Bringing Home the Bacon, by Raising Your Own Pigs

By Vernon Mayrose, James Foster, and Betty Drenkhahn.

Raising a few pigs can be interesting, fun, and a learning experience. It may also provide some income on a small scale for families who live on a few acres.

Pigs are very intelligent and can even become pets. However, they grow fast. Most pigs grow from about 3 pounds at birth to market weight at 225 pounds in about 6 months. It takes some 10 months from the time the sow conceives until her pigs reach market weight.

Pigs can be sold alive at a livestock market or perhaps processed into pork for home use at a local livestock slaughtering facility. The most important products from hogs are hams, roasts, chops, bacon, and sausage.

Before acquiring pigs, get additional information from your county agricultural agent, and check on local regulations about keeping animals.

The best ways of getting started raising pigs are: (a) buy a bred sow or gilt and produce a litter of pigs, then sell the litter as weaned pigs or grow them to market weight; (b) buy weaned pigs (feeder pigs) and feed them to market weight.

Although there are several breeds to choose from, it's best for the small operator to select crossbred animals. Crossbred sows are usually better mothers than purebreds. They farrow more pigs and faster growing pigs. They are more vigorous, and there is less death loss. They may also be lower in initial cost than purebreds.

The quickest way to produce a litter is to buy a bred gilt, or an older sow that has produced one or more litters. Select sows or gilts that have 12 to 14 well-spaced teats without deformity. Try to obtain breeding females that are themselves from litters of eight or more pigs. They should have structurally sound feet and legs. Select pigs that walk free and easy.

The pregnancy or gestation period is about 114 days. Usually 8 to 12 pigs weighing about 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 pounds each are farrowed. A gilt, a young sow in her first pregnancy, usually has fewer baby pigs than older sows that have produced one or more litters.

On the average, producers lose about 25 per cent of live pigs farrowed before they are weaned. With certain diseases, losses may reach,almost 100 percent. Mortality from weaning to market is usually less than 3 percent.

If you're raising only a few litters, it will probably not pay to buy a boar. Buy bred females or make arrangements with another swine producer to have females bred.

Another method of mating is by artificial insemination (A. I.). This is desirable for disease control but should be used only if good technical help is available, such as an A.I. technician or a producer who has had experience with A.I.

When buying feeder pigs, select pigs from a reliable source where pigs are raised under sanitary conditions. Pigs should be healthy, weaned, and started on feed. Buy pigs of uniform age and size that weigh between 35 and 60 pounds. Choose females or castrated males (barrows).

Shelter, Equipment

Pigs require shelter that is dry and free of drafts. The place where they will be kept should be completely ready before you bring them home. You will need an appropriate building, a shady place in summer, a good hog-tight fence, a self feeder or feed trough, and a waterer.

A simple house can be used for swine if it keeps out drafts, snow, and rain, provides shade in hot weather, and has a dry floor.

The hog shelter may be all or part of an existing older building or a small individual house. The simplest would be an A-frame that has a watertight roof which forms two sides of the building, and a rear wall. The front of such a house is usually open but can be fitted with a door. If your house is movable, face it away from the wind and don't place it where water puddles.

Keep the inside of the house dry, clean, and well-bedded with straw, peanut hulls, or wood shavings. Remove the bedding when it gets wet and dirty, and spread it on a field or pasture. To avoid complaints from neighbors about unpleasant odors, do not locate hog houses or haul manure within 500 feet of your neighbors.

In hot weather, hogs need protection from sun and heat. Hog houses should be made so they can be opened for good ventilation. Keep hogs out of airtight structures in hot weather. Trees give good shade; however, livestock should be fenced away from valuable trees.

Another method of providing shade is to place four posts in the ground, connect them at the top with a framework of poles, lumber, or wire fence, and cover with material such as straw that provides shade. The shading materials should be about 4 feet above ground.

Hog lots must be fenced hog-tight. For larger lots of several acres, woven-wire fencing (32 inches high), with a strand of barbed wire at the bottom of the fencing or just above the ground, works well. For smaller lots, temporary or permanent board fence (1 x 6 inch boards) or wire panels (about 35 inches high) will be easier to construct. Attach the boards or panels to steel or wood posts. Electrical fencing is satisfactory once Pigs are trained to it.

Hogs can be fed in a trough, pan, or self feeder. Make the trough long enough so all hogs can eat at one time.

If a self feeder is used, provide a feeder hole for each four to five hogs.

Hogs should have plenty of clean water at all times. A 35-pound pig drinks about a half gallon per day; a 225-pound hog, about 1 to 1-1/2 gallons; and a brood sow suckling a litter, about 5 gallons. You can use a heavy trough or pan that pigs cannot upset, a homemade waterer made from a steel drum, or an automatic or nipple waterer connected to a water line.