ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
so cute
Oscar, Meyer, Weiner

sooo cute
sorry, just named them for ya.  You almost have to discuss which one you are talking about.

They will NEVER be that clean again.

How much did you pay for them?

What cha feeding them?  

they like LOTS of water

make sure you have found your butcher, and talk to them now.

Pigs love PUMPKINS (actually any kind of squash)

One guy said, don't break it, they'll push it around adn play with it for a long time until someone breaks it and takes a bite and then BOOM FEEDING FRENZY

and then they start pushing around the bowling ball trying to eat it too.


oh yeah, kiss the grass goodbye.

I would recommend rings unless you want that yard destroyed/deep holes.

Had a hog farm growing up, raise show stock but we had feeders also. Very smart animals and quite tasty.  

As you know what you feed them will flavor the meat. I've eaten "slop hogs" before and corn fed animals, very different. Non of them bad, just very different. I've also had special pork that was raised on acorns/wheat/grass-it tasted more like the wild hogs but just not as strong.

They will eat near anything a human will, they love watermelons. They can't eat cottonseed unless its been cooked out, thats the only thing that will kill them.

Enjoy, they are a lot of fun and tatsy

My wife wants pigs. (to eat)

Soon as we buy our house, I'll have to look into this.


Thanks for the pics.

(they are cute.. )

nice setup feral.  we'll probably get some pigs in a year or two, after i've caught up on all of the current projects.

In your middle picture, it looks like you are using the corner on the right side as a gate (judging by the chaing and clasp).  You probably should wire the bottoms of that corner together- one little shove and they are out of there!


ETA:  If a pig can get his snout through a hole, he can work his head through it.  If he can get his head through it, he can get his whole body through it.  They can be real escape artists!

Is that pen a temp?

Just a couple of twists of wire will hold it fine and you can easily unwire it for going in/out.  

Forgot to mention: Nice looking pigs!  Sounds like you got a good price.  I'll bet they really like all of that grass to root around in.  

Someone already mentioned rings for your pigs (crimping metal rings into the rim of the snout) to keep them from rooting.  We used to ring ours but they would root anyway.  Can't say if they would have rooted MORE without them, though.

You might want to feed them in a trough from a couple of weeks instead of using the self-feeder to get them used to you and make them easier to handle when larger.

Good looking pigs.

I've got a pregnant sow that is springing and about ready to litter in the next week or two.

Got three ready to go for the long walk as soon as it cools off.

Want some sausage recipes?

You might want to add some sheet metal or aluminum sidding to the bottom of that fence...Pigs are escape artist..They might have enough size on them now that the fence is good enough!

That corner looks awfully susceptible to escape to me..


But once they get out they are GONE!!

Eta....What did the pigs cost you locally?

Look at the last pic of the little black & white piggy.  He says "I want in your belly!" LOL!  

pigs are a great prep item to add to the list; if you can get feed/food for them cheap enough,

the price of bagged corn/hog feed in my area is unholy expensive right now ($9/40lbs),  

bulk corn prices by the ton are much better deal if you have a towable grain bin to pick it up, if you have it delivered, you'll pay a fuel surcharge plus delivery, but it's still a better deal than bagged feed if you've got a grain bin to store it in.

if your raising hogs just to put in the freezer, look for the 4h kids raising show hogs in your area, this past may I bought a sow that weighted approx 300lbs for $75, I couldn't raise one to that weight for anywhere near that cheap buying feed at it's current price.

once pigs get used to getting fed in the same place everyday, they'll always return to it at feeding time if they happen to break out of the pen,

I've got a 600lb boar that occasionly bust out the wire holding the panels ends together by rubbing/scratching against them and runs all over the place, come feeding time he's back waiting to be fed though;

also once they get several hundred pounds they'll root the post(s) out of the ground if they're not buried deep enough, then ride the fence panels down or crawl under them;

I use steel 8' long 4" corner post buried 4', then sunk 6' t-post approx 3' down in the middle of each panel, it's strong enough that the above mentioned boar will stand with his front legs on the panels and not ride them down.

even putting hogsrings in their nose wont' stop them from rooting once they get bigger, I've heard that spliting their snouts will keep them from rooting, but I've never tried it as I don't normally have them around that long.

