We have decided to take the next logical step and try raising a couple of pigs for slaughter in the fall. I have been reading alot but, like everthing else relating to homesteading, none of the book information seems to agree. So out with the books and I would like some information from folks who do it for real! Here's some questions I have:

• What type of fencing do you all use? Can you really keep pigs in electric fence or are you just buying trouble should the electricity go off or the fence shorts out? Seems to me, if it works, to be the cheapest and easiest..plus you could move it each year so you don't have parasite problems.

• What type of feeders and waters (we have to haul the water) do you use? I would think they could tip over most regualar type feeders/waters easily. I would like one that could be used from day one through slaughter time.

• Besides kitchen and garden scraps, etc., what types of grain besides corn do you feed? I have read just scraps and corn are not enough protien that a pig needs other types of grains. Can you feed wheat or oats?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and information!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), March 23, 2002

Answers

1. Cattle panels - poultry wire lined till they are to big to get through the holes. 4 16" panels work for a pen for three. 2. Water in a five gallon bucket wired to the fence. 3. We slop ours with 6 scoops of feed and bread mixed well in a five gallon bucket. I prefer this to dry feeding. Mix well with plenty of water. I gave our cucumbers once and they liked them so much that that is all they wanted...hehehe I don't feed corn cause it passes right through them, whole that is. Cracked is ok.

-- julie (jbritt@ceva.net), March 23, 2002.

The only advice on pigs I can share is:

"Don't wrestle with pigs. You get dirty and they just enjoy it."

Please apply where appropriate.

-- laura (lauramleek@yahoo.com), March 23, 2002.

No grain has enough protien for pigs. Good sources of protien include milk, whey, eggs, beans, alfalfa, clover, meat, etc.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), March 23, 2002.

We used the pig panels, like cattle panels but only 34 inches tall and the wire is set closer together for holding in little pigs. We have a stock tank with a pig adapter, a 'cutout area near the bottom that filled with water & had a float so it didn't overflow. We covered the top of the stock tank to keep suicidal birds from drowning as well as slowing down evaporation. We mixed our own grains with Purina pig chow, 50%pig chow, 30%cracked corn, 15%roasted soybean meal, 5% brewers grains fed free choice in a large pig feeder(600# capacity) we bought at an auction for $20. We never used commercial wormers/antibiotics but did use natural methods like diatamaceous earth for worming & fly control & burdock plants for detoxification. When our pigs went to the butcher the Inspector said that he seldom saw pigs with such clean livers, no worms & overall very healthy meat animals.:) Good Luck, Kathy

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@lycos.com), March 23, 2002.

The last time we raised pigs:

1. We used pig panels that are about 3 1/2 feet tall and 16' long. We used 4 to start out with and then later bought 3 more and added on one side. When the first section got to nasty we would take the center panel loose and let the pigs walk into the next section and then close the center section back up. The pigs were now in there new pen and all we would have to do is transfer there feeder, waterer, and lean-to shelter. Later we would transfer 3 of the first 4 panels that we started out with to the other side of the pen to get ready to transfer the pigs again. We kept doing this until butchering time.

2. We built a automatic feeder so we could keep feed in it all the time. We filled it with a starter feed for the first few weeks and then switched to a finisher later on. The waterer was made out of a 15 gallon plastic barrel that was cut in half long ways. Both halves was wired to the fence while setting on the ground. Later you may have to adjust the waterers after the pigs root under it. They can freely lift the waterers up, but they will always fall back down in place.

3. Unless your all organic, you can buy starter feed and finisher feed from your local feed store. If you know anybody that gets commodities you might could hit them up for there dehydrated milk powder and mix it and feed it to them in there feeder. When I was raising mine I happened to work at a hospital that was overflooded with outdated baby formula. Talk about making pigs grow!

Good luck!

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 23, 2002.

Sorry that was suppose to be "mix it and feed it to them in their waterer".

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 23, 2002.

Allof the above are true. BUT the most important is your source of water.

-- Elizabeth Quintana (rockshelter@webtv.com), March 24, 2002.

