Any hog farmers on here?

[shannerdrake]

A Sawzall with a long blade works well. I have one I use only for butchering.View attachment 318136

Chicago Electric for the win!!!!

 

[MtsPSU]

find a old bowling ball for them to push around keeps em busy

Yep, I use an old basketball for my pigs in their pen. I use electric tape fencing with fiberglass posts to section off part of my pasture for our KuneKune pigs. They root a little and mainly eat pasture grass supplemented by pig feed from my local mill. The fence is only 8-10” off the ground and they respect it. KuneKune take a little longer to feed out and are smaller but mighty fine eating. They are outside year round so I have two hog huts that I bed it with straw for the winter.

Good luck!

 

[shannerdrake]

This might become my favorite thread of the year.

I raised 1-7 hogs a year for 12 years. Still remain my favorite animal after dogs.

The bowling ball trick really works.

I gleaned a lot of corn in the fall (walking around with a bucket/bag picking up big chunks missed by the picker). We’d have it ground whole cob and all. I also made friends at a garden center and melon farms and would take the damaged produce off their hands. Few things more enjoyable than watching hogs lose their minds over a load of cantaloupes.

Butchered a few. 22 between the eyes. Slit throat. Hung by back legs for a bleed out. Scrub carcass with a stiff brush and dishsoap. Rinse like crazy. Then skinned.

 

[ismith]

My BIL brought up the idea of raising a couple hogs as a way to fill a freezer. We have zero experience raising livestock but with both of us being retired, what else do we have to do.

We (I) have identified the breed of hog that we want to raise and have talked to a breeder about getting a couple gilts in May with a planned butcher date of December. We have an area set aside to raise them and have purchased hog panels and will be building a shelter for them next week. Bedding will be woodchips I get from a local tree guy and straw. Feed and water equipment will be borrowed from a kid who used to do FFA hogs (he told me we could have it but I don't want to store it so I told him I would bring it back). Will be buying a small kid pool to create a wallow for them.

My wife wants a soy free diet for the hogs and so I have researched the hell out of swine diets and think I have that figured out. Field peas will be the major source of proteins for their diet along with about 5 other grains to round out the nutrition. Grains will be supplemented with vegetables from the garden.

So I have a plan to house and feed and water them them and keep them comfortable. We will be doing our own butchering. Am I missing anything? Other than the horror stories of escaping pigs. I don't know what I don't know so any input is welcome

Read “Unintended Consequences” for more fun pig raising tips.

 

[Dewy]

We bred IPP’s for a few years before switching over to feeders only this year. In the first pic is this years trio, hard at it. They are a Red Wattle / Mulefoot cross and should be ready for the freezer around late August. I’ll keep two and sell the third to someone to offset some of the feed cost.
They are kept on grass and rotated into a new paddock each week. We use two sections of 100’ electric netting for this and never had any break outs. They respect the fence. This allows them to go after walnuts, acorns, grass, grubs etc.
Homemade feeder in the background and it holds 300#’s of feed that they get any time they want.

 

[JEL]

My son feeds out a dozen or so every year and then sells them locally. He buys weaners from the local Hutterite colony. Feeds ground barley, peas and lentils with an added supplement. They are on a self feeder. They also get garden scraps. Water is a barrel with a nipple and float. Son also uses electric fence.

Make sure you have good shade as they sunburn. My son rigged up a pipe so his pigs can get a cool off shower once a day. It also creates a bit of mud for them to lay in.

Overall pigs are easy and home grown ones taste so damned good.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I remember my dad and uncle butchering a pig once. Like shannerdrake said .22 between the eyes. I also remember them collecting much of the blood as they could while it was freshly hung so they could make Morcia (aka blood sausage).

 

[mevertsen]

My wife is concerned about studies that show Soy isoflavones can bind to estrogen receptors in the body and cause either weak estrogenic or anti-estrogenic activity.

Didn't you say your retired?

Estrogen shouldn't be a concern.

Fed them pig feed, corn, hay and garden scraps. They'll be fine.

 

[mevertsen]

New piglets a week old

 

[Cammy]

Didn't you say your retired?

Estrogen shouldn't be a concern.

Fed them pig feed, corn, hay and garden scraps. They'll be fine.

We are retired however, refer to my post about "once she gets it in her head...". Again, I don't argue and just roll with it.

