[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Thoughts on Pigs and Pig Raising (Page 1 of 4)
Posted: 10/27/2014 8:26:57 AM EDT
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I'm going to post random thoughts about pigs in this thread.
Feel free to add your own. 
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every thing I know is posted here. |
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feral what is your current cost per hog to raise out to 250 lbs or so? It usually takes about 700 pounds of feed per pig. This year we are feeding a spendy non-GMO feed but we've also opened most of our feeder pigs onto ~3 acres of pasture. Not sure how the costs and consumption will total out this year. If I were buying bagged commercial hog grower, I'd spend about $140 in feed alone to bring each pig to market weight. There are, of course, numerous other costs. Fencing, equipment, costs to maintain our two sows, AI costs, vaccines, vet bills, etc., etc.. |
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I have read where some will feed expired dog food to pigs. Are there any things that shouldn't be fed to pigs, commercial feed wise? Specifically like bagged cattle feed? That's a straightforward question that doesn't have a straightforward answer.
You can feed pretty much any animal feed (that I'm aware of) without poisoning them. Make sure it's clean and NOT MOLDY. Not moldy is important. Is feeding "any old thing" the best for your pigs? No, it isn't. Will your pigs make market weight regardless of what you feed them? Yes, they will.....it just depends on how much time you have. Does it matter, in the long run, if you're raising a couple of feeder pigs for your family's table? No, it probably doesn't. (But I could debate that.) |
I always enjoy reading your threads about porkers. Tagged. 
Looks like some family of mine might start with pigs sometime soon so I sent them all your yearly pig threads that I could find. They recently moved to the family farm and want to have chickens, pigs, goats, and eventually cattle. |
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I have read where some will feed expired dog food to pigs. Are there any things that shouldn't be fed to pigs, commercial feed wise? Specifically like bagged cattle feed? For a few years, I was getting 1-2000 lb of premium, out of date dog food every 6 months. For free. Makes NICE hogs. Also feed excess goats milk, table scraps, beaver and muskrat carcasses (cooked) etc, but mostly dog food/comm feed. |
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I'm thinking of getting a pig or two for meat. A project to do with the kids. Where would you send a pig newb to read up on them? Breed? They seem to be going for $100 on CL for 10 week old Yorkshire Cross. The Storey's Guide to Pigs is a great starting place. IMO, breed doesn't matter for your first go round. I would suggest avoiding pink pigs as they're prone to sunburn. If you're buying from a big commercial outfit (likely if you're looking at Yorkshire crosses) see if the farmer will pull pigs with some color on them. York crosses usually have some Duroc and Hampshire in them at least. |
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What breed are the red ones in the OP? We had a couple of Tamworths in with our Berkshires and they were just mean. The Berks are pretty docile, except for the sow that killed all of her litter and ate the bodies off half of them. She made good sausage. Summer of 2013 we had about 50 head from little pigs up to the 500# boar. We gave up on farrowing and buy weaned pigs now to raise out. Our sows would have 12-14 in a litter and by weaning we might have half left. We do well once they're weaned. We feed non-soy, non-gmo feed and all the grass they can eat. Pigs love grass, but the idiots root it up. They'll also tear up a wrecking ball. |
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More pics?
One of our two sows. They're 50% Duroc and 50% Ossabaw Island. 
She's a big girl and she's gotten bigger since that pic was taken last spring. The dappled sow is probably around 550 pounds. Her sister is around 500 pounds. 
Here's a nice tableau of most of our feeder pigs. Gotta love the rainbow. 
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I wish my 4 went to slaughter a month ago instead of 2 weeks from now. I feel your pain. 
Our preferred processor only does deer in November and December. We have to wait to take our feeders until the first week in January and they're currently taping at 160-180 pounds. We'll see how it goes. |
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This is a good time of year to pick up pumpkins for free or cheap. Pigs love em.