Cool stuff.  

How close do you have them to the house?  I'd only worry about the smell.  How big are you going to let them get?  How long will it take to get there?  

My daugther would never let me kill one. We raise Dexter's and she names them all as soon as they're born.  Although she surprized me the other day.  Me and the wife we're talking about the grocery level during Ike's gas rush and she said we look good on can goods, but are alittle low on beef.  My daugther spoke up and said "No mom, we've got all our cows" Country girl can survive!  We train'em well

Those cattle panels have many uses.  We just built a cattle chute using them.  Also use them to build green houses.  Worse case you could pick out another spot and move them to another location to give what that one a break.  

GR

I've heard that the clay from trap/skeet pigeons is poison to hogs. Just fyi.

Originally Posted By Ndenway: pigs are a great prep item to add to the list; if you can get feed/food for them cheap enough, the price of bagged corn/hog feed in my area is unholy expensive right now ($9/40lbs),   .

Must be nice
Try $17/50lb bag here for starter (best price we've found)

Bulk is $11/100lbs.  But of course you have to get 1500lbs minimum and hope it doesn't spoil

Feral,

If you want some piece of mind put a couple of strands of electric fence on the inside of your hog panels. Get the insulators that are about 6" long. Put 1 wire 4-6" from the ground, and the second a foot above it. Use good heavy wire for the strands. That will keep the pigs working the panels.

Good looking pigs.

Ideas to Lower Your Hog Feed Cost Part I


Consider Purchasing "Bulk" Feed and Haul Your Own

Due to the high price of bagged feeds, you might check out whether buying bulk feed makes any sense for you.  It might save you some $$$$.  You don't have to have an upright metal bin for it.  I remember your earlier post mentioned a corner of a barn that you were considering putting the pigs in.  You might need to use a couple of sheets of plywood for the other two sides but an 8'x8' corner that is 4' high will probably hold a couple of tons of feed (you won't need that much).  (You'll probably need a total of about one ton of feed to add 200 pounds of live weight to each pig).

We used to pull the pickup onto the scales at our local Farmer's Co-op and have them dump 1,000 of feed loose into the back.  We shoveled it into barn bins from the pickup.  It really didn't take very long, maybe 1/2 an hour.  We got a significant discount for buying bulk feed and another discount for hauling it ourselves, plus we didn't have to wonder when the feed truck was coming.



Since you only have the three pigs, and especially since you have the self-feeder, you don't need pelleted feed.  Pelleted feed was invented to allow dairy cows to be able to eat enough (quantity) to support maximum milk production.  High producing dairy cows cannot eat enough unpelleted feed during their stop in the barn unless they receive other supplements.  Your pigs are going to have all day to eat all they want.  How long they are at the feeder isn't going to affect how much they can eat.

OOps- Double tap.

Lower Your Hog Feed Cost Ideas Part II

Another potential $$$ saver is to consider mixing your own feed.  It is almost corn picking time.  You can probably find someone within driving distance that is farming.  If you can buy a pickup load of corn (or soybeans, or whatever they are harvesting in your area) from your local farmer, you can probably get it for about half the $$$ per pound.  


"But my pigs can't digest the whole kernals of grain!" you might complain.

Not true.  It IS true that the dried whole grains are harder for animals to digest.  So what if some grains pass through undigested, if the feed is cheap enough?  I would not suggest that you go to the trouble of grinding the grain for just a few hogs, that would be too much work.  I will suggest that you consider soaking the grain in water overnight before feeding.  The grains will swell up and split the hull of the kernals.  Warm or almost hot water will accelerate the absorption by the grain.  Heck, let it set in water for a week and let it sour and/or ferment- those pigs will think they are in heaven!  You can easily do this in five gallon buckets.  Soak it in the whey you drain off your 30 minute mozzarella!

