what i need to kmow to raise pigs

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Learning how to heighten pigs for meat is a neat option for any homestead or farm wanting to become more cocky-sustainable. But choosing the breed and tailoring the care takes a bit of know-how. Read on for 12 tips for raising pigs for meat.

This post was originally written and published in 2015 by Amy from Autumn Creek Ranch and has since been updated to include my interview with "Pork" Rhyne Cureton for fifty-fifty more data. Savour!

In previous podcasts I've discussed how I raised American Guinea Hogs and why we chose that specific breed. And in another podcast I discussed whether or not we thought the Guinea Hogs were worth it to enhance for meat, including whether or not we'll raise them again.

Today's podcast guest (Pioneering Today Podcast episode #331) is "Pork" Rhyne and I was fortunate enough to take met him at the Homesteader's of America Conference. I couldn't look to get him on the podcast to discuss all things pigs!

"Pork" Rhyne works as an international agricultural educator and niche-meat marketing expert. He's dedicated his life to training and educating experienced and beginning farmers on business organisation and marketing. (Read to the bottom of this postal service on where y'all tin find Pork online!)

If you're not at a bespeak where you're set to raise your own meat, namely pork since that's the topic of the twenty-four hours, I want to recommend Butcher Box.

Butcher Box happens to be a sponsor of the Pioneering Today Podcast and they take a special going on now through Jan 20th, 2022 called the New year's day'south Bundle. In this bundle, for starting time-time subscribers only, you will go 7 lbs of meat for Free in your first box! Go to butcherbox.com/pioneeringtoday to sign upwards!

Why I Love Raising Pigs

I really think pigs are one of the easiest animals to raise on a homestead. They mature quite a scrap faster than a beef cow and render manner more meat (and lard) than a chicken or rabbit (and frankly pulled pork, fresh bacon, lard rendered at domicile, and table salt-cured hams are only astonishing!!!).

Other Animals to Heighten

Before jumping into raising pigs, for more information on raising your own meat, exist sure to check out this post on planning your livestock and raising enough meat for a twelvemonth'southward worth of nutrient. As well equally the following for other animal-specific posts:

R aising backyard egg-laying chickens
Raising lawn meat birds
How to enhance a dairy moo-cow
Raising meat rabbits
Raising sheep (for cobweb)
A guide for raising goats

12 Tips for Raising Pigs

Then maybe yous accept idea almost raising a pig (or two) and don't know where to offset? Here are some tips and pointers I hope will help you lot on your way to raising your own succulent pork.

Purchase Piglets

For someone interested in just raising a few pigs a year for meat it's easier to buy piglets than raise your ain breeding stock.

Piglets vary in toll due to location, time of year (they are more expensive in Spring when kids in 4-H are trying to find them), and by brood.

At the original time of the writing of this mail service (2015) piglets were being sold for about $125/each only they could be found as low as $75 depending on market demand. (Prices are likely higher now.)

Historic period Matters

The industry standard for selling baby pigs is 6 weeks of age. However, we sell our piglets at 8 weeks of age because we find that piglets allowed to remain with the sow those two extra weeks have stronger immune systems and practice not need to be fed starter feed.

Of course, that means nosotros take to feed the sow extra to keep up her condition but we think healthier piglets are worth information technology.

If y'all can find piglets that have been allowed to nurse a chip longer it's worth the actress toll as it volition save you lot in both your feed bill likewise as potential health concerns for the piglet.

Space Considerations

Before you bring dwelling piglets y'all need to take a pen and some sort of shelter for them. I will talk more about fencing in a minute but there are some considerations to accept into business relationship when planning your pen.

If the pen is small, the piglets volition grow faster because they will non have as much room to practice and the basis tin can get really destroyed.

Besides, in a smaller area, parasites accept more of a chance to abound. Finally, a small pen in the Spring when the atmospheric condition is wet can issue in a not bad big mud pit.

Even so, equally Pork Rhyne discusses in the podcast interview, this doesn't mean you must have space to free-range or pasture your pigs. Raising your own pigs is a huge footstep upward from ownership commercially-raised pork products, even if yous don't have the platonic living conditions for those pigs.

We prefer to employ rotating areas in the warmer months and really large areas closer to the house in the colder months (we actually put pigs on our garden areas during the wintertime and so they can till them up and fertilize them in preparation for Spring planting).

A baby pig sticking its snout through a fence.

Fencing

When piglets are young, information technology'south ameliorate for them to exist in a cattle panel, hog panel, or pallet pen.

Electrical netting, string, or wire don't work well with small piglets because they tin go out (spoken from lots of experience and a piglet that took off for two weeks in the surrounding woods of our property).

Nosotros keep piglets in a small cattle panel pen with electric wire on the bottom until they are about 12-fifteen weeks one-time and then we transfer them into pens made with electric cord or wire until they reach butchering weight.

