Anyone raise pigs for food?

My brother and I are tossing around the idea of getting a piglet or two to raise for food. This is day one of researching the subject. Anyone have some input or documentation to help me decide if this is something I want to tackle or not?

Bacon!!!!

If you can do this you are a better man than I. Little squeelers would become housepets within a day or two.

The ONLY thing I know about pigs (my friend in high school raised them) is that you have to let go of some human ethics in that part of how male pigs establish dominance is through rape. Not sure if that is at all helpful.

Bump! I have tossed the idea about getting a pig but not to raise for food. I would become too attached to it and I just want one as a pet/companion. If I do end up getting one I will name it Bacon!

You should find a local farm that will sell you one, help you kill, and butcher it. This will give you a good idea of whats involved. Breaking down a pig is a lot of messy, smelly, bloody work. Worst is if you don't know what you're doing when you kill the animal it will suffer.

Find someone who can guide you before jumping into this. Also, make sure you cam keep farm animals on your property before getting them.

They grow fast, eat a ton, get extremely strong, and can be extremely destructive, depending on the breed.

AZ_IPA said:

They grow fast, eat a ton, get extremely strong, and can be extremely destructive, depending on the breed.

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not to mention the manure . . . you ever spend time near a pig farm?

Great site/blog on pig farming (As well as a lot of other stuff)
Here's a link to his part of advice for raising pigs for meat
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2005/08/keeping-a-pig-for-meat/

Pretty cool how he grazes them.

Pumbaa said:

not to mention the manure . . . you ever spend time near a pig farm?

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Actually if you don't confine them to pens it isn't too bad

Pumbaa said:

not to mention the manure . . . you ever spend time near a pig farm?

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That's part of the destructive part.

Seems like a lot of trouble and work. Do you have feral hogs in Oklahoma? Read this!

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=449721

KingBrianI said:

Seems like a lot of trouble and work. Do you have feral hogs in Oklahoma? Read this!

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=449721

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Thanks for the info. I'm not sure about feral hogs. I know there are bobcats in the wood on my land tho. I'm very interested in getting one hog and giving it a shot. There will be two farmers my brother and I so Im assume the work wont be that back and or wallet breaking.

conpewter said:

Great site/blog on pig farming (As well as a lot of other stuff)
Here's a link to his part of advice for raising pigs for meat
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2005/08/keeping-a-pig-for-meat/

Pretty cool how he grazes them.

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Thanks for the info

My cousins raised all their own meat; pigs, cows, chickens, squab, etc. For the larger animals, they had someone come out to butcher them. I've also seen mobile butchers at the county fair who butcher the auctioned animals. BTW, thats also supposed to be a good way to buy a whole hog, etc, rather than raising one yourself. Some of the 4H people I know, said that they sell their pigs at the fair and then buy someone elses to eat themselves. This way they're not eating the pig they had come to know.

This site has some good information on butchering.

How many acres do you have?

TxBrew said:

How many acres do you have?

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10 acres

Pigs are the #1 nastiest smelling animal on the farm. They eat almost anything and turn it into bacon, though.

The only thing worse than mucking a pig pen is scraping chicken poop that' been built up in the coop. And it doesn't smell "bad", it's just impossible to breathe and burns your eyes.

Pig sht will make you gag and puke.

One or two pigs cant be that bad. This guy at work is trying to tell me to get a cow instead. Not sure if he is being a smartass or not tho.

KingBrianI said:

Seems like a lot of trouble and work. Do you have feral hogs in Oklahoma? Read this!

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=449721

Click to expand...

Wow, just wow. That is an epic thread.

Wife's family used to do it all the time, and we plan to as soon as we get enough land. They had one male and a couple females. Each female would have a litter every other year. When the piglets got old enough, they would send them to some one that would slaughter and butcher them. I am not sure of the cost, but I think they said once they sold all the piglets they were not going to eat, and paid for food and slaughtering, they broke even.

Get females or get the males castrated for sure, or maybe you plan to eat them before they get too big as male pigs can be mean, and I think the testosterone will make the meat tough.

Sounds like fun and hope you keep us all up to date.

If you decide to go for it & get a pig and I hope you do), you'll fing this book quite useful:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603424733/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Regards, GF.