Raising hogs

[Riggs]

Been thinking about buying a couple of piglets and raising them for the freezer. I've owned cows, goats, chickens, horses....ect. but never hogs
Anybody got any insight for me? How big of a mess will they make of my fields, compatible with other animals....Pretty much looking for anything you can tell me. I don't know much about 'em and the internet can be a little misleading.

[chain]

In FFA our project one year was feeding out a weaned litter of piglets. Of course, the feeding rations were by the book, we had a grinder and cracked corn and seems there was cottonseed cake, and wheat in the mix. We won a blue ribbon at the regional fair with weights of the litter.

Had a farmer friend who fed his penned hogs rough-fish [carp, buffalo, grinnel] he used a commerical trammel net and fished it in a in a river chute by his field. Cheap.

Would hate to know what would cost to feed out pigs if you had to buy feed today...wow!

p.s. We did sow a pasture down in a cover crop, sorry but can't remember the variety, this had a root similar to sweet potatoes, the old hogs loved it but soon the pasture was completely unearthed. White oak acorns very good for hog feed, but cautions from rooting and tramping good timberland.

[gspren]

  I used to get 8-10 pigs each spring and sell/butcher/eat in the fall. As for tearing up the fields it will depend on how much room they have. The big commercial hog farms need to get the weight where they want it in a specified amount of time so they use only comercial feed, while if you only do a few in one batch a few weeks extra to get the weight up doesn't matter. I used an old gravity fed feeder that always had feed in it but I also threw food scraps and lawn sweepings in when available. One year a friend got several hundred pounds of out of date dog food that was also fed to the pigs, anything free. If I had a neighbor that I trusted to look after them while I was away I'd start back up with the pigs, it was fun.

[Riggs]

Thanks,
I'm thinking one or two at the most. The field I'm considering putting them in is about 4-5 acres fenced with electric and woven. The cost of feed is what scares me.

[Al_Smith]

Well it's the nature of a hog to root no matter what you do with them .Back in the day I've seen hogs with so many rings in their snout they looked like a punk rocker .

With about a half a pound of metal in their snouts it didn't stop them only might have slowed them down a tad .Half a dozen hogs could turn a few acres into looking like the diggings of the Panama canal before they are ready for market .You won't have any snakes though ,the pigs will eat them all .

One of the funniest things I ver saw was two 40 pounds pigs wrestling over one 4 foot black snake like two little birds fighting over a worm .I think the snake got stretched  out to about 6 feet long before it became two snakes .One per pig .Yum yum !

[red oaks lumber]

4-5 acres should be ample space with limited digging. each hog will eat about 1000 lbs. from feeder size to butcher. for best taste, feed them a complete hog ration, also giving them food(green) scrapes is ok..

[Norm]

One by itself will not gain as much as they tend to compete with each other. If feed well they really don't root that much. They are an excellent garbage disposal and will eat most table scraps. If it was me I'd get them in the fall after it cools down a little and fatten them up through the winter. If possible get them from someone who raises them outside in huts. Confinement pigs tend to have more health problems and are dumber too.

That all said pigs are really intelligent and clean. I've had a couple that were more pets than livestock but the problem is they don't know their own strength so be careful with the youngsters around them after they get bigger.

[Mooseherder]

There is a lot of produce and bread thrown away everyday at the grocery store.
Ask the grocer or produce manager if you can place a plastic barrel by their back door for daily pickup.  If they let you, put a fresh barrel out while picking up.  The blue plastic barrels work good.  There may or may not be people doing it already put I'm sure you could find someone who is willing to decrease their waste pickup bill.  If they let you do this, keep your barrels clean and pickup daily otherwise they'll not want to bother with it.  Produce fed animals are tasty.

[Chuck White]

Around here, we've found that if you have to buy all of the feed for a pig, that it's cheaper to wait until fall and buy a butcher hog all ready for the freezer.

[davidlarson]

John Seymour, the guru or grandfather of the back-to-the-land movement, and the author of several books about it, said he would cut down the trees in an area he wanted to make into a pasture or garden site, then electric fence it and put a few hogs in the area.  They would clear up the weeds and brush, and the small saplings, do the initial plowing, and if they were encouraged with corn, would start the process of digging up the stumps, all the while fertilizing the area with their manure.  They of course also have to be given some sort of feed as well, but less than if they were living in a lot.   I've not tried this myself, but have raised pigs, and the idea seems to me to be a good one.
David L.