Usually, by 12-15 weeks they are trained to the electric and are large enough not to mess with going through it. It's good to have an leave way or gate that is not electric, however. Pigs tin be so well trained to electric fencing that when we want to move them they will not become near a place that there USED to be electrical fencing.

Feeding Pigs

In that location are lots of possible ways to feed your grunter. The easiest is to buy a commercial squealer grower. Pigs abound fastest on this type of ration. Unfortunately, well-nigh commercial hog grower formulas comprise corn and soy which is likely GMO.

A lot of commercial feeds also incorporate medications which may nor may not be needed for your particular creature.

Since we don't like giving medication unnecessarily to our animals, some other option is to make your ain feed from a grain and protein source or find a natural pre-fabricated feed in your area.

Here'southward what Pork Rhyne has to say about feeding pigs… At that place'southward so much controversy on what to feed your pigs, everything from going to your local bakery and feeding pigs day quondam breadstuff, to just buying the all-time, organic, non-GMO feed.

In that location are and so many people who are just starting to enhance pigs who don't really know what a healthy squealer looks like. And then he recommends spending time with someone else who raises pigs to learn and become acclimated to how much pigs should consume, how their appetites vary based on the seasons, and what a healthy pig looks like.

Nosotros homesteaders dearest the culling route, anytime we can DIY or take an alternative manner of doing something, nosotros'll spring on it! I recall it'southward in our nature. Merely before diving into making your own squealer feed, information technology'southward of import to understand the components of feed to know how to feed a pig in guild to get a production with a fatty:meat ratio you're happy with when information technology comes time to butcher.

Carbs – free energy source, oftentimes corn or grain
Poly peptide source – soy beans, field beans, etc.
Fiber/Minerals/etc – these will make up the rest of the feed to assist keep the pigs healthy

In one case yous take the basic components of the feed down, it'south likewise of import to know about your specific brood because each breed volition have different saccharide and poly peptide needs.

When it comes to American Republic of guinea Hogs, they're obesity prone so they need a lower sugar diet to avoid getting too much fat on the hogs.

Pork Rhyne had a friend who was really disappointed with the corporeality of meat to fat ratio he got after butchering his pigs, only it turns out that he was feeding his pigs 16% crude poly peptide throughout their whole life instead of reducing the protein prior to butchering.

Typically, about 2-iii months before slaughter, Pork Rhyne recommends reducing the corporeality of poly peptide down to 12-fourteen% and increasing the amount of carbohydrates to turn that energy into fatty.

As I said above, this all varies between breeds and is different for herefords, heritage breeds, commercial breeds, etc.

In improver to pre-made feed, pigs love all types of produce. You tin even abound crops specifically for your pigs like mangels, forage turnips, beets, and pumpkin.

On our subcontract, we feed a locally sourced barley and peas combination with added swine minerals. Our pigs also get lots of fresh milk, table scraps, local apples and pumpkins.

Delight do non feed your pigs bakery scraps and the like and expect a salubrious pig with great tasting meat. You eat what your pig eats so quality matters.

Another example of ways to feed pigs is that Pork Rhyne has a friend who has gone to Chipotle (the fast-nutrient restaurant chain) and picked up beans that weren't sold to consumers to feed his pigs.

I'm all for being resourceful! Only be sure the food y'all're getting is non postal service-consumer (meaning information technology wasn't served commencement to a customer, then thrown in the trash considering that will spread diseases to your pigs) and be sure at that place's no pork in the product.

One matter I love to practice is to source my feed as locally as possible. We accept a grainary that'southward about an hr abroad that has a non-GMO stance, and also tries to source their grain as locally as possible every bit well.

As well know, if you're feeding your pigs spent grain (like brewers grain you might get from a brewery), about 80% of it is h2o. For example, if that grain was dry, it would contain about 29% protein, whereas once the grain is wet (or spent), information technology only contains only 7.seven% rough poly peptide.

Spent grain as well gets moldy very quickly, so Pork Rhyne recommends this as an addition to a diet, not the primary source.

Demand vs. Measured Feeding

Some other thing to consider when raising pigs is whether to fix up a self-feeder and let the pigs consume whenever they want or feed them a set amount each 24-hour interval.

In that location are pros and cons for both. Demand feeding makes the daily workload smaller except on the 24-hour interval when you lot have to fill the grunter feeder. Also, if pigs ever have nutrient available they will exist less likely to root as much then your footing stays in better shape. Pigs who are demand-fed too tend to abound faster so your fourth dimension to maturity is less.

The problem with demand feeding is that pigs tin eat a LOT of food and this tin become expensive, particularly every bit the pigs go older.

We accept establish that if you are only raising one or two pigs demand feeding is the way to become. When you are raising x or more than is when information technology can go cost-prohibitive.

Nosotros requite each of our piglets five lbs of their grain mixture each solar day. In add-on to this, they get milk, tabular array scraps, and produce.

