This little piggie went to the market....

[ohiofarmgirl]

dude, pigs? why didnt you tell me?

we just butchered ours - check it out:
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3982

quick tips:

* electric is the way to go for fencing
* feed hard boiled eggs for extra protein - always give them cooked eggs
* are you feeding starter? do you know how to supplement regular hog feed with calf manna to cut your costs?
* know anyone who has diary animals - we fed ours goat milk/whey all summer
* they need shelter out of the wind - we get ours in summer so only have a 3 sided 'hog hut' i hill-billy-ed together with pallets - but when it got cold in the fall we just added deep straw and they snuggled in. make sure they have a relief from the mud. oh yes, there will be mud.
* dont underestimate them - have you had hogs before? assume they are armed and dangerous. always have a stock cane and an eye on the gate.
* finish on corn - stop feeding them the hog feed when they get over 100lbs-ish. the backfat on ours was about 2 inches thick - i'm still cooking down the lard.
*we slaughter at about 300lbs - any bigger and we coudlnt do it ourselves.

we just got our hams back today - about 80lbs between the two hogs. its heavenly....especially with biscuits made with lard.

more pix and answers to all your hog related questions for the asking.

 

[Kim_NC]

Congrats! What breed are they?

There is nothing like pastured pork! (Er...well, we do tend to be partial to our grass fed beef too.) We're currently growing out Durocs and Yorkshire crosses. We like Tamworths as well.

Ours are fenced with cattle panels and heavy gauge dog wire. We have electric about 8" off the ground to keep them from rooting at the fence. We have a 3-sided shelter for them to get out of the wind.

We free choice feed - good quality pig feed by a local mill. Interesting thing about pigs - they're omnivores! Since you're accustomed to feeding the poultry versions of omnivores, you should quickly learn these new guys.

At this time of year there's not as much green available in the pastures, so we supplement with hay. They eat it readily. They also love all greens, root crops. Ours think apples and other fruit are a huge treat. Although we give them kitchen scraps like potato peelings, fruit peelings, etc, we try to avoid feeding 'slop'.

A trick someone else taught us - they LOVE eggs. Toss a couple hardboiled eggs their way and you will have several new best friends! If they ever get out, those eggs will be your secret weapon for getting them back in.

Got a dayold bread place nearby, a dairy or cheese factory? These places all make for good cheap food supplements.

Never hand feed them. Toss everything into the feed trough or on the ground. You don't want them to associate your hands with food. Although very smart, they have poor eyesight. When they get bigger they can accidently bite you seriously if attempting to eat from your hand.

We like to slaughter around 250+ lbs.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
LOL... I knew you would chime in! I wanted to tell you I swear. I have just been so overwhelmed with everything else and haven't had time LOL... Well I knew you had pigs and wanted to get your input earlier but I'm so dang impatient that I didn't wait!

Urgh... I knew I should have got with you sooner. Please fill me in on the Calf Mania... and I gave them about 7 dozen raw eggs today that were broke. (thats just a weeks worth).... am I going to have pigs with upset stomachs? Oh man..

SO I have a good shelter, I hope. My only worries are them knocking it all to pieces. I promise to take pics in the morning as I got them late today and ran out of daylight (story of my life)

Totally agree with the underestimating thing... when I was catching these things... the three full grown females next to the babies started going crazy! I was a little scared...I'm not even going to try to cover that one up. I thought they were going to jump over the wooden pen they were in... and it took all I had to walk by them! But little did they know they were going to be taken care of as they just had a small pen to play in.

I haven't bought the feed yet as I just ordered it from the mill (they had to mill it) and I'm looking at $7.50 a bag I think. But I'm thinking to finish them on corn like you suggested. Do they taste good on corn? Did you have mineral blocks or salt? Or just corn.

I really don't think I can do the processing myself.... how was it? I've done everything but a cow and pig... and I'm not sure I want to do it. First off... I don't have the supplies to do it... even though my neighbor is super excited and claims he has everything. He is 84 and still going strong... however I do think it will take more than him and I to do these pigs... I believe I seen photos of yours.... Do you still have those to post?

Oh man wish me luck.....


Edit to add... Duh.. you posted the link! I never go on that site but was lurking one day and came across your post... ever since I've been meaning to get at you! Ha.... go figures.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
That's cool....

I did learn they loved eggs. They ate them in about 5 minutes... all 7 dozen of them! I fed them raw though.. is there something I should know about feeding them raw eggs?