If you watch the fields when they are harvesting, you might be allowed by the farmer to shovel up any spilled grains off the ground.  The pigs won't care if there is a little dirt in it.  Also, if the farmer knows you are feeding pigs, he might have some old or soured grains to give you for cleaning out his bins.



"But my pigs won't be getting a complete and balanced feed ration!" you continue.

Maybe.  It isn't as important as most people think.  You're not raising them in a sterile lab environment.  Look at the label from your bag of feed.  I believe the ingredients are listed in order of their quantities in the mix.  Probably half of the ingredients are by-products that are there to provide bulk to the mix (ie as a "filler" to make it cheaper to produce than using 100% ground grains).  Your pigs will get plenty of minerals rooting in the ground.  If you are worried about minerals, a bag from the CO-OP won't cost much and will last a long time.  Salt is cheap, too.  They'll use a block just like cattle will.  I have seen your posts about your garden this year.  Feed them rotten vegetables, trimmings, green tops, in short all of your produce waste.  You are probably going to offer them quite a variety of stuff they like to eat.  So what if they aren't receiving 18% protein like the starter pellets have?  They'll just lose some feed efficiency or take a little longer to grow out, probably not a big enough deal for you to notice.

Morrison's "Feeds and Feeding" used to be the bible of balancing rations.  Your local FFA instructor probably has a couple he'll loan you.

Fat is added to feed to add energy to the ration.  Tip- Your kitchen grease drippings are the same thing.


ETA: Well, I'm pretty sure they don't list the ingredients in order of their quantities.

Idea to Keep Those Pigs Happy


If you ever look at the hog hunting threads, you'll find that power line poles are often "Hot Spots" for locating hogs.  They like to rub, and they like to rub on creosote poles.

Drive a wooden fence post about 18 inches into the ground inside your pig pen.  Wrap the pole with old rags (old jeans are good) from the ground to about waist high and nail them securely.  Soak the rags with used motor oil.  I guess a steel post would work OK if you can tie the rags on securely.



Feral,  I know I've spouted off a lot of **** in this thread.  I haven't been in livestock production in more than 30 years.  Keep us updated on this project.

Originally Posted By BozemanMT: Originally Posted By Ndenway: pigs are a great prep item to add to the list; if you can get feed/food for them cheap enough, the price of bagged corn/hog feed in my area is unholy expensive right now ($9/40lbs),   . Must be nice Try $17/50lb bag here for starter (best price we've found) Bulk is $11/100lbs.  But of course you have to get 1500lbs minimum and hope it doesn't spoil

fuckmefunny, that's almost what the show quality feed runs in my area ($20/50lb bag), if I had to pay that much for regular corn/hog feed I wouldn't even bother raising hogs,

just bought feed this afternoon, whole corn price is still $9/40lbs, but 12% hog feed went up to $11/40lbs.

hell of a deal since at this time last year whole corn was approx $4.25/40lb bag, and hog feed approx $5/40lb bag.

if I'm going to continue to raise hogs I've got to get one of the towable grain storage bins and start buying bulk corn/feed, as for spoilage, as long as it doesn't mold/mildew hogs will eat it,

I soak the whole corn I feed my hog in a 50gal trashcan, by the time it's almost gone it's pretty well ferminted, the hog eats it before he eats the feed.

We just got our 4 back from the butcher today.  Those are good looking pigs, they sell a measuring tape at the feed store to give you a real close idea of where you are at.  Don't forget to worm them or they won't grow as fast.  You will be at 6 months from the time they are born until kill, butcher them between 240-270 any less is a waste anymore is just fat and lost feed.  Put a hot wire out there about 6 inches off the ground and they will stay away from that fence.  Good luck you will enjoy it.  If you have any questions shoot me a line.

