ADVENTURES IN

 RAISING PIGS

by Wanda & Jay Lynch

Of all the "homesteading" adventures that we have had over the years, I have to say that raising pigs was the most fun. We had talked about buying a couple weiner pigs but never got around to doing it. Then one day when I was out on my yard sale jaunt, I came across a moving sale and in a pen were two of the cutest pigs! There was no mention that they were for sale so I asked the guy if they were and he said yes. So I paid $50 for the two pigs (they were bigger than weiner pigs) and called Jay at work to inform him that we were now the proud owners of two cute pigs. His mom refused to let me put them in her van (!) so I told the guy we would pick them up on Saturday. It was Thursday when I bought them!

At first Jay didn't believe me but I soon had him convinced that I was serious. Then he started to panic because we didn't have anywhere to put them (I didn't think about that!...rule #1!!).

 

But after he got home and looked around he decided that he would just buy pig fencing and put it up in the horse corral (we no longer had the horses!). An elderly neighbor of ours suggested using hot wire along the bottom of the fence so we wouldn't have to bury the fence. So Jay strung hot wire too. The corral was hooked onto the back of the shop (our barn area) so the pigs had a place to get out of the weather. We went to the feed store and purchased a bag of hog grower, a bale of straw for their bed, and fixed up a water system. Then on Saturday morning we (me, Jay, Jenni, and her friend) all climbed into our old 1969 Chevy 1/2 ton Van to pick up our new pigs. We should have known then what an adventure it would be. While trying to load them, one pig got away and it was quite the merry chase to catch it! We finally had both loaded in the van and headed home. Jenni's job was to make sure the pigs didn't try to get up front and she was none too happy about it. Being in an enclosed area with pigs is very smelly business!! Thankfully we didn't have far to go and so began our adventures in raising pigs!
The people that we had bought the pigs from didn't feed them any feed. Instead they picked up bean sprouts from a lady in town who grew them in her basement. The sprouts he got were the ones that weren't able to be sold. Jay took over the route but only for a week before we decided that we definitely didn't want to feed them just sprouts. Plus it was a messy, smelly job! We fed some to the chickens but ended up dumping most of it for compost. The pigs were almost six months old but were only the size of three month old pigs due to a diet of only sprouts. But once we started feeding them MOBC (molasses, oats, barley, corn) they started growing at a healthy rate. We also stopped at the discount bakery stores and bought pig bread whenever they had it. One thing about pigs, they are great at eating all the leftovers!! They even liked weeds out of the garden. The biggest obstacle we have had raising pigs is trying to keep feed costs down!

Jay enjoyed the pigs so much that him and his friend decided they wanted to go into the pig raising business. So we traded one of our gilts (a young female pig that hasn't had a litter yet) to Willy for a barrow (a young castrated boar) and he bred the gilt with his neighbor's boar.

In the spring he also gave us two females from the litter in exchange for bread that Jay brought him to feed the pigs. Jay picked out a white pig and a black pig so he could tell them apart. We used both of them for breeding when they were old enough and butchered the other two. The drawbacks to the black pig was she had a tendency to have Hampshire looking pigs (black with a white band around their front shoulders) which are shorter and tend to have a lot more fat on them as opposed to Yorkshire pigs (white) which are longer, leaner, and better bacon. However, the black one did have larger litters. I read that in the olden days the black pigs were popular because of their fat that was used for lard and making soap. Black pigs also have a tendency to not burn from the sun due to their darker color. So we went from having two cute pigs to having two sows and a boar (Jay and Willy went in half to get a boar so they wouldn't have to pay to breed the sows)! We raised them all from the time they were small and they were pretty gentle. But full grown pigs get very big and caution is advised when around them. Our two sows weighed between 650-700 pounds and the boar weighed in a whopping 800! Very powerful animals and strong fences are very important!

 
FENCING

Jay used hot wire around the perimeter of the fence and it worked very well. He put the hot wire 4-6 inches off the  ground and the pigs quickly learned not to try to root under the fence! When he built the other three pens he used old lumber that our neighbor gave us and pig wire. The adult pens didn't have hot wire, just sturdy wooden fencing. The corner posts were made from cedar trees that Jay cut on our property and peeled. It is important to check the fencing often...several times a week at least. Pigs like to chew on the wood and scratch their backs on the posts! With the heavy weight, they can loosen fencing in no time at all! When hot wire is run up and over the fence, be sure that it is shut off before attempting to climb over the fence! Jay learned first hand about that. I happened to be standing there when he did it and it took me a couple seconds to figure out what he was hollering about. I am ashamed to say that I laughed for several minutes once I made sure he was okay!!! Jay did run solid wood along the bottom of the adult pens when they started having litters because the little piglets would escape out the bottom quite often and the merry chase would be on!! Sometimes I would go out there and there would be over 15 piglets loose and two very upset sows!

The boar and two sows got out once and I went out to put them back in but I was so afraid of the boar when he snorted at me that I ran in the house and called my neighbor to help me get them back in!

The boar was huge and very intimidating but wasn't mean. Trying to get pigs to go where you want them to is a long and frustrating task! Jay works for the school district driving school bus and one day ALL the little pigs got out under the fence (I had been telling him he needed to hook up the hot wire again!) The school bus happened to be going by when me and my neighbor were trying to round up the babies and he told Jay about it and told him he was in trouble! So Jay went straight to the hardware store and bought hot wire and insulators before he came home! One of the perks about living in a mall community where everyone knows everyone else! So strong fences are VERY IMPORTANT!!