Glad to know they like hay as I was going to try to feed them some alfalfa. I do have a day old bakery in town that sells bread by the truckload. I think it's like 10 bucks for a truck load.

No hand feeding good to know... I need my fingers!

 

[dancingbear]

We raised pigs this year, too, also for the first time. Here's our pig yard:

Another portion of the the pig yard, with Pig House.

We used 3 strands of electric, never had any trouble with them even trying to get out. With an area that big, you only get an occasional whiff of Eau De Pig, usually when it's been rainy. Here are 2 links to Joel Salatin YouTube vids, it's part one and two of Pasture Pigs/Forest Pigs. Our pig raising wasn't nearly as well run as his, but next time will be better. We made all of our expensive errors on this first bunch.

(pigs 1)

(pigs 2)

There were 2 male(castrated), and 2 female, we did the males first because they were bigger and eating more.
So the first two are in the freezer now, still have two sows to go. They were somewhere over 200 lbs each when we butchered, maybe pushing 300. We don't have a scale to check, I'm guessing based on estimates from a friend, who has a rep for being able to judge a meat animals weight. He came over and looked them over for us, and said he thought they were around 225 each, and judged the females to be 180-190 lbs. Then I guessed at how much bigger I think they were by the time we butchered, almost 3 months later.

If you want, PM me, and I'll tell you how we butchered them. We did it ourselves, we don't have anyway to haul a beast that big to a processor, at this time. It was easier than I thought it would be, from tales of dread people told us. The first one was something of an ordeal, the 2nd much, much easier, and NOW we have a reciprocating saw to cut through the bones with, I bet the next two will be a breeze.

Between 4 pigs, 3 deer, and a bunch of chickens, we won't be buying much meat, for a long time.

Anyway, good for you Jeff, you're really getting into this meat raising, aren't you?

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
I would love to pasture them but the grass is covered with snow. I have them in my garden at the moment. I have the garden plowed so they can root through the dirt and eat all the roots from the weeds I didn't pull...

The plan is, to have a cleaner garden next year with good compost! Me and my projects... we will see how that one turns up in the spring.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
LOL... thanks! I am completely crazy... whatever though... as you only live once!

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
Hahaha.. ya I'm trying. I don't know if I'm digging myself a hole or what but I'm really trying. I can't wait to post pics tomorrow, I'm so proud of my pig pen! LOL... after watching how freakin strong those things are... I have no doubt they will shatter my house I built them.... It's not a matter of if... but when! They are just little now but they still are strong, I bet if they gain another 30 lbs I won't be able to hold them down.

Ya I didn't think much about the whole processing part as I had sole intent of taking them to a processor and having them processed. But I just hate not know how it's done and I just want to make sure they are killed humanely. Pigs are much more aware of their environment than chickens are. The thing is though... I don't know how I'm going to load 6 250 lb hogs to a butcher shop? That could be a problem in a few months!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Oh, dude, you don't need to plow for pigs to eat all the edibles in the ground! They each have a little plow built in to their nose! They'll dig up everything, and root around and clear out darn near all the weeds and roots and everything. They cleared nearly all the undergrowth in that whole wooded area, there's ground clear there we're never seen before. Plus they rooted out almost everything in the open areas, too, so we've got clean, freshly fertilized ground to seed for pasture. Once the pigs are gone, we'll be able to finish cleaning out that lot in no time, and get rid of rubbish left by previous owners, too, now that we can see it. Some people use pigs to clear and dig up the ground, then just drag a rock-rake through to get out the bigger stones and root pieces, before they plant whatever they want. That's our plan, put in a shade tolerant grass in the wooded area, and a good pasture mix in the open part, for a beef calf or 2 next year.

You can also use then to pack down the dirt to get a pond to hold water. We have a spot that once had a pond, way before we bought it, but it doesn't hold water anymore. We're gonna fence it for pigs later, maybe next year, maybe the year after, let them clean it out and pack it down, maybe we'll have a pond then. Can you say "Fish for dinner," boys and girls? Maybe "Duck for dinner", too.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I have black and white.. and a few that are red and white... I'm not sure what kind they are but do know they get big. The mom was huge...


Ok so I'm off to take some pics now... I have to check on them anyways as it's pretty cold outside. Plus I would hate to have to wake up in the morning with a pig on my front porch!

If I can figure out this new computer I will have them up tonight.