This is what I did, to raise a piggy for cheap. Bought 1 roll of poultry wire (10 dollars for 50 by 5 feet). Went down to the woods with an axe and cut a pile of saplings that were overcrowded. Found 4 trees growing in something like a square. Nailed the saplings to the trees to form a rudimentary log cabin. For the bottom rails, I used oak, poplar in the middle and top, and a piece of pine here or there. Then, on one end, I took 3 old pallets with good, close together slats and nailed them together to create (from above) a C shape. I nailed old plywood to the top and sheeted it with some tar paper and old shingles. The feeder was a hommade piece made like a V out of plywood with ends- the whole feeder was then nailed to the side of the pen. I covered the insides of the pen with chicken wire stapled in place, and rolled a bunch of rocks over underneath the bottm row of saplings o keep piggy from tunneliing for freedom. Watering is done in a old plastic car gas tank nailed to the side of the pen so the piggy cant tip it over. I feed pig feed, sweet feed, dog food, goat's milk, bread from the bread store (5 dollars per pallet) and some calf starter- what ever the feed store has reduced because of ripped bags or what ever. I try to mix everything up first. Piggy has yet to escape, the saplings are working like cheap hog wire!

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

I'm using combination panels and t-posts for fencing. (like cattle panels, but closely spaced at the bottom. On the inside, I run an electric fence wire at about nose height, using the yellow plastic fence clips that hold the wire about a handspan away from the panels. The charger is solar powered. Without the electric, my big sow walks right through the panels, mangling them as she goes.

For feeders, I have everything from a round 60 bushel automatic to shallow troughs. The big feeder serves two pens, the sow pen, and the feeder swarm. The boar has a 3 bushel feeder, and the mommas with babies use troughs. For just a few pigs, you can make a trough out of concrete, with a few eye bolts set into the corners so you can fasten it down. For summer water, I use 50 gallon plastic drums, with stainless steel hog nipples in the side. If you get one with an adjustable flow, you'll be able to use the same one from start to finish. Bungee strap them securely to the fence. If you can arrange it so that they catch water from the shed gutter, so much the better. If you're having overflow problems, just set a second or third barrel outside the fence, next to the first one, and use short pieces of hose to set up a siphon between the barrels. For feed, I get a custom blend from the local farm store. The protein comes from the soy meal (it's 40% protein) They also have cottonseed meal, but we decided not to use that because of the huge amount of chemicals that are used to grow the stuff. I was initially using 20% soy, but it wound up being too rich. The mineral salt is a blend appropriate for pigs. All of the critters love this blend, so if you have some left over, just use it for chickenfeed. I can get this pumped straight off the feed truck into the big feeder, for about half the cost of the commercial pig chow blends. (one ton for about $230 delivered) They'll also bag it up for me to pick up, if I'm loading the barn barrels.

50% cracked corn 15% soy meal 5% alfalfa pellets 5% milo 5% wheat 5% oats 5% canada pea 5% black oil sunflower 5% rolled barley mineral salt

I also give the piggies all of the table scraps, whey, and excess buttermilk, orchard thinnings, the pulp from cider and perry pressing season, spent mash from beermaking, and anything from the garden that's not worth taking to the house.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), March 24, 2002.

We haven't raised pigs for a few years now but used to raise a couple every year for butchering. The thing that is nice is that you raise them Spring and summer and butcher in the fall no having to care for them over the winter. We never used anythingto fancy for fencing them in. We used old pallets. It seemes every year when we first got the piglets they would dig out and the chase was on. But, once they realized where there food was the never attempted to leave. As for feeding them we used an old water heater cut in half. We fed them pig mash and mixed in all the leftovers we had. We used to get food for them breadstores and I think all those donuts those pigs got made the meat a little sweeter (I know my imagination is running here). When it would get near butchering time we would start them on cracked corn for the last few weeks. We always had good meat from the pigs. We would sell one and keep one for ourselves.

-- Irene Burt (renienorm@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

Good advice on all the other answers, but on the water issue, I would buy a pig nipple and screw it into a plastic barrel or piece of 5 or 6 inch drain pipe. Cap the end at the bottom, leave the top open for filling, then wire to the outside of your panels with the nipple sticking through. The water only comes out when the pigs suck on the nipple, so keeps it clean. If you put an open barrel in with pigs, they will try getting into it and wallowing, and if you have to haul your water, that's all you will be doing all day. If you want a picture I can probably e mail one of the pipe we made, so easy and only costs a few bucks to make.

-- Carol K (ck7951@bluefrognet.net), March 24, 2002.