Over wintering works well in Virginia but has been challenging. They root up the nice grass then the fall and winter rains come in and the place becomes a mess as the water fails to absorb and run off. I am going to try to the nose rings next batch. |
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Quoted: This is a good time of year to pick up pumpkins for free or cheap. Pigs love em. I just got 20 pumpkins for next to nothing. Pigs do indeed love them. The sows break into them immediately but the smaller pigs have to work at it. It gives them something to do other than tear shit up.  |
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The Storey's Guide to Pigs is a great starting place. IMO, breed doesn't matter for your first go round. I would suggest avoiding pink pigs as they're prone to sunburn. If you're buying from a big commercial outfit (likely if you're looking at Yorkshire crosses) see if the farmer will pull pigs with some color on them. York crosses usually have some Duroc and Hampshire in them at least. Quoted:
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I'm thinking of getting a pig or two for meat. A project to do with the kids. Where would you send a pig newb to read up on them? Breed? They seem to be going for $100 on CL for 10 week old Yorkshire Cross. The Storey's Guide to Pigs is a great starting place. IMO, breed doesn't matter for your first go round. I would suggest avoiding pink pigs as they're prone to sunburn. If you're buying from a big commercial outfit (likely if you're looking at Yorkshire crosses) see if the farmer will pull pigs with some color on them. York crosses usually have some Duroc and Hampshire in them at least. I just ordered the book. Thanks for the link. I'm looking at pigs on Craigslist. Most look like backyard breeders and not big farms. I'll definitely get a darker pig. We have 362 days of sun each year. |
| Last years hogs were raised on scraps, garden vegetables/waste (e.g. cores and outer leaves of cabbages, sweet potato leaves and sweet potatoes that the the voles got into etc) and countyside organics soy free feed. It was expensive but the pork we got didnt have the soy taste. This year its acorns, like the old days. I am sure Dave15's dog food fed pork made some good korean and chinese food (;)), but has anyone played with fancy (or not) feeds for desired pork taste? |
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Quoted: Last years hogs were raised on scraps, garden vegetables/waste (e.g. cores and outer leaves of cabbages, sweet potato leaves and sweet potatoes that the the voles got into etc) and countyside organics soy free feed. It was expensive but the pork we got didnt have the soy taste. This year its acorns, like the old days. I am sure Dave15's dog food fed pork made some good korean and chinese food (;)), but has anyone played with fancy (or not) feeds for desired pork taste? |
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Acorn fed hogs are supposed to be amazing. Obviously there's more to it than just acorns, but that's one of the big things.
Inside the Secret World of Super-Premium Spanish Jamon Iberico |
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There is (was?) a Prof at Va Tech that was finishing hogs on acorns and then making some crazy, complicated, fancily named ham that sold for crazy money.
Can't recall the details and too lazy to look, but may turn up in a search. I've had hogs that simply would not do much with pumpkins (other than play) and others that couldn't get enough. Same with apples, etc Had a friend who TRIED feeding surplus produce almost exclusively to a few hogs and was not happy at all with the finish. I've never noticed much difference with ours between straight store bought rations, straight dog food ,etc Usually they get a mix, a wide variety, usually to reduce my costs, but then, they are opportunistic feeders by nature. We've actually been feeding lots of pin oak acorns to a couple turkeys: will see how they turn out in a couple weeks ETA: Not the story I was looking for, but same idea. $96/ lb ham?????? 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112700620.html |
| I miss having pigs. The thing I miss the most about selling my farm. Used to get bowling balls at yard sales they like to roll them around and play with them. Worm them they put weight on quicker for sure. I liked to feed a ground feed my local guy and I would make. I'd pick up corn ears after harvest left in the field grind it with commercial feed and put some clover bales in it too. And I liked my hogs at the 325-350 mark before I took them to the butcher. Damn I hate living in town |
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I just got 20 pumpkins for next to nothing. Pigs do indeed love them. The sows break into them immediately but the smaller pigs have to work at it. It gives them something to do other than tear shit up.
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This is a good time of year to pick up pumpkins for free or cheap. Pigs love em. I just got 20 pumpkins for next to nothing. Pigs do indeed love them. The sows break into them immediately but the smaller pigs have to work at it. It gives them something to do other than tear shit up.
We gave ours a bunch of scraps last year, including some ornamental gords. Last week we found volunteer ornamental gords and jalapeno peppers, ripe and ready to pick, in the pig pen! |
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Okay so it went off without a hitch. I built a loading ramp/chute that worked perfect. Had all four loaded in about 30 min from setup to shutting the trailer door. Sorry but I didn't get a chance to take pics. I'll know my hot carcass weights in a few days. Glad to hear that everything went well.