This allows u.s. to have market weight pigs at around 8 months or then.

Medicines & De-Worming (DIY De-Wormer)

I am not a fan of chemical de-wormers because of the mutations and resistances they create.

On our farm, nosotros accept institute garlic to be a much more effective de-wormer anyway.

We add together approximately 1 lb of garlic granules to ane ton of feed.

In add-on, oregano oil is also superb at fighting parasites and infection.

Finally, we keep geranium essential oil handy for bleeding (pigs can get in scuffles) and tea tree oil for cuts and scrapes.

To Desexualize or Not?

Castrating pigs is a controversial issue. In that location are many who find the practice cruel and unnecessary just others who say it needs to be done to prevent boar taint.

If you are raising two male person pigs yous volition demand to determine whether yous want to take this procedure washed.

However, when y'all are raising piglets of the opposite sex activity information technology'due south wise to go ahead and castrate. When we first started raising piglets we were told they wouldn't commencement to breed until they were nine months old. Since we butcher at 8 months nosotros didn't retrieve we needed to desexualize.

Bad advice and nosotros ended up with pregnant market pigs. We now castrate all male piglets raised for meat. We have constitute Bach's Rescue Remedy very helpful in the process – it keeps both pigs and the person doing the castration calm.

Breeds Matter

Dissimilar breeds of pigs have different qualities, including differences in size, meat quality, and temperament.

These are things you will want to investigate when choosing your piglets prior to bringing them home.

We heighten heritage breeds of pigs (Gloucester Erstwhile Spot, American Republic of guinea Hog, Tamworth) considering of their docile and friendly temperaments and excellent meat quality.

The American Republic of guinea hog is a much smaller breed of sus scrofa and will not yield a conventional carcass weight just because of their piece of cake handling ability and chef-quality meat, it'southward a tradeoff we are willing to make.

Pork Rhyne'due south first pigs were actually a heritage breed chosen "large blacks" and "red wobble", he's also raised some crosses and commercial pigs.

200 years ago pigs weren't getting fed the diets they now get. They were depression-input animals, merely similar chickens, where they were getting fed scraps from the kitchen or garden, free-ranging and ruminating, etc.

For many years, pigs were the "neglect-safe". If a ingather had a bad harvest one yr, families would ever have pigs to sell to make ends run into.

Butcher Weight & Hanging Weight

Nearly heritage pigs are butchered when they counterbalance effectually 180-250 lbs live. This will result in a hanging weight (meat and bones minus the caput, feet and organs) ranging from 160-225 lbs.

How much meat you end upwardly with in your freezer is totally dependent on the types of cuts y'all choose during processing.

It's important to understand that heritage breed pigs abound slower than commercial pigs.

Unremarkably heritage breeds take approximately viii months to accomplish approximately 280lbs. The lard pigs take upward to a year or a yr and a half to accomplish butchering weight (which sometimes, depending on the brood, won't exist every bit heavy).

Simply commercial hogs accomplish 280-300lbs in just 6 months. So you can see why commercial hogs have become more popular with large farms.

For more exact information on each private breed, download this nautical chart from the Livestock Conservancy Organization.

Know what you want to raise pork for before choosing your breed. Many breeds are much amend for things similar bratwursts, sausage, charcuertery, etc. whereas other breeds are going to give you your hams, pork chops, and large roasts.

smoked sausages and meat on wooden table

Should You Hire a Butcher?

We have butchered many a hog on our farm. Once you learn to do information technology its not that hard, but the beginning time can be a bit intimidating.

The whole process takes about 3 days. The first 24-hour interval is the kill and hang, the second is skinning and cutting upward the pieces, the third is usually sausage processing.

A downside to butchering yourself is that unless you know how to cure salary and ham yous won't end upwards with those cuts (you will accept fresh ham which is actually good but non like traditional cured ham).

The benefits of butchering yourself is the know-how and the cost savings. Traditionally, having a sus scrofa butchered costs anywhere from $150-$250 depending on processing and curing.

Taste is Superior

By raising your own pigs you lot command what they eat which makes for a healthier production for your family.

Too, raising pigs is a lot of fun and I love to scout their antics. However, I find the all-time reason for raising pork is the taste. In one case you try it you will never desire supermarket pork again.

More About Amy

Amy is is a wife and female parent of eighteen children. In addition to parenting and homeschooling their mega family unit, they also run a modest family farm, which they affectionately telephone call "Autumn Creek Ranch." They honey the work of Joel Salatin (me, too!) and have patterned much of what they practise by his example.

Do you have a question about raising pigs? You can email Amy at [email protected]

More About "Pork" Rhyne Cureton

Exist sure to listen to the podcast (starting at minute 41) to hear near Pork Rhyne's work in third world countries through the company EATBETA – Evangelizing Africa Through Business Empowerement in a Transformation of Agriculture.

Pork Rhyne Idiot box on YouTube
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