Hi Karen,

All good advice so far. We have our big momma trained to a 3 wire electric fence. All 3 wires are fairly low starting at about 6 inches off the ground and then 8 inches above that and again 8 above that. We put plastic streamers on the wires so she can see them a little more clearly. We have her in a pasture so in addition to what she eats there we feed her hog finishing ration (14% protein). For little ones we feed the higher protein until they are about 4 months ols and then switch them over to the finishing ration. In addition she gets garden goodies, extra fruit from the trees, and goats milk when we have extra. We built a self feeder out of plywood that will hold about 3x50lbs bags of feed. On the waterer, we have a pig nipple attached to a piece of metal pipe, mounted on a board and attached to one of the wood posts of the fence. It has to stick out far enough that she won't get too close to the fence to drink. Sonce we have milder winters here, we just keep it hooked up to a garden hose and she has fresh water all the time. Boy can she drink! When we have littleones, we feed in a concrete trough and lower the height of the water nipple or T off and add a second one. The little ones need to be taught how to open the lids on the feeder too, but they catch on fast. They need a tighter fence until they are big enough to be held in by the electric. Graduated cattle panels work for that. Your pigs will need some shelter. If you live in a sunny place they will need shade and wallow space as they use mud to cover for protection from the sun and cooling. In cooler climates, they need a place to make a nest/bed to burrow in and keep warm. Ours loves her little shed that is closed on all sides except for a door, but has lots of cracks to allow good ventilation. We let our pigs work for us, in that the areas they dig and root up become rotaional garden. Best of luck in your pig adventures! Darlene

-- Darlene in W WA (tomdarsavy@cs.com), March 24, 2002.

Greetings, We raise pigs for ourselves. Do not use woven wire. And if you decide to try to use it-be sure that you have it weighted down or staked down-with deep stakes about every few inches. We like cattle or hog panels-but sometimes when the pigs get bigger they can root them panels right loose from each other. This year we had one get a big gash on a hip where it had pried loose the panel and tried to squeeze out. Of course we were on vacation and the chore person was frantic. I don't think a person can out-think a pig. We are going to try solar electric around the bottom this year. We feed table scraps, garden produce, corn, and lots of hay. We've tried soy but it makes the pigs stink so bad we can't stand it. When we back off the soy meal-you can stand right next to the pens and chat all day with them. They will eat anything that they can catch-don't be surprised if you end up missing a few hens, cats and keep your kids out of the pig pen. Our pigs gain slower and finish out later than those fed higher protein rations. This year we penned 4 feeder pigs into an area that was over grown with thistles. Wow did they root up that. We are anxious to see if we have any thistles growing. Knowing thistles-they will grow. Pigs get bored. They tug, shove, root and try to keep themselves entertained. Often we throw a ball in for them to shove around-or hunks of logs. We haven't found any water system or feed system that is pig proof. We bought some heavy rubber tubs that really hold up well with the pigs. The food is put into 1/2 water tank, wired to the fence posts. The pigs need a wallow and shade in the summer. We have wintered pigs outside here in zone 4 with a deep bedding system-the pigs did great. The boys would occassionally scoop out some of the bedding and the steam would rise. They had a composting bed warmer- and they stayed toasty. I like pigs-they are clever, smart, cunning, cruel. I was never so disgusted as when the pigs were eating live chickens. Gross! But it scared me to think what would happen to my kids if they ever got down in the pig pen. We team feed the pigs and the kids are not to be alone when working the pigs. I don't care what kind of a fence there is-the pigs will get out some time. Usually when you are on your way to church or have company coming. We have 2 Austrailian Shepherd dogs that are great help for rounding up loose pigs. Then there is the butchering. How do you load the pigs, get them to the locker or are you going to butcher them yourself? When you are trying to get them to go where you want them to go-they are difficult. We finally built a chute-it is not fool proof but it works most of the time. Pigs can jump, they are fast and STRONG. We've never kept a sow or boar. We've had lots of belly ruptures that farmers want to get rid of.....on dirt or hay-we have had zero problems. Most of the time the ruptures shrink-we don't force a high protein diet. The pigs always have food, hay, water.....eat at their leisure. I wanted to mention flies. We have several gallon jar traps that we empty often through the summer. The chickens will flock around eager for those jars to be emptied. We haven't got a good handle on the flies yet-the jars definately help and are non- toxic, organic, non-polluting..... Home grown pig is pure pleasure! Eating them that is. Raising them is a challenge because they are smart. Good luck, Kathy G

-- Craig Giddings (ckgidd@netins.net), March 27, 2002.

We keep our pigs in the barn so I can't help with that, but I can tell you what we feed them. I have a mix of crushed shell corn, soybean meal, wheat and oats made up. In addition, the school district pays my hubby to pick up their school lunch scraps five days a week. Most days that's all we need. Plus, PLENTY of water!

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), March 27, 2002.