Pig talk

[OldMcDonald]

So we've been talking about getting a cow or a few pigs for a while and finally picked up two pigs. We have about 2 acres fenced that the goats haven't been able to escape from so I figured pigs should be okay until they get big enough that they can damage the fence by leaning on it. So got the little bacon seeds and turned them loose.

Question is about feed and any additional care.

So food, we fed them a minimal amount when we brought them home but other than that they have been going crazy tearing up all the vegetation in the back yard, which is a good thing, and eating guinea fowl eggs they find or the children collect for them. Do they "need" more food if they are foraging all day? Figured toward the end I'd add a lot more grain/corn/etc to finish them off but if they'll eat for free I'm all about that.

They seem pretty low maintenance right now which has me nervous because I've never had an animal auto pilot all the way to the table without some sort of major infrastructure issue

Well,being a foreigner I expect some flack from this - but why the **** did you buy pigs when you have no idea what they need to grow, thrive and eventually be fit to eat?

You have had some nice gentle "guidance" from a few posters, but I particularly like the one from Ear Plug. There is a very old adage that you can make milk from grass but you cannot make bacon fom grass. Pigs, as already pointed out, are monogastric, just the same as us humans. They need hard feed (cereals) if they are ever going to make much.

 

[Bird]

Wow! Brings back a lot of memories. When I was in FFA, I raised a project pig, a Berkshire to be exact, and fed him corn chops (that's what we called cracked corn back then), supplement pellets and table scraps.

Yep, lots of fond memories. I was never in the FFA, but was a member of the 4-H Club. And I raised registered Berkshires myself. Several years ago, one of my daughters found and framed 16 ribbons I won (8 of them for first place), with a picture of me and the first hog I showed. He weighed in at exactly 300 pounds. He took the blue ribbon for the county and the blue ribbon for seven counties. I guess I was 9 years old at the time. I still remember that Sam P. Hale (Ford dealer in Ardmore, OK) was the high bidder for that hog; 51 cents a pound. With that $153, I bought a good registered Berkshire sow for $50 and went into the hog raising business.

I bought a hundred loaves at a time of "day old" bread from the local bakery for 3 cents a loaf, and for awhile my granddad brought me 55 gallon barrels of buttermilk from the local creamery (I don't remember what that cost). Of course I fed some corn, and then there was a "mash" (the name of which I can't remember) that you mixed with water for "slop".

 

[sea2summit]

Basically you are letting them be feral. The is a big difference in a feral pig and one raised for the table. They need to be fed properly

Raising Pigs for Meat - Sustainable Farming - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

How to Raise a Pig for Meat - Countryside

Feral on two fenced acres? Seriously?

 

[sea2summit]

Well,being a foreigner I expect some flack from this - but why the **** did you buy pigs when you have no idea what they need to grow, thrive and eventually be fit to eat?

You have had some nice gentle "guidance" from a few posters, but I particularly like the one from Ear Plug. There is a very old adage that you can make milk from grass but you cannot make bacon fom grass. Pigs, as already pointed out, are monogastric, just the same as us humans. They need hard feed (cereals) if they are ever going to make much.

Not at all, I was surprised at how well they are foraging and just wondering how well they'd grown on their own.

Guess I expected more damage vs consumption.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

He doesn't tear it all up, but what he does root up is substatial. He tends to do areas about 50x50 and will leave holes or pits up to 2 feet deep. Then he finds another area to destroy. His favorite game is breaking up concrete. He digs down around the edges and keeps at it until he breaks it apart or pulls it out of the ground

My Dad told me that hogs were often used in his day to get rid of Johnson grass. Fence them in with it and they will root it out and eat all of the roots, eventually killing it all out.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

You're probably talking about trichinosis, generally acquired by eating dead rats, which carry the Trichina worm. Not likely in this day and age, but possible. I have seen an old sow chow down an a big, 7 or 8 pound Carp that I caught; no one wanted it, so we "fed it to the hogs". She loved it!