Originally Posted By Feral: The house is about 40 yards away. Not real worried about the smell, but we'll see. There's a production hog house about 250 yards from us and the surrounding farms love to spread muck on their fields, so it's not like we already live in an "olfactory free" zone. +1 That's the smell of Kountry Just a little different if it's close enough to creep under the window seal every night I'm figuring they'll feed out in about 4 months......we'll see. I'll probably take them to market when the gilt is about 210-220 pounds. I'm gonna guess that at that point the Duroc will be pushing 250 and the other barrow will be about 230. You thought about butching them yourself?  Think it's the 1st Foxfire series that shows how the old timers did it.  I'll double check and get back with you.  How much will it cost to get them processed?   Did you find them at a sale market or local farmer? I've got a perfect spot picked out on some land I lease with a small water hole on it.  We've got a butt load of Feral (no pun intended) hogs running around tearing things up.  These would probably bring some of those around to investigate. Southern Bar-B-Q anyone?

I'm figuring they'll feed out in about 4 months......we'll see. I'll probably take them to market when the gilt is about 210-220 pounds.

Well, now I am confused.  At first, I thought I remembered you were going to try to butcher them.  

Have you considered keeping the gilt and raising your own pigs?  She'll probably be coming into heat in about the same four months time frame.  Four months later, you'll have a new batch of 6-10 babies to play with.  Well, 3 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days later..... and six or eight weeks after that, you can sell off your extra feeder pigs.  Sows will drop a litter about every six months.

IF you think you might keep her for breeding, it isn't too early to find someone who keeps a boar.  Also, they'll probably want to know that your gilt has had all her shots (vaccinations), especially for Leptospirosis.  If you find out now, you can have it all taken care of before you need it later.

+1 on keeping them wormed.

More on Hog Feed


Thought you might like to know these details about one brand's commercial hog feed ingredient mixes.

The numbers will be: 18% Pig Starter- 16% Hog Grower- 15% Sow Ration

by % of formula:
Ground Corn-------- 59 ------- 63 ------- 54
Soybean Meal------ 23 -------  16 ------- 11
Wheat Midds------- 10 -------  18 ------- 32

They all had about 20 pounds of Alfalfa Meal per ton; 5 pounds of salt per ton; 25 pounds of ground limestone per ton; 1 pound of trace mineral mix per ton.

The pig starter also had about 50 pounds of fat per ton and 50 pounds of dried whey per ton.

There were a few other minor ingredients that I have not listed.

Corn was figured to be 8.6% protein; SBM 44%; Midds 13.5%.

Wheat Middlings are a by-product of the flour milling process.

*********

I don't have any info on how whole soybeans compare to soybean meal used in feed.  The soybeans are heated and crushed to extract the oil.  Soybean meal is what is left.

Interesting Fact:  A bushel of soybeans provides about 11 pounds of oil and 47 pounds of soybean meal.

Keep the gilt for breeding? ....I'd have to change plans a bit but that's a very intriguing idea.

If "changing your plans" is due to concern regarding facilities, don't worry.  That pen and shelter you have those pigs in would work just fine for farrowing a litter.  Just throw a coule of square bales of hay or straw in the hut and you'll be ready.  It won't matter if you have other hogs in the same pen.

If you mean that you don't have the facilities for transporting a gilt over to her boyfriend's house, a hog panel will contain her in the back of your pickup.  The problem will be loading/unloading.

I'm going to repeat a suggestion from an earlier post and say you should go to your county or state fair this year.  Check the schedule for hog judging and go watch the 4-H and FFA kids usher their animals around before they enter the ring.  Also walk though the barns, paying attention to the loading facilities.

I'm told that they had "all their shots"

They might have, and then again they might not.  I know that newborn pigs are usually given a shot for iron because they will be raised on concrete and pigs get their needs from rooting in dirt.  They probably wouldn't have received vaccinations for Leptospirosis or Brucellosis since they weren't expected to be breeding stock.  They used to put a metal tag in the ear of a pig (or bovine) to indicate vaccination for Brucellosis.  These diseases are concerns for breeding populations because they cause abortions, recurring problems to "settle", and still-births, etc.  I think they still do blood tests of each animal going through a sale barn to check for infection with "Bangs" (Brucellosis).

