Advice on a meat pig?

[yotetrapper23]

Hello. I am new to the forum and my name is Angela. I live in western IL and I am trying to gradually become more sufficient. I already have a large flock of chickens, and my husband finally relented and gave the go ahead for us to get a meat hog.

I was raised in the country, and not on a farm, so I've never raised a hog before. He has, but it's been awhile. LOL.

I was just wondering if anyone had any general information or tips or things I should know before I get one.

I plan on buildin a run out of hog panels, and an A-frame style shelter. I can get food from the town mill, and supplement it with kitchen and garden scraps.

Is there a best time of year to buy one? Also, how long from purchase to slaughter? I'd rather slaughter in fall than in the dead of summer, or winter.

Do breeds make much of a difference? I know a farmer I was wantin to buy one from, but dont know what breed he has, most of his pigs are pink and black mottled lookin.

Anything else I need to know?

Thanks
Angela

[fancyfowl]

I have done every color hog thats goin and I cant tell a difference. The Hampshires are supposed to have a different ph than other swine so they were fowned upon for a while in sole circles. i do prefer Durocs or Spots.


Do you post at garden web?? There recently was a post almost exactly the same there, the advice would, I bet, be mighty close to the same !!

[yotetrapper23]

yes, it was me at gardenweb. GW seems to be a somewhat more liberal forum than this one, although I do love it anyways LOL. They told me here when I registered that I needed to make one post here, so this was the first post I thought of to make.

[Anon001]

There is a big difference in breeds.... However all the meat tastes the same. The difference is in the genetics. Some fatten quicker than others and some are much leaner. The yorks (white with pink skin) are very very lean and gain much quicker than a Hampshire (black and white). That is just one example.

The best piece of advise is to NEVER raise one hog alone. They are a social creature and get very very lonely. As a result they will not gain as well and it will take longer to fatten him out. ALL the old timers always said you have to have at least two hogs together.

What I do is raise 2 or 3. I butcher one for myself and then sell the other two at market value based on the live weight. That will more than pay for your hog and all the feed. I always make a couple dollars profit doing that way and the ones they buy the other two know where they came from and how they were cared for and what they were fed.

It is easier to take care of two happy hogs than it is one lonely depressed one! LOL

[walls0stone]

Yote, I founda few forums that were so Liberal, they would edit posts and shoot any conflicting idea...later learning that they were promote'n some products...beware.

any who, on hogs. in talking to my local butcher the last time we did a cow. (sounds like a mob hit) He told me that the faster and easyer the better. i guess the blood gets flowing and takes all sorts of stuff with it.

The last few cows he's helped me with, she never saw it come'n. We would put some feed on the ground in a common place were I'd feed her before, and POP her when she put her head down. So the faster and easyer you can do your pig, the better the meat will taste.

[harvester]

I have never had a problem raising a pig alone! Ever! I have however had problems raising multiple pigs together. Alot of "oldtimers" will say that you need two just to get them to eat. Well, its a pig, its gonna eat! How well it eats depends on what you are feeding it. Ive had problems with pigs eating well on commercial dry pelleted pig chow, and the meat quality it turns out is grainy and tasteless. Ive never had a problem feeding a pig a wet diet of scraps and extra milk and extra eggs and beat up together with ground barley. the pig will lick its bowl clean every time. When raising multiple pigs together they have never fattened for me in the same amount of time a single pig has. They fight and argue over the food and choice lounging areas. It causes a higher stress level and produces a tougher, gamier meat.
As for the breed of pig all I can say is if you want alot of bacon, you get a "bacon pig". one with a looooong body. The ones with the high arched back and short belly (measuring from the front legs to the back legs under the hog) wont produce as much bacon. *We always did chester whites or yorkshires.
Most piglets are ready for sale in late spring to early summer and are called "weaners". they usually run around 35 lbs at weaning.
When you are going to time the butchering depends on how big you want your hog at butchering time and how much you are feeding it and the quality of the feed you are feeding it. Ive had hogs ready to butcher at roughly 250 lbs in 6-7 months average, due to the feed. Also Ive had hogs that maxed out at 5 months old at 1100 lbs. Same breeds, its all due to the feed quantity and quality.
Ive found that no matter the pedigree or show quality of your pig, its still a pig, it loves to eat scraps and loves a good porrige like quality to its food. granted what its eating looks disgusting, but the pig is still a pig and loves it! I raise my pigs on everything under the sun, the nature of the beast is to be a forrager and to get a great diversity in its diet.
As far as housing goes, you wont need a very tall fence, typically one you can easily step over is high enough. Pigs rarely jump fences especially when they start getting some size on them and if they are content with their area. They will however root. Again, the nature of the beast is to forrage, and if it can find a tiny morsel in the pen under the dirt, its gonna do it. besides it give it something to do. I would recommend burrying your fence atleast 8-10 inches under the ground as they will root at the edge of the fence. If they get their nose under the lip of that fence, they will lift that fence right up out of the ground and be out. Most powerful animals!
Feeding them small meals twice a day, and a small amount of *lawn clippings or garden refuse or the rest of your salad you had for lunch in the mid day will keep them satisfied and give them something to pass the time with. Preventing boredom, and lowering stress levels.
Good luck!

