ok i have decieded to move the hogs out on the pasture, now can i put any other live stock with then? i was thinking our goats and or our calf. i think they will be ok , does anyone else mix livestock? i have put our pony, calf ,goats and pot belly together put never the hogs.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), June 18, 2000

Answers

I have put them with sheep, chickens, goats & horses, they establish who is boss pretty quick. Once I ran them together with some sheep and the old ewes would butt the young pigs around the feeder, later when the pigs were near grown the pigs would lift the sheep near off the ground with their snouts. Have fun!

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), June 18, 2000.

Remember hogs are predators and might eat newly born critters or perhaps even injure the mom if they are hungry. As it turns out, cow manure is an almost perfect vitamin and mineral supplement for hogs, particularly if you feed any grains, such as corn, which passes through undigested. They will soon learn a cow dumps soon after rising and have been known to nudge one up into standing for that purpose. Don't worry about eating the hogs, the manure won't affect them. During my calving season my neighbor's dog scours the field looking for fresh calf droppings. I suspose to him it tastes in chocolate.

-- 33399 (scharabo@aol.com), June 18, 2000.

We used to run hogs chickens & cattle in the same lot. Until I watched a pig snap up a chicken for dinner! Ken's right, running hogs & cattle is a real good idea. The cows utilize very little of the grain they eat & the hogs clean up after them. This increases the profit margin when you sell the extra butcher size hogs.

-- Okie-Dokie (www.tommycflinstone@aol.com), June 18, 2000.

In Australia, feral pigs are a predator on new-born lambs second only to feral foxes - in some parts of the country, not second. I wouldn't let pigs near smaller animals or weaker animals, and vise versa. That would include calves, as well.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), June 19, 2000.

renee,

You might be careful of horses and hogs. My horses hate the hogs for some reason. One day a hog was out and one of the geldings kept charging him and almost stomped him. Could just be my critters, but worth mentioning.

On the other hand, the pig and the donkey became fast friends and had a high old time....

-- Mona (jascamp@ipa.net), June 19, 2000.

Renee, I would plead with you not to put the goats in with the pigs. My friends in Tennessee, ran their goats(they got them from me)with the pigs in a large pasture. The pigs would eat the baby goats as they were being born. I got very upset over this, am not sure if they tried to kill and eat the big goats but know my friends ran out of goats and wanted more from me. I refused until they had a separate pen for the goats, that never happened. Finally they sold the farm and moved back to the big city. So PLEASE no goats in with the pigs. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), June 22, 2000.