I've thought of butchering them on the homestead and am interested. I need a bit more help and a bit more equipment

Do you hunt?  Have you ever cleaned a rabbit or squirrel?  A chicken?  A deer?  If so, you are halfway there because you have the basics about contaminatation and anatomy.  If you can clean any one of them, then you can butcher a hog.  If you can't clean any of those animals, start learning how.  The major difference is just a matter of scale, since a hog is much larger.

Once again, that big barn I seem to remember from one of your posts will come to your rescue.  I believe you said it even has concrete floors.  I'll bet it has water available there, too.  A rope strung over a rafter for lifting and a couple of saw horses with a sheet of plywood across them will mean all you need are sharp knives.  Some people think you have to scald and scrape the hairs off the hide, but you can skin a hog.

Not cold enough to kill your hog?  Think block ice and ice chests and cutting the carcass into manageable pieces as soon as possible.  Tip: Get your smoker ready!  Make your own bacon FTW!

Here is one of those cases where you need to "think outside the box".  Are you trying to end up with everything looking all nice and packaged like it came from the butcher or grocery store?  You don't have to cut it up in any certain way.  You don't have to use traditional meat saws, either.  (Cordless sawzalls are your friend).  I've seen chainsaws used to split carcasses and they are quick and effective, but watch where it throws the bone chips.  If you have a front-end loader on a tractor it can be used to transport or hang a carcass.  A roll of plastic can help keep down any mess for quick clean-up, as can using those paper feed sacks.  (Did you know that some places will buy those feed sacks back for a dime or so each?)

I'm not going to jump up and say your end result is going to win any beauty contest the first time out.  I'm not going to say it isn't a lot of work.  I'm not going to say paying the butcher isn't a bargain.  But doing your own butchering is definitely possible for you.  It is always easier to have another feller to help.  And it is definitely going to be a long day the first time you try it.

Did you know that a hog can replace your generator when SHFT?

Many years ago I watched a National Geographic special on China.  They showed a typical farmer's hut.  In the hut, one side was partitioned off for the family hog.  The hog was trained to "do it's business" in a corner.  Over the corner of the hog's pen was a large tin "funnel" about four feet in diameter that collected methane as it rose in the air.  A hose in the top of the collector ran across the rafters to a single burner for a cookstove and to a hanging gas-type lamp burner.

I'll bet it would also work to fuel one of those gas-type refrigerators.  One of these days, I'll perfect the whole system, LOL!

Feral,

I went back and looked at your August post where you first talked about getting some feeder pigs.  That barn is one serious asset and has a LOT of possibilities!  In that post, you asked:

Are there any websites like www.backyardchickens.com for the small scale hog raiser?

I don't know about them, but almost every state that I know of has a Co-operative Extension Service and has County Agents and Extension Homemakers in every county of the state.  Most of them have free online circulars and fact sheets of darned near any topic related to agriculture and rural living that can be imagined.  Another fun resource is intenet archive.  Search for the term "Swine".  Those old texts have a lot of useful info that is still relevant and some of their construction ideas are good.

I also noticed that you mow a lot of grass around your place.  I don't know how many acres you have there, but you might want to look into something called "Pasture Based Swine Management" (Google it).  Why mow it when you can use it for feeding your animals?  The reason I bring this up is because this is the time of year to have lime put on and it is the time of year to establish cool season grasses for spring pasturing.

I don't understand what has gotten into me with all of my comments on this thread.  Maybe you should re-title it, "Everthing you really didn't want to know about keeping a pig", LOL.  Sorry.

I read somewhere that skinned hogs don't produce hams that are good for smoking because there's too much of a fat layer left on. Any truth to that?

I have heard that, too, but I don't know the answer.  It seems to me that the fat is there whether you have a skin on the outside or not.  And the skin is only going to be on one side of the ham, it won't go all of the way around.  It would certainly be a greasy, slippery item to handle if it was left covered in fat.  Maybe that is why cured hams are hung in a mesh bag?  I have eaten smoked hams from skinned hogs and don't remember having any special problems with it.

If all you wanted to scrape was the hams, perhaps you could leave the skin on them when skinning the rest of the carcass?  Then just scald each ham by itself and scrape it.  That would be a much more manageable operation.