[Anon001]

Harvester, I don't know how many hogs you have raised, but you are out of the ordinary when you state that they do as well alone than in pairs. Anyone that has been raised in a farm environment, and been around hogs all his/her life and has been around hog producers, KNOWS it is fact that hogs do NOT do as well alone.

Anyone that says that doesn't know hogs as well as they think they do.

However, you are correct in most everything else, especially about the bacon and breed! LOL...

The only other thing I will add is to NEVER put meat, meat scraps, or bloody food scraps in the slop bucket. You NEVER want a hog to get the taste of meat or blood.

[harvester]

I wouldnt go as far as saying im flat out wrong. What I would say is that "in my experience" I have never had problems with a single pig. EVER. I have had problems with mulitples however. Dejavu!
I'm sure alot of it depends on the circumstances you are raising the hog in. There are tons of variables. There is no ONE way to raise anything as I'm sure you are well aware of.
Also, I have noticed that you have jumped me on ever hog post ive made. Therefore I will stop making hog posts before this goes any farther. I'm sorry if I disturbed anyone with my out of the box thinking. I was merely posting what I thought was allowable to post, i.e. My hog raising experiences. If someone wanted to take a hint from it and run with it then great! To claim falsehoods against me I believe is wrong on your part.

I posted my opinions, and my experiences, period. I would never ever claim that someone isnt who he or she said they were!

Any statement not supported by posted evidence or links is someone's opinion. Everyone is
entitled to their opinion, if stated in a civil manner, even if everyone else disagrees with it.

[fancyfowl]

I raised a singleton once, the other one died. it did not do as well as other hogs I ahve fed out. Besides, I find it no more work to do 5 at a time. My friend almost always fed just 1 and they seemed to do ok.

[Anon001]

Harvester... My apologies. I didn't intend to jump on you. It was quite the opposite.. You jumped on me.. When I made reference to raising hogs in multiples this was your response:

"I have never had a problem raising a pig alone! Ever!"

That is as near to yelling as you can get without using all caps. My point is that the tried and true method AND the general consensus among people that KNOW hogs realize that a single hog USUALLY does not do as well alone....

Again, my apologies for coming on so strong...

[harvester]

Thankyou for your appology, my use of exclamation points were out of excitement, not aggrivation. Everyone reads things differently.
The fact that i do KNOW hogs is most likely what allows me to have no problem raising single hogs. I will be raising a single hog again this year providing I can get my hands on a weaner before all the 4h students do. If I have the time I will regularly post photos of the hogs progress. Hog raising has been in my family for generations, I was taught how to raise single hogs and have preferred single hogs especially after falling for, what I personally call, "the old wives tale" that you can only raise them in pairs or better. Ive tried that, ive worked with that and ive found it to be, pardon the pun, a huge money hog. I preferr single hogs, and my experience with single hogs as compared to mulitples has been problem free and always a breeze to do.
With having a small family I simply can not justify (for us) the raising of two hogs. We end up giving the meat away or wasting it in other ways. I have found that per pound of pork raised on a singleton, much outweighs the cost of multiples especially when you take into consideration the waste.
These are my personal beliefs and the methods I use to raise a singleton are tried and true and very simple.
As an ending comment I just want people to know that it is not impossible, or even difficult to raise a singleton hog. My neighbor will be giving hogs a chance this summer too, he chose to raise two. This will be his first time with pigs, he is very new to homesteading. We work together on alot of things, he helps me with muscle work and I help him with animal husbandry. When I told him I was going to raise a single hog this year if i can get one he said he was told it couldnt be done. I simply said, "watch me". :)

[Anon001]

I agree that it is possible to raise a single hog.. but generally they will perform better in pairs... that is general consensus... however, raising more than one hog is a money pit only if you let it be that way.

