I don’t know the right way to raise pigs. There are lots of schools of thought on it. You can raise them over the summer, or over the winter. You can raise them on grass or on concrete. You can raise them on hog feed or on milk or on slops.
We are not pig experts, but I’ll tell you how we raise ours.
Pigs can be raised year round in our area. A 20 pound feeder pig can be turned into a 300+ pound hog over a summer or a winter. I’ve been told it takes 7 months to do this in the winter. In the summer it can be done in 3-4 months. We do our pigs over the summer.
Pigs are easy. Give them water & food and they’ll be happy.
We attempt to raise our pigs on grass……..they always start on grass….. there used to be grass…… then the pigs show up and destroy anything living and green in the pen in approximately 3 hours months. I suppose we are raisin’em on mud. Which they don’t seem to mind.
In spring we buy an arbitrary number of baby piglets. Sometimes we buy 2 or 3, other years we have ended up with 17. You never know what animals are going to show up around here. These farm pigs are also called “feeder pigs.”
So, so, so cute!
We have a beautiful grassy pen for our little piggies (that will be nothing but mud soon).
We give them love.
We teach them how to drink from their drinker.
We built them a hutch to sleep in.
We even take them on walks.
Happy pigs.
But, then something changes.
First, they eat, kill, and destroy all the grass, shrubs, weeds, roots and life in the pen.
Next, they build a swimming pool.
Then they throw their food bowl in the middle of the swimming pool at night. So that pig-mommy (that’s me) has to get into their disgusting swimming pool in the morning and dig it out. While I wade in their sess-pool of sewage they like to nudge me in the butt with their snouts. ARG.
Then I have to clean the mucky, sludgey, funky, horrible, stanky, filthy, piggy-sewage off their food bowls (and off me).
And give them something wonderful to eat. So that tonight, they can throw their food bowl back into the middle of the swimming pool. So that tomorrow I have to go swimming with the pigs again.
I think they do it on purpose.
I think they are laughing.
If you don’t mind wading in a pool built by pigs, filled with pig sewage while they nudge you in the butt….. get yourself some feeder pigs in the spring.
The good news is if you hate it; it will be over in 3 months.
And… you will get to eat bacon, pork-chops, ribs, sausage, ham, pork-loin, pork-steaks, bratwursts, and lard for the next year. Yum!
The End.
For more on pigs:
- Keeping Pigs in Winter
- How to Move Pigs
- Raising Pigs – The Real Story
- Raising Pigs Update: Water, Fencing, Escaping, Hot Tubs, Swimming Pools and More Water
- Raising Feeder Pigs – Concrete or Pasture?
- Potbelly PIGS!!!!!!
- The Problem with Potbelly Piglets
- Can You Eat a Potbelly Pig?
- How do you Keep Coyotes Away?
- Get some Feeder Piglets Now & Have Fresh Ham for Easter
- Potbelly Piglets!!!!! The first 4 Days….2015/09/29
- Potbelly Piglets – Waking the Dead
- Fall on the Farm – Animals & Baby Animals
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OINK!
Candi