The next time I'm at a grocery store I'll look at the hams to see if they still have the skin on them, I just can't remember.

skinning a hog is the quick and simple way to butcher, plus it makes the dogs happy, that's the way I do them now since it usually just me doing the cutting, everybody else always got something else planned that day.

when I was a kid we did the scald/scrape and everything else associated with processing hogs, usually 4 to 6 hogs at a time, but there was at least 4 adults and 8 or so kids (aged 5 to highschool age);

us younger kids were charged with the cleaning/scald/scrape, making cracklin's out of the skin once it was off the hog, rendering fat and cleaning and making maws out of the stomach/intestines,

the older kids with our mothers washed/cut/bagged/ground/made sausage etc with the cuts of meat;

our fathers did the kill/gutting (the night before) then the butchering, prep'ed the hams/bacon/roast/links for the smokehouse.


we collected wood all summer long, part for drying corn after harvest, and part for hog/beef butchering when it got cold enough outside.

Sold all 3 halves (keeping the 4th half for ourself)

$300/each!!!!!!!!!! (fully processed, hams and bacon cured and smoked)

Hell, we should make a little money in addition to getting our own pork.

PLUS we already have people wanting it for next time, it hasn't even come back from the butcher yet and people want to put down deposits.

Originally Posted By BozemanMT: Sold all 3 halves (keeping the 4th half for ourself) $300/each!!!!!!!!!! (fully processed, hams and bacon cured and smoked) Hell, we should make a little money in addition to getting our own pork. PLUS we already have people wanting it for next time, it hasn't even come back from the butcher yet and people want to put down deposits.

That's super cool!

R.

yum

They look delicious.

A friend of mine's dad died the day before he was going to butcher a hog he'd been feeding.  The farm (and the pig) went to his son, who is a vegetarian.  It's the biggest, fattest hog I've ever seen... and will die of old age someday.  The joke is, that pig won the lottery.

Originally Posted By TxRabbitBane: They look delicious. A friend of mine's dad died the day before he was going to butcher a hog he'd been feeding.  The farm (and the pig) went to his son, who is a vegetarian.  It's the biggest, fattest hog I've ever seen... and will die of old age someday.  The joke is, that pig won the lottery.

Does that pig have a name?  Should call it "Lucky."  

R.

Bookmarked for the butchering and canning tutorial.  

Originally Posted By BozemanMT: oh yeah, kiss the grass goodbye.

yup

Originally Posted By Skunkum: Feral, I went back and looked at your August post where you first talked about getting some feeder pigs.  That barn is one serious asset and has a LOT of possibilities!  In that post, you asked: Are there any websites like www.backyardchickens.com for the small scale hog raiser? I don't know about them, but almost every state that I know of has a Co-operative Extension Service and has County Agents and Extension Homemakers in every county of the state.  Most of them have free online circulars and fact sheets of darned near any topic related to agriculture and rural living that can be imagined.  Another fun resource is intenet archive.  Search for the term "Swine".  Those old texts have a lot of useful info that is still relevant and some of their construction ideas are good. I also noticed that you mow a lot of grass around your place.  I don't know how many acres you have there, but you might want to look into something called "Pasture Based Swine Management" (Google it).  Why mow it when you can use it for feeding your animals?  The reason I bring this up is because this is the time of year to have lime put on and it is the time of year to establish cool season grasses for spring pasturing. I don't understand what has gotten into me with all of my comments on this thread.  Maybe you should re-title it, "Everthing you really didn't want to know about keeping a pig", LOL.  Sorry.

The only thing that I'll question is the liming of fields; (thanks to skunkum for your posts this is awesome info) here where we are in Texas liming the field is a guranteed way to hurt whatever you are trying to grow. Our pH is around 7.8 to 8.2 so we are more inclined to apply elemental sulphur to lower pH. Always check your soil samples to ensure you know what your land needs.

I remember in all of my ag textbooks how they always spoke of liming fields and how none of us had ever seen lime used. But we sure use a lot of sulphur and gypsum.