 

[Cammy]

I see several posts related to electric fence. Several videos also recommend electric fence. Do you use electric fence alone or do you run a hot wire inside hog panels to keep them from pushing against the panels?

As far a nutrition goes, do you soak your feed? If offering a mix of dry feed in a feeder for free feeding, do you give "wet feed" twice a day? Knowing pigs won't over eat, I would hate to waste feed.

We unfortunately lack shade in the area we will be raising the pigs and being in Northern CA, it does get HOT mid-summer. Looking at shade cloth to cover an area for them. Using a water drum and nibbler for water, should I consider another option to keep their water source cool? I do have the ability to run direct from a spigot the 4 or 5 ft to the intended pen area which would provide cool water.

Keep coming with the suggestions as they have provided a lot of information.

 

[Nick87]

I see several posts related to electric fence. Several videos also recommend electric fence. Do you use electric fence alone or do you run a hot wire inside hog panels to keep them from pushing against the panels?

As far a nutrition goes, do you soak your feed? If offering a mix of dry feed in a feeder for free feeding, do you give "wet feed" twice a day? Knowing pigs won't over eat, I would hate to waste feed.

We unfortunately lack shade in the area we will be raising the pigs and being in Northern CA, it does get HOT mid-summer. Looking at shade cloth to cover an area for them. Using a water drum and nibbler for water, should I consider another option to keep their water source cool? I do have the ability to run direct from a spigot the 4 or 5 ft to the intended pen area which would provide cool water.

Keep coming with the suggestions as they have provided a lot of information.

A hot wire about 8 to 12 inches off the ground. You don't need to wet the feed. Keep feed in front of them. The water doesn't have to be cool. Even with that short 4 or 5 ft run that water in that hose is gonna be scorching hot in the summer if you had 40 pigs drinking on it it'd be a different story but with a couple it's gonna get hot. I'd lean towards the barrel. Either way they'll still drink.

 

[kwyeewyk]

With 6 hog panels and 2 young animals you can probably get away without electric fence if you put a post at each panel junction and 2 posts on each panel between the junctions, two hose clamps per post. As long as they have what they need they probably won't pressure the fence too much. If you do electric run on inside of the panels.

If you have time you can soak feed, not sure it will save much feed overall. Old milk works well for soaking if available.

Shade and mud is what they want when it's hot. Keep your water barrel in the shade and refill in the heat of the day if possible. Cool mud is the key though.

 

[Nick87]

Don't overthink all this half those youtube videos are laughable like anything else. it's about as easy as it gets. Give them shade, water, and feed. Don't cheap out on the fencer. Since they're on dirt give them a de wormer. You can buy a powdered one that you can mix in the feed, that'll be easiest way.

 

[Gr8bawana]

We are retired however, refer to my post about "once she gets it in her head...". Again, I don't argue and just roll with it.

Will your wife be able to actually eat this pig after raising it? Seems like she's already overly concerned about its well-being.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Will your wife be able to actually eat this pig after raising it? Seems like she's already overly concerned about its well-being.

There's an entire market of people who don't want soy/corn fed pork, which is all you can get from a normal supermarket. Peas and grain make really nice pork, firm meat and fat.

 

[Gr8bawana]

There's an entire market of people who don't want soy/corn fed pork, which is all you can get from a normal supermarket. Peas and grain make really nice pork, firm meat and fat.

I meant she might become attached to it like a pet

 

[kwyeewyk]

I meant she might become attached to it like a pet

Sure, it happens, not sure how her wanting a non soy diet for the pig would contribute though? Don't think it's the pig's long term health she's concerned with.

 

[Cammy]

I have already told her that she is not allowed to name the pigs or spend too much time with them. She understands that they are only here for a short time and that we will enjoy them even after they are gone.

 

[Undomesticated]

Pigs are very easy (and cheap to raise). I stopped raising them after realizing the "smarter than a dog" cliche was true. It's hard to eat something that excitedly greets you at the gate every day when you get home from work.

You mention being retired. With a little extra work, you could pry raise them with 0 feed costs. (Spent grain is readily available from local breweries. Combined with scraps from restaurants and grocery stores, you are set). If you have an orchard nearby, you can get waste fruit for free. After Halloween, there are thousands of pumpkins available (which pigs fatten very nicely on, and lends a delicious flavor to the fat). I used to just take scraps home from the fire station.