Raising Pigs of Your Own

By Randy Kidd
Published on May 1, 1980
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PHOTO: RANDY KIDD
When raising pigs, it's a good idea to provide a mud wallow or sprayer.

If you’d like to enjoy pork that costs only pennies (not dollars!) a pound and tastes far better than the plastic-wrapped meat you buy in a supermarket, you ought to consider raising pigs of your own. Just one of the chunky critters can produce a great deal of premium, low-priced meat for a homesteading family . . . and the four-legged garbage disposals can be fattened on a diet that consists of little more than garden by-products and kitchen leftovers!

What’s more, if you begin–as many folks do–with already weaned piglets, you’ll bypass the somewhat difficult task of hog breeding . . . and find that simply rearing the animals is downright easy. In fact, in the short space of the article you’re reading right now, I’ll provide you with all the basic information you’ll need to produce healthy–and meaty–porkers from purchased, pint-sized piglets.

Recognize Your Market

You should be aware — right from the start — that the best “marketplace” for your home grown pork will be your own dinner table. Of course, if you eventually “harvest” more meat than you can use, many folks will be willing to buy (or trade for) some of your fine-flavored victuals . . . but there’s a world of difference between bartering off a little extra bacon and competing in the commercial pig-raising business.  A four- to eight-week-old piglet should weigh anywhere from 20 to 50 pounds and will probably cost you around $35. (Note: This price is a very rough estimate.) If you caretake the animal for about five months (until it weighs 200 to 220 pounds), the butchering-size critter will yield approximately 135 pounds of “retail” meat products . . . consisting of roughly 24 pounds of ham, 20 pounds of bacon, 17 pounds of pork roast, 18 pounds of picnic shoulder, 7 pounds of pork chops, 8 pounds of sausage, 7 pounds of “miscellaneous” cuts, 6 pounds of salt pork, and 31 pounds of lard. (You may also want to utilize some of the “extra” pig parts in the form of scrapple, sweetbreads, chitterlings, or “mountain oysters.”)  Be careful, though, not to raise your animal to beyond that prime butchering weight of 200-220 pounds. Why? Because such a “market size” hog has reached the optimum stage of growth: Let the curly-tailed critter get any bigger and the animal’s further poundage gains will be expensive (in terms of the feed required) and will consist of little more than extra fat.  By the way, each porker you raise to maturity will produce a large supply of manure ( about 1.6 pounds per 100 pounds of pig per day) for your garden, too. Of course, that kind of productivity can be a drawback for a few would-be swine raisers . . . because some communities have local ordinances against the ever-present “essence” associated with pig manure. (On the other hand, folks with their minds on their gardens–and wallets–become almost partial to piggly aromas.)

Build Your Animals House Well

There’s only one really difficult chore associated with raising weaned piglets . . . keeping the mobile pork chops at home. Restricting a small swine’s whereabouts may sound like a simple enough task, but Mother Nature provides each pig with a snout that’s perfectly designed for assaulting barricades. Any pig fence you build will have to be strung tighter than the fifth string on a banjo–especially where the barrier is closest to the ground–if you expect to keep your porkies from prying their way between the stays.  You can construct a taut welded-wire fence, a sturdy wooden enclosure, or a two-stranded electric fence consisting of a bottom cable six to eight inches above the turf with a second line eight inches above that. (None of your restrainers will need to be more than 32 inches tall, though, because pigs can’t jump very high.) You might also want to dig a trench under your barricade and fill that ditch with old logs or rocks . . . to discourage any porcine tunneler’s “Great Escape” plans.  My own experience has convinced me that creating a truly hog-tight fence is no easy endeavor. In fact, I spent one entire summer chasing a batch of root-loving runaways out of my vegetable garden. I finally gave up and bought commercial hog panels to keep the piglets where I wanted them. (The 16-foot, quarter-inch steel grid segments have done the trick for me, but — at around a dollar per running foot — such pig-stopping walls are pretty dang expensive.)  In addition to fencing, you’ll need to construct a shelter for the animals . . . and provide them with a way to cool themselves off. Just about any three-sided, roofed house (even an enclosure made from old hay bales, will protect your livestock from storms and winter winds. But since pigs don’t pant very effectively–and don’t sweat at all–you’ll need to be absolutely certain each pork-producer has 15 to 20 square feet of shade (with the shadow-making object located at least four feet off the ground). It’s also wise to provide a mud wallow or a sprayer . . . so that any “roasting” pig can cool off during especially sultry weather.

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