treats for them, i.e. apples, crackers, corn cobs, etc. Anything to endear them to you...ha, ha.
I love having the pigs and they don't smell unless you don't clean out their pens. I'm sure that if they could clean it out on their own, they would. :)
Actually, I remember that the pigs my son raised were almost like they were house trained.........to "their" own house that is. LOL. They stayed in small stalls at the Ag barn and would not soil their stall..........but would wait until the kids got out of class and came out to walk them. They would then relieve themselves while out and away from their stalls. Fresh straw bedding was kept in their stalls and the kids would get in there and lay down with their pets on the straw. Since the kids were graded on their care of the animals, those were some pampered pigs. It was a little different when we had to take them home and put them in a pen. Our little set-up wasn't nearly the luxury accomidations they had at the Ag barn. lol. But were adequate for the short time til they were gone.
Hi All,
I have an organic farm in Kentucky and I am looking for feeder pigs to clean up some johnson grass. Tamworth, Berkshire, or Hereford or crosses thereof would be perfect. I am looking for up to 20 pigs for this year. I can take them pretty much any time. If anyone has pigs or can give me info on someone who does, I would appreciate it very much. Thanks!