How much are you paying for kill/cut? |
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Last year our bills came to about $100 for kill, cut, wrap, & freeze for half a hog. That included curing hams & bacon and making scrapple. My hot carcass weights for this batch were 250, 274, 285 & 285. That's pretty close to live weight from what I understand. I'm real happy with the weights, I was afraid they were in the 325-340 range. |
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Last year our bills came to about $100 for kill, cut, wrap, & freeze for half a hog. That included curing hams & bacon and making scrapple. My hot carcass weights for this batch were 250, 274, 285 & 285. That's pretty close to live weight from what I understand. I'm real happy with the weights, I was afraid they were in the 325-340 range. Those are good weights no matter what! DO check to see how your processor is defining hot carcass weight. You NEED to know this. My understanding of HCW is that it's equivalent to hanging weight not live weight. In other words, it's the weight with guts and organs out, head and skin off but before chilling. Knowing exactly how HCW is being defined will be critical to knowing whether you're getting back the amount of meat you should. |
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Last year our bills came to about $100 for kill, cut, wrap, & freeze for half a hog. That included curing hams & bacon and making scrapple. My hot carcass weights for this batch were 250, 274, 285 & 285. That's pretty close to live weight from what I understand. I'm real happy with the weights, I was afraid they were in the 325-340 range. We are quite a bit more than that out here. IIRC, it's .70 a pound, $1.10 for cured, plus a $70 kill/ clean/ haul for the mobile fella. At that rate, I'll be $300+ per pig... It was about the same at two places. I'll be shopping around to try and find a better deal. |
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We are quite a bit more than that out here. IIRC, it's .70 a pound, $1.10 for cured, plus a $70 kill/ clean/ haul for the mobile fella. At that rate, I'll be $300+ per pig... It was about the same at two places. I'll be shopping around to try and find a better deal. Quoted:
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Last year our bills came to about $100 for kill, cut, wrap, & freeze for half a hog. That included curing hams & bacon and making scrapple. My hot carcass weights for this batch were 250, 274, 285 & 285. That's pretty close to live weight from what I understand. I'm real happy with the weights, I was afraid they were in the 325-340 range. We are quite a bit more than that out here. IIRC, it's .70 a pound, $1.10 for cured, plus a $70 kill/ clean/ haul for the mobile fella. At that rate, I'll be $300+ per pig... It was about the same at two places. I'll be shopping around to try and find a better deal. I dunno, you're not doing too bad there. Particularly if you like the end product. Dieselguy is at $200 a hog but you're getting kill-on-farm. I find that it's always the a la carte stuff that makes the butcher money. I don't begrudge them that as they have to make money too. When we were doing things on the cheap it cost us about $125 a hog to get kill/cut/grind and the bacons and hams smoked. That was a great deal. But at that price we got our meat back unfrozen and unpacked. We would vac pac and freeze it all ourselves. When I factored in the time I was spending vs. the cost savings, I came to the conclusion the I'd let the butcher do the extra work. YMMV.
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I dunno, you're not doing too bad there. Particularly if you like the end product. Dieselguy is at $200 a hog but you're getting kill-on-farm. I find that it's always the a la carte stuff that makes the butcher money. I don't begrudge them that as they have to make money too. When we were doing things on the cheap it cost us about $125 a hog to get kill/cut/grind and the bacons and hams smoked. That was a great deal. But at that price we got our meat back unfrozen and unpacked. We would vac pac and freeze it all ourselves. When I factored in the time I was spending vs. the cost savings, I came to the conclusion the I'd let the butcher do the extra work. YMMV.
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Last year our bills came to about $100 for kill, cut, wrap, & freeze for half a hog. That included curing hams & bacon and making scrapple. My hot carcass weights for this batch were 250, 274, 285 & 285. That's pretty close to live weight from what I understand. I'm real happy with the weights, I was afraid they were in the 325-340 range. We are quite a bit more than that out here. IIRC, it's .70 a pound, $1.10 for cured, plus a $70 kill/ clean/ haul for the mobile fella. At that rate, I'll be $300+ per pig... It was about the same at two places. I'll be shopping around to try and find a better deal. I dunno, you're not doing too bad there. Particularly if you like the end product. Dieselguy is at $200 a hog but you're getting kill-on-farm. I find that it's always the a la carte stuff that makes the butcher money. I don't begrudge them that as they have to make money too. When we were doing things on the cheap it cost us about $125 a hog to get kill/cut/grind and the bacons and hams smoked. That was a great deal. But at that price we got our meat back unfrozen and unpacked. We would vac pac and freeze it all ourselves. When I factored in the time I was spending vs. the cost savings, I came to the conclusion the I'd let the butcher do the extra work. YMMV.
Hey, thanks. A buddy did recommend one of the butchers. I finished my book you recommended. Plus a few other books. Looks like I'll be a little into a few panels, pig shed, and feed. I'm trying to hold off till Jan to buy a feeder.
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I feel your pain.
Our preferred processor only does deer in November and December. We have to wait to take our feeders until the first week in January and they're currently taping at 160-180 pounds. We'll see how it goes. Quoted:
Quoted:
I wish my 4 went to slaughter a month ago instead of 2 weeks from now. I feel your pain.
Our preferred processor only does deer in November and December. We have to wait to take our feeders until the first week in January and they're currently taping at 160-180 pounds. We'll see how it goes. Feral and Diesel, Help me out here, what's the problem here? Pigs too big, too small, help a brotha out! thanks, |
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Feral and Diesel, Help me out here, what's the problem here? Pigs too big, too small, help a brotha out! Here's my two cents. If you look at how hogs grow, there's a 'sweet spot' where they have grown as efficiently as they they can. If you butcher them before they hit that sweet spot, you're haven't maximized your hogs growth. But if you wait until after the sweet spot, you will have spent more money feeding the hogs for less gain. The sweet spot occurs when hogs are at about 250-275 pounds live weight. When they get bigger than that they continue to grow but more slowly. But they're still banging the feeder even while they're growing more slowly. And they're not eating LESS while they're growing more slowly. They're actually eating MORE! So.....butchering too soon is a waste....and butchering too late is a waste. I could yammer on....but I'll stop there. 
HTH. |