 

[Clint S]

Grandpa would bring home two day old doughnuts and we would feed them those (after us kids picked out the choice ones). We feed ours a bit of everything. From grass clippings, weeds from the garden to fish guts left over after cleaning up some crappie. Every leftover from the house including banana peels and apple cores. We also give them cracked corn and feed too. We keep ours penned, a good pig is either eating, sleeping or on the table. If not satisfied they will dig under fences. Just keep them well fed.

 

[junkjunkie]

We've raised hogs for several years, allowing them to forage and root as much as they please, and we have yet to end up with one that tastes "gamey". Our hogs are in large pens (pasture and woods). Pigs are, by nature, omnivorous -- they can (and should) eat meat, eggs, veggies, grass, dairy, etc. They are very efficient composters. The only thing we don't feed them is, well, pork (though I'm sure if they tasted bacon they'd understand). Our breeders get rations of feed, and all the hay they want. The feeders get free choice feed and hay in addition to foraging and treats. They get lots of day-old bread, yogurt, etc. We don't get dry, white meat but rather a rose colored well textured meat with lots of juicy flavor.

There's a couple of things that make your life a lot easier:
-Invest in a hot-wire, and maintain it well. If they decide they want out of a net-fence, they're unstoppable. They quickly learn to respect electric boundaries (as have I!). I run my wires at 6 and 12 inches off the ground. If it hits them in front of the eyes they'll turn away from it, behind the eyes they'll run through it.
-Raising them on too much high protein feed will get their weight up faster, but the meat will be less flavorful and less marbled, and their habitat will tend to smell worse due to the massive amounts of undigested protein, which also encourages more bugs. Kudzu, brambles, blackberry canes, briars, hardwood tree trimmings... they love 'em. They'll eat earthworms like spaghetti noodles, and love to eat snakes. Rooting is where they get their minerals and find little goodies like termite nests and tree roots. They're very good rooto-tillers, mulchers, composters, and excellent at clearing underbrush.
-They are tremendously curious and playful; often when they get destructive or try to escape, it's their exploring instinct. throw a large hard plastic ball or a 55 gallon plastic drum in there and they'll entertain themselves. A heavy piece of knotted manila rope will incite a tug of war and a chase.
-Lots of fresh water and give them a place to wallow. Mud helps them shed dead skin, keeps the lice off them, and protects them from sunburn. Ours enjoy a "piggy-bath" playing in the hose spray when we have to fill their wallows up during the dry season.
-We always move them into the stock trailer or a clean separate pen with fresh hay and water for their last few days. It allows them to "clean out" a bit, and makes my job easier, and they are chilled out an relaxed. No stress on the animal and a lot less stress on me.
-Treat them with respect and always keep an eye on them. As fun and friendly as they are, even a small pig can hurt you (even a piglet bite on the back of the leg is painful). Our 600lb boar is a teddy bear, but he's still a 600lb boar.
-When their day comes, have a plan to get them rounded up. Practice moving them around often so they (and you) get used to it. If you're taking them to a processor, make sure you've got it arranged (sounds stupid, but I've seen folks turned away because they didn't call ahead. Sometimes processors are booked out for weeks.) you'd hate to take them on a round trip and stress them and you out for no reason.

Enjoy raising and feeding them, and they'll return you the favor!

-Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

Enjoy reading all the tips... keep em coming.

 

[oosik]

Have a distant cousin that raises "weiner pigs" commercially. He keeps them in a covered pole barn and feeds them 2X daily - I think. We were there ages ago and he had 800. He has some type of pto driven implement that mixes/blends/dispenses feed. It dispenses the feed, as he pulled it along with his tractor, into four very long feed troughs. He turns them loose to feed and its like all h+ll broke loose. The pigs range out into his "yards" for exercise. All his yards have concrete floors - so the pigs never see dirt.

I was casually walking across one of the yards when the pigs were turned loose to feed. I think that was the fastest I've ever moved in my life. All those pigs coming at me as one moving mass. I cleared the fence with no trouble at all. He thought it was funny - I though I was dam lucky - being able to jump that high.

His house was about a mile from this operation and when the wind blew the right way - it made the fillings in my teeth "sweat". He lives in a small town near Omaha and with the heat, humidity & pig operation - it became a very memorable visit.