Pig information needed

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My husband and I are thinking about getting a couple of pigs to feed our extra goat milk to. Do we go with the little one just weaned or do we go with one like about 75lb. or so. One reason I thought of the larger we'd like to have porkie to the packing house before the miserable heat of July and August. We are starting from scratch on this project and would aprreciate any suggestions on pens, feeders,and odor controll. I've heard of folks building their pens up off the ground , I've always heard pigs live to root and i don't want them to have a terrible quality of life. Do we mix corn or hog pellet with the goat milk, or just what? I appreciate any information and wish you all a glory filled day.

-- sherry mullins (chickadee259@yahoo.com), February 25, 2001

Answers

Well alot depends on what size you want them to be when they go to slaughter. We start w/ 25lbers or less and they go in Oct. Also DO NOT over feed them milk at first you will have very sick pigs,a couple of cups at each feeding is fine butwatch their poop. We mix milk and feed some folks feed straight milk.

We house them on the ground and yes they will rut anything up,fenceing must be stronge and tight{ours still get out}and as far as houseing we use a very simple hoop house w/ a trap roof.

They will sun burn so shape is a must and we like to give ours a nice mud pit to cool off in. As far as odor I really do not think they are any worst then most animals,remember what goes in determins what comes out. Milk will cause a different smell in the poop then a straight veggi. diet.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), February 25, 2001.


Hi sherry, I did the same thing last year and it was the first time for me. We bought a 40lb piglet in May and raised her to around 250 lbs, that took until the middle of Sept. We fed her on pelleted food, bread and any leftovers from the garden. She was also raised on pasture, meaning she was kept in 3 hog panels looped together in a large circle and we would move her every couple of days,very easy and very light to move.I had a lot of ground to clear and she did a great job, it also helped with her feeding.Pigs are very clean animals and will poop in one area, so if you can't move her, you can go in and shovel the poop out.Like the others said she needs shade from the sun and bad weather,maybe a simple "A" frame open ended shelter,water and good food.It was the best pork I have ever tasted, and was a fun project. This year I'm raising two of them and meat chickens.

Lots of luck to you

Carol Western NY

-- Carol Koller (ckoller@netsync.net), February 25, 2001.


Hi Sherry, I suggest you don't feed milk to your pigs, feed them yoghurt instead! Made from the milk of course and built up with the addition of grain or whatever.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 25, 2001.

I've raised a lot of pigs and have fed them some milk (mostly cow, some goat) and agree you should go light on it at first and just make sure they are doing alright on it. I would get a bigger pig or pigs at first if I wanted and avoid the heat, like you say. The fact of the matter is that if you feed a good quality pig even 30-60 days, then you can butcher him knowing he isn't full of chemicals and will still come out with some great pork. The main reason people start out with weaner pigs is that the finished product costs less, especially if you are not buying all commercial feed. I would caution you though, to buy a healthy, good quality animal. If you aren't familiar with pigs, have someone go along who is, if you can. Of course, even an experienced person may miss things; but it will sure help. I personally don't like buying pigs that come from absolutely filthy surrounding or that I think have been being fed a bunch of raw meat, etc. Remember that pigs real close to your house are gonna smell, and think about which way the breezes around your place usually blow. Pigs get a lot of useful minerals out of the soil, raise them on anything else and you have to at least give them handfuls of soil. The animal science internet sites of agricultural colleges, like Oklahoma State University have lots of good information. Other good sources are your local library and county extension agent. On one of those, I ran across some good info about examples of mixtures of feeds you could mix that give them the % protein (16?) that they need(I know that green alfalfa or clover is very good for them); but can't remember exactly where it was. Hope this helps. Oh, you could raise one now and then get another to kill late in the fall, kinda helps out on freezer space. Most of what I read says that two eat better than one cause they compete for the food. After raising two last summer for the first time in awhile, I think I could have stood a slower growing pig rather than the fighting over the food; but to each his own. Oh, you mentioned pens. Once my dad was short on cash when we needed some new pigpens. He got discarded pallets from grocery stores, etc. Held them in place with metal T-posts driven into the ground on either side and wired them together with bailing wire. Add a gate or just a way to climb in and out, and you are set. Stock panels with smaller openings at bottom(made for pigs, sheep, etc) work great also. The most important thing to remember about feeder pigs like this is to put them in a good sturdy pen to start with. Once any pig starts getting out, it is much more difficult to keep them in. Also, if you get a male pig or pigs, make sure they are already castrated unless you intend to do that yourself. Oh, and yes, mixing whatever other feed you have with the milk is great. Pigs have problems with dust and if you mix feed with milk or even water, it cannot cause a respiratory problem. Also, please make sure they have nice clean water. Pigs may like to make a mess; but they don't need gross, stagnant water. I only mention that because it is something I have seen a lot and it is not healthy. Good luck to you! Cynthia

-- Cynthia Speer (farmsteader@gvtel.com), February 25, 2001.