I will raise 2 or 3 each time. I butcher one for myself and sell the other two to other people which is easy to find. Mine gets butchered here at home. The one or two I sell gets taken to the locker. They give me a live weight. I charge the buyer market rate based on live hogs. I ALWAYS make enough to pay for all the feed and I usually make a little profit. In other words the hog I keep ends up being free and sometimes it is like I get paid for raising my own pork. I don't do anything at home that can't pay its own way or make money.... except the chickens and I've had good luck so far, for all these years.

[yotetrapper23]

Well I sure didnt mean to cause an argument. Although I will mention the points for raising two to my husband, I doubt it will even be in the question. He reluctantly agreed to ONE hog. It took a year of haggling to allow him to let me get a second duck LOL. So I'm guessing it will be ONE hog.

I appreciate your post harvester, as for whatever reason some people may not be able to raise 2 or more pigs. I did some research online before posting this and did indeed see that the general consensus was 2 or more, but I also saw where many people have sucessfully raised single pigs. I appreciate your encouragement that doing so is not only possible, but also easy.

Now I need to go shopping for pig fencing.

Does anyone know where there are simple plans for making a shelter?

Thanks again, all.

[Grey_Ghost]

I'd like to add one piece of experience we had with some 4H/FFA show hogs:

Be careful with the hogs that have pink skin. They can get a real nasty sun burn!

At least they can in Texas in the spring time.


Just my $.02 worth.

[harvester]

and a good $.02 it was!
yes they can, even in montana they burn easily. We make sure they have a clean wallow for that and good shelter.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

For "cute" factor I would choose a Duroc or a Yorkie. If you want to reproduce this hog, get a long one like a Landrace or a landrace cross. The longer the sow, the more babies you will get.

Since you simply want to put a pig in the freezer, you might consider buying a bred sow, so you can keep one and sell the others to make up the cost of feed. Or consider buying more than one feeder (any breed) at an auction barn. Keep one and sell the others. You really don't have to worry about breed too much if you are just freezing it. If you plan to buy to have them reproduce you might think about breed more.

The only "bad" experience with swine that I have had was Poland Chinas. They die easily in the heat simply due to their size. I saw a farmer loose 4 of them in one night in a farrowing building due to the heat. They are just huge black hogs that seem to really have issues with severe heat. Our vet was there doing necropsy right after the first sow died, and while he was there 3 more died from the heat. Out of 500 sows only the 4 Poland Chinas died. I wouldn't recommend those at all.

[duckidaho]

I've been mildly interested in getting a meat hog (or hogs), but I can't even get my wife to agree to one hog. :-[ I have been intrigued by "heritage" breeds. We've got chickens for eggs and meat, and she's better at butchering wild game than me.

[Wyobuckaroo]

The only rule I remember about raising butcher pigs is
Don't get emotionally attached to "Pork Chop"

Otherwise, feed em, eat em, enjoy.

Wyo

[rideaway]

The first year we raised pigs (one for my daughter for her 4-H auction hog) she cried (she was 10) when he got hauled off. Then she discovered that the check that came in really helped dry off tears-lol she's helped load them into the truck the last couple years. Seriously tho, we talk a lot about the quality of life our pigs have as opposed to those raised commercially and I've heard her quoting that to her friends who come to visit.

We started with two pigs and have raised three the last two years-one for 4-H, one for our freezer and one for whomever-that gives us a couple choices for a good 4-H pig. We raise them on a hillside so they have a chance to get some exercise. We have had a couple escape episodes and don't want to deal with that again, so this year we bought a solar panel and set up a hot wire inside the hog fence. It cost about $140 altogether, but since we'll only be using it 5-6 months a year it should last for quite a few years. We don't raise winter pigs-it's the Oregon coast, they'd drown in the mud. LOL...