[Ironwood]

Good thread thanks for starting it, I too am intersted in HOGS!
Dont know much except the ammonia smell in my buddies P/U, as I worked on their farm, and he had just started in with hogs as I left for the Army. Been a few (28ish) years  ;D

Ironwood

[sandhills]

We used to have a small farrow to finish operation, old equipment, old barn and way to many hogs, I've never missed them one day since we got out.  The last one we had was an old boar that for some odd reason stayed around a long time after the rest were gone and a neighbor hauled him off while taking some old sows to market, he weighed 920 some pounds  , he was big.  Anymore if I need pork I just buy a finished hog or something with a belly rupture and butcher it.

[Cypressstump]

, and if they were encouraged with corn, would start the process of digging up the stumps,

Looks like i need a couple hogs, few hundred pounds of corn and some good rope, tie em' up to a oak stump I've been trying to burn out..Slowly.....  ;)

A friends Dad used to get scraps from a local school, his hogs were feed well. My taxes helped fatten them up right nicely.  :

[WH_Conley]

Every 2-3 days take a spud bar and some shelled corn to those stumps. Jab a few holes around and under the stump. Drop in a little corn. You will be surprised how soon the stumps are ready to come out.

[Ironwood]

What kind of fencing? I assume pretty strong....?

Ironwood

[red oaks lumber]

i use 2 strands of electric fence, once their are trained they won't even go close to it.

[homesteader shane]

everything we eat we grow or raise at home

every year we get four to six piglets and raise them up and kill them ourselves. My wife and I have four this year and they are growing really well. I built them a 20X 12 outside pen out of 4X4's and chain link fence and they have access to the inside pen @ 6X12 and we have done pigs like this for about ten yeas now and no problems. They will start out on a 50Lb bag of grain every 2 weeks and work up to about 2 bags every week when they finish out in November and go in the freezer. We also have a milk cow, 5 beef cows and 30 chickens. My wonderful wife also makes cheese, yogurt and butter.
Good luck remember pigs are smarter then they look
if you would like me to take pics of the pen let me know

[Slabs]

I was a slaughterhouse tycoon for a few years.  [The Barbour Quick FReeze Company - Clayton, Alabama  The family business beginning in 1949]  Primarily custom slaughter for the local farmers.  My advice (and it's worth just what it costs you) is buy your pork at the market.

If you're not a hog farmer, the preparation is not worth it.  A hog tastes like what it eats.  If it's not corn,  you ain't gonna like the taste.  Cooked kitchen garbage is a dubious substitute but it's still garbage.  Kitchen slop is even worse.  Hogs fattened on waste peanuts(left in the field) taste OK but the fat content is phenominal and the meat is difficult to process.

Community hog killing is hard work but fun if everybody pitches in.  EVERYBODY never does.  You need 8 to 10 hogs to make it worthwhile and several COLD days to complete the process.  At least you're out from under government inspection.  I think.


Good luck

[Claybraker]

My nephew has a micro-brewery, the used grains from that used to be a disposal problem. A local hog farmer comes by and hauls the stuff off now.

When I was much younger, I remember my grandfather raising free range hogs. He'd castrate the males, notch their ears, and turn 'em loose. He'd throw out enough cracked corn to keep them coming around, but mostly they had to fend for themselves. About a month before butchering, he would pen them up and fatten them a little.

[saltydog]

We raise some every year.Ours are usually fed the leftover buffet from a local greasy spoon.3 to 5 5 gallon pails a day .They do well and taste great.you also know what your eating.Hogs will stay in any fence their raised in if fed and watered well.Just dont let them root out butcher in fall.My current fence is 5 years old its made out of pallets screwed together just overlaped no escapes yet.it wouldnt hold older larger hogs .ours get put in freezer every fall.they go around 250 to 300 by fall.on corn 170 to 200.you wont like the taste of store bought meat anymore.

[WildDog]

if you would like me to take pics of the pen let me know

Shane i'd be interested in pics thanks, we have been tossing around the idea of breeding/raising some pigs, will probably wait untill we build a better butchers shed and maybe a smoker.

[Ironwood]

Great help guys, Thanks Ironwood

[Riggs]

Some great info, keep it coming.

[Norm]

Hogs are very sensitive to electricity and will not challenge a hot wire. Takes just a couple of times putting their nose on it they won't do it again.

Buy your meat from the market and you get the same flavorless other white meat.

[WDH]

Not only will they not challenge an electric fence after they have learned it, if you take it down, they don't forget that it was there, and they are still leery of crossing that spot.  Sometimes you cannot get them to go across that spot, even with motivation.