Cynthia you obviously enjoyed your pigs. I think they are animals that have the capacity to recognise a good life style when they see it and I am most unhappy when I visit a 'modern' piggery especially when I recall how my Dad and his brothers reared pigs. One of the few family heirlooms we have is a gold medal for a prize pig awarded to at an Edinborough exhibition in 18 hundred and something.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 25, 2001.


We don't raise them anymore but when we did,we started with pigs recently weaned.They were kept on a concrete floored pen with good shade.We fed goat milk mixed with goat feed.The goat feed was the regular 16 percent protein sweet feed.They also got whatever garden waste the goats did not want.Took us about 6 mos to get them to #1 size.Meat was delicious.We also feed goat chow to the chickens.It's just easier to keep one kind of feed.Now if we could just get the dog and cat to eat it.

-- JT in Florida (gone2seed@hotmail.com), February 25, 2001.

I get my pigs as weaners. They have a small dirt pen with a leanto for shelter. This has a strand of electric running low around the fence. I dug (with their help) a indention for water so they had mud to play in but they preferred their water pan so it had to be frequently refilled. (FYI, when a pig drinks water, it also lets out water. Funniest thing you could see) By keeping them watered, the heat didn't really bother them. I had made a self-feeder (e-mail me if you'd like a copy of the plans) for the pellets and gave them garden wastes and weeds (they also love worms) I kept the smell down by not feeding meat. I don't have goat milk so I don't know about it personally but someone I know said it raises the best pigs. I did train them to follow me for cookies though. This made it easier to get them back in the pen if they ever got out or load them when they had to go on the trailer. Mine were usually ready in November.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), February 25, 2001.

Hi, Sherry. We just sent 4 pigs to the butcher and we have raised several pigs each year for 4 years. We have always started with around 8 to 10 week old piglets, @25 to 30 lbs. We have a reputable breeder, neighbor that we get them from. We have had several types of pens, but I think the portable one we got from Countryside, worked the best. We kept two pigs in that one. It was 8 x 10 wooden fence panels on skids. One sheet of plywood over the back half for a roof. We needed a new area of pasture cleared, so the pigs did all the work! When the ground got all muddy, we just kept moving it. I don't know how hot it is where you are, but our pigs did alright through the summer here in S. Jersey. Generally, they get butchered around Thanksgiving. Milk does well after they are bigger. We put it over day old bread, that we get at the grocery store. This works really well to fatten them up. They still get pig-pellets that we buy from the feed store (broken bags) at a reduced rate. The one thing that I've noticed over the years, is the difficulty in keeping clean water in their pen. They always seem to like to tip it over! So this year with 4 pigs, to keep in water, we used a kiddie pool in the pasture that they were in this year. That seemed to work well. They couldn't tip it over, but, we had to wash it out a lot. Hope this helps you. Enjoy them, they are really fun, and more intelligent than you think!

-- Patti in NJ (pioneerpatti@msn.com), February 25, 2001.

Patti, we had trouble keeping our pigs water clean, until I made a waterer.Get some 5 or 6 inch wide pvc pipe,ours is a leftover piece about 4 ft long, cap the bottom end, put in a pig nipple( about$4.00) drill a hole in the pipe and screw in the pig nipple. Strap your waterer to the pen , we fill ours from the top and just cover it with a coffee can. The water stays clean and cool, I just fill it morning and evening. The pig nipples are stainless steel and are automatic, they wont run until the pig sucks on it. So much cleaner and easier than having to keep a bowl or pool clean. It's a really easy project and saves loads of time eventually.

Carol

-- (ckller@netsync.net), February 26, 2001.


We used to do pigs, even raised a litter off a homegrown sow and a tame sweet hog that was just about as big as a voltzwagon! In the end, their isn't enough dirt in Texas to fill the holes they dug, plus ours spent the days figuring way to get out of their pens. We finally just sold everything, and raised 2 weanlings in a 4 horse trailer. They were as healthy as could be, did give them an iron shot when we put them in, but other than that we didn't worm them or anything. We raised them on porky pellets (all grain) and all the goat milk they would drink. We also did our own butchering near the end, so we only grew them to a reasonable size, no more 300 pound pigs for us. The horse trailer idea is good because you simply hose it clean every day, move it every weekend, and hose the spilled grain and poop into the ground, our hens did all that work for us, and no loading for the trip to the butcher! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 26, 2001.


I think July and August is a great time to have pigs because they eat all the leftovers/peels from canning. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), February 26, 2001.

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