Raising Pigs 101: Understanding Pig Sounds and Porcine Terminology

Enlarge Image Image Gallery If you’ve considered raising pigs, there is a lot you need to consider first. In “The Illustrated Guide to Pigs,” by Celia Lewis, readers are artfully taken through these considerations, as well as instructions for how to raise pigs after you’ve taken the plunge and brought some animals home. Read up on the basics, including the section excerpted here, all the way through slaughter and how to make your own bacon.   COVER: SKYHORSE PUBLISHING/CELIA LEWIS

The art of raising pigs begins with a strong foundation in the basics, including background knowledge in the terminology used to describe pigs and what different pig sounds usually indicate your animals are trying to tell you. Along with this important information, Celia Lewis’ The Illustrated Guide to Pigs (Skyhorse Publishing, 2011) provides whimsical watercolors of unique and heritage pig breeds, along with guidelines on how to raise these animals for meat, fun or both. The following excerpt is adapted from Chapter 1, “Why Keep a Pig?”  

There may be a number of reasons why you may be thinking of raising pigs, whether for meat, as breeding stock or as unusual pet. Learning how to raise pigs starts with the basics: Understanding porcine terminology and pig sounds (AKA: pigspeak). Don't miss a few sample illustrations, complete with pigspeak translations, in the Image Gallery.

Raising Pigs for Meat 

If you’ve never kept a pig before it is highly recommended that you start by raising a couple of weaners to supply your freezer and see how you do. This will entail buying in newly weaned pigs at around eight weeks old — these can be gilts or boars. You may have heard of “boar taint” (a taste or smell that may affect the meat of uncastrated male pigs) but this will not be an issue if your animals go for slaughter at 20 to 24 weeks before they reach sexual maturity. An added bonus of boar weaners is that you won’t be tempted to keep them to breed from which might be the case with gilts. If the weaners you bought are being sold for pork there may well be a good reason for this, such as poor conformation, and therefore they are probably not ideal for your foundation stock. 

Breeding Pigs 

Perhaps you want to keep a couple of purebred sows in order to produce weaners to sell yourself. If this is the case, make sure that there is a suitable boar nearby and buy the highest-quality registered stock that you can possibly afford. You may be able to buy an in-pig gilt which will overcome the problem of finding a boar for your first litter.