We got pigs

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Cascadian

Cascadian

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We just got two Weiner 🐖 🐖
They are about the 40 lbs. I think we paid too much they were $125 each. Back in Socal we got them for $60 but maybe that was a buddy deal? We wanted cattle but just aren't ready with cross fencing and stuff. We plan to grow them about 6 months to about 250 to 300 lbs and wack em.

The guy we got them from grinds his own feed. With the way things are we are a little concerned about feed availability. Stocking up is problematic with critters. I can provide updates as they grow if there is interest.
 
Cascadian said:
I can provide updates as they grow if there is interest.
Click to expand...

Yep......interested. Spent part of my youth living on a pig farm, actually that was just the small part we lived on, it was a huge dairy farm. Those pigs would eat anything. They loved rats and groundhogs, and birds. They were fond of "paper" shotgun sell hulls also.
 
I smell bacon!

I remember feeding the pigs just about everything we couldn’t burn. Amazing how they can turn garbage into the best tasting food!
 
I have long found it bewildering that people like pork, but make the most bizarre face if you mention "Bear Meat". They are nearly the same animal, configured slightly differently. One is abundant a free for the harvesting........the other is getting costly.
 
Near my hometown there used to be a bagel factory. I suppose you could call it a giant bakery. Anyway, during production of the bagels there would always be scrap or leftovers. Every couple days a local farmer who had a herd of pasture hogs would show up with a wagon and haul all those scrap bagels away to feed his hogs. Maybe you could find something similar in your area?
 
What is good food depends on the breed. Wild pigs, the kinds that are trying to destroy some of the southern states will eat anything they can forage, some pigs have to be fed grain. Be careful in your selection of breeds. Because of the colder winters in the areas I am looking at I am thinking Tamworth Hogs will be the best breed for us. They won't need grain and can feed themselves given the acreage. They can breed through the winter without heat or extra feed and they are intelligent and like to be around people they know. All pluses for a breeding stock on a self sufficient homestead.
 
I just bought 1500 lbs of peanut skins for critter feed for $100. Search around you'll find a deal. You got modern pigs we have heritage hogs. The big difference is the speed of growth and feeding. Ours take about 3 years to get to butcher size 200-250. They also mostly forage for food as long as there is stuff to forage. Also brewery grains are great and often free or cheap. Food banks are always looking to give away the food that's leftover / going bad. A guy I know gets a pickup and trailer load a week from one food bank. Also remember you can put those pigs to work tilling future garden spaces or between seasons. They also do a masterful job of cleaning up cutover land. We are looking to harvest for the first time this winter. From what I've been told the meat and lard is 5 star and only sold in the best restaurants.
 
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SheepDog said:
What is good food depends on the breed. Wild pigs, the kinds that are trying to destroy some of the southern states will eat anything they can forage, some pigs have to be fed grain. Be careful in your selection of breeds. Because of the colder winters in the areas I am looking at I am thinking Tamworth Hogs will be the best breed for us. They won't need grain and can feed themselves given the acreage. They can breed through the winter without heat or extra feed and they are intelligent and like to be around people they know. All pluses for a breeding stock on a self sufficient homestead.
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Sounds similar to our American heritage guinea hogs.
 
The American heritage guinea hogs are a smaller breed and less cold tolerant. I would have to feed those throughout the winter which would raise my costs substantially. I will grow buckwheat to provide for the mid winter feed supplement along with hay and straw. I have the plan to have two pasture areas where one will be in use while the other recovers. The recovery will include spraying with compost and rolling the ground. It will take an average of 45 days to be ready for re-habitation.
 
There once was a bread factory in the big town that also used to have their own delivery service to grocery stores. There was usually a waiting line of small farmers with hogs for bread that had gone stale. It'd be picked up and returned to the bakery and available at the end of the week.

My uncle was one, he'd pick up barrels of this stale, sliced white bread. Pour in 10 or so gallons of water to soak it down then pour into feed troughs for his hogs. It made great hog feed, the bread had all the vitamins/minerals and nutrition a growing child needed, or pigs.

This might be a source... find a few local bakers who like bacon and you're set! The proverbial symbiotic relationship.
 
Tamworth hogs are not supposed to eat grains. I will grow oak and walnut to supplement their diet, especially mid winter. I will also have buckwheat for them, the cattle and the chickens. (some for my hotcakes too)
 
Sourdough said:
I have long found it bewildering that people like pork, but make the most bizarre face if you mention "Bear Meat". They are nearly the same animal, configured slightly differently. One is abundant a free for the harvesting........the other is getting costly.
Click to expand...

Fortunately they aren't abundant down here!
 
Tamworth Hogs are an old breed & forge better than all lard hogs, as do most lean bacon hogs. I was told they can eat corn, about 55% hog feed & 45%
forge before they are really to butcher. There a few farms in South Carolina, that raised Tamworth.
Some use organic grain as well as forging, some use conventional grains & forging.
One farmer gets $3.00 a pound, which is $500.00 for a whole hog after butchered.
 
Biggkidd said:
Sounds similar to our American heritage guinea hogs.
Click to expand...

we had a few of those last year and I will not have them again. Half my freezer is full of lard. They had way too much fat on them. They taste good, but not worth the money to pay to butcher them. If we get pigs again I am going to get "regular' pigs. I think there are reasons why grocery store food animals are the breeds they are.
 
Tamworth piglets
Pig breeds were traditionally classified as one of two types, lard or bacon. Lard breeds were used to produce lard, a cooking fat and mechanical lubricant. These pigs were compact and thick, with short legs and deep bodies. They fattened quickly on corn, and their meat had large amounts of fat in it. This was considered desirable for improved taste and keeping qualities of the pork. In contrast bacon pigs were long, lean, and muscular. They were traditionally fed on legumes, small grains, turnips, and dairy byproducts, feeds which are high in protein and low in energy. As a result, bacon pigs grew more slowly and put on more muscle than fat. Almost all American pig breeds were considered lard types, with only the Yorkshire and the Tamworth classified as bacon breeds.
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/historypigs
 
sonya123 said:
we had a few of those last year and I will not have them again. Half my freezer is full of lard. They had way too much fat on them. They taste good, but not worth the money to pay to butcher them. If we get pigs again I am going to get "regular' pigs. I think there are reasons why grocery store food animals are the breeds they are.
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We will either butcher ourselves or trade a hog for butchering two.
 
Never skin a hog until about 3 years ago, we always scraped them. My son had a 350 pound hog & he wanted to skin it.
He had it cut up by a pro, so I did not get to quarter it.
We hung it in a pine tree over a gut hole, covered the scrapes & move the carcass to the botcher's table.
 
Rabbit the easies animal I have ever skinned, deer then hog, chicken was difficult the first time.
Catfish is not fun ether. Every one I knew only kelp the dove & quail breast, but Father away had us clean the whole bird.
It was one of those life lessons about waste not want not.
 
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