We saw a couple places that raised pigs that were totally disgusting. One place had several pigs in an enclosed barn that never saw the light of day and was never cleaned out! Jay and I both have pretty strong stomachs but we were sickened by the sight and smell! I would not have wanted to eat the meat from those animals! Another place had their pigs out in the middle of a bare piece of ground with no shade or shelter for them. It was a very hot summer and these poor full grown pigs were laying on their sides panting and having a very difficult time. They didn't even have water or food. I felt so bad for them. There is no reason to mistreat animals. If you are going to raise animals, you have to be responsible and make sure they have food, water, and shelter! Pigs are unable to sweat so when they start heating up, it can kill them. Our pigs had a mud puddle that Jay made for them and when it was really hot, he would take the hose out to the pens and hose them down. They loved it! They would race around in the water and even drink from the hose (see pictures below!). When they were cooled down enough, they would go lay back down!

FEED

We tried many different ways to cut the cost of feed but never did find a cheap way to raise pigs that fit our lifestyle. If you can find supplemental feed for free or very cheap that is close and easy to pick up, I encourage you to go for it! We used to drive over 50 miles one way to pick up old bread trying to keep the cost of feed down. We had a schedule with Hostess Bakery to pick up the bread on Saturday morning. We never knew how much we were going to get...sometimes we had a truck load clear to the top of the racks on our 3/4 ton pickup and other times it barely covered the bottom of the pickup bed. It only cost $5 for the load but it cost us over $10 in gas! Plus it was scary in the winter time when the roads were slick.

Our truck isn't a four wheel drive! It was heavy work picking up trays full of bread and stuff so Jay found a friend who was also raising pigs and they split the load. But then it became a hassle opening each loaf of bread or rolls for feeding because we would have to open forty or so just for feeding! It depended on how many pigs we were feeding at the time. Another draw back to feeding bread is that the pigs have too much fat on them at butcher time.

We also had a friend who worked at Broadview Dairy and he could get old milk and stuff that had been returned from the stores. In exchange for the dairy products, we raised a pig for him to butcher. So we tried that for a while too but Jay hated messing with the old, curdled milk and it amassed a lot of garbage! But the pigs loved it!! They got cottage cheese, milk, half and half, and cream. We would mix it with the bread and they would eat it faster than we could pour it into their troughs! We had to drive 10 miles one way to pick up the milk and it was very heavy loading cases of it! And we would have to return the empty cartons to our friend so he could take them back to work.

Then we heard about pea pellets that were really cheap that we could buy at the Inland Pea Growers Association in Spokane. Another 50 mile trip one way! They came in 80 lb. bags and were only $5 but the cheapest way was to buy in bulk where you could get a ton or so at a time. I think pigs would have to be started on these when they were very young because our pigs refused to eat them. Even when we mixed it with milk they wouldn't eat it.

What we eventually ended up doing was buying from a local grain dealer. We bought pelletized hog feed in canvas totes that weighed anywhere from 1000 lb. to a little more. We had to unload these from the truck with the tractor and they were set on a pallet to keep them off the ground. We kept a piece of plywood on top of it to keep the rodents out of it. The totes would cost around $90 and it would depend on how many pigs we were feeding as to how long it would last. This was the easiest way for us and easier on our bodies! Having a hog feeder is one of the most important things to have. We used troughs and there was a lot of waste of feed. If we do it again, we will buy good hog feeders! We used hot water heaters that Jay cut in half. But the pigs would stand in them and contaminate the feed. Not that the other pigs minded it!! We also had problems with Ravens coming in and eating the feed. Then they would sit above the troughs on the fence and drop bird droppings into the feeders. We lost some baby pigs due to a disease that the Ravens passed on to the pigs through the contaminated feed. We almost lost the sow too. Plus we had a nice large vet bill on top of it! Ravens are protected by the state (why I don't know!) but Jay still took some shots at them. But they are smart birds...they always had a look out no matter how sneaky Jay was! He would even carry a rifle in the car but they were too quick! I hate ravens but think they are very intelligent birds. Sometimes too smart!

Having clean, fresh water available is important too. There are pig waterers available for sale and one that hooks right onto the spicket and all the pig has to do is push it with their nose to get fresh water. If they can figure it out! Our pigs weren't fond of it, probably due to the hot wire around the perimeter so Jay just cut down five gallon buckets and tied them to the posts near their feed with wire. They had a tendency to try to run off with the buckets so he had to wire them down. Pigs are cute that way...anything loose in their pen becomes a great toy. Jay had to be careful about leaving his tools out or else they would take off with the tool and the chase would be on! Jay thought the buckets were easier in the winter time because all he would have to do is put the bucket upside down, stomp on it to knock the ice out, and fill it up. We had a freeze hydrant installed by the pens so we didn't have to worry about the water freezing up in the winter.

BREEDING

We had never really planned on raising pigs to breed and sell but somehow we ended up doing just that! It was quite an experience but one that made us realize we were too small to have as many pigs as we did. Plus we really weren't set up for it. So if you plan to raise and sell pigs and breed besides, be sure that you are set up good and that there is a market for the meat and weiner pigs! We never had any trouble selling the meat but we had way too many weiner pigs and had trouble selling them in the fall. We didn't want to have over 20 meat pigs to feed over the winter either. We had more buyers than weiner pigs in the spring though! Jay didn't want to haul them to the sale because the price is pretty low and it is a hassle trying to load 20 some weiner pigs!!! So if you are thinking of raising and selling, please keep these things in mind!! Jay preferred to raise butcher hogs in the winter because it was cleaner and they fattened up nice. They also don't root up the ground as bad and just lay in their straw nice and cozy! In the summer when it gets real hot, the pigs have a tendency not to eat as much and they become stressed due to the heat easier. We never had to advertise to sell our pigs...word of mouth brought us more buyers than we could sell to! So if you have the room and the time and the strength, there is a market for selling pigs to private parties.

We did not give our pigs any antibiotics or any other medication except the time the ravens made the sow and her babies sick. We never had a problem with diseases either except for what the ravens passed on. Giving full grown pigs medication is not an easy job. Jay found out the hard way that when you try to keep the sow out of the pig house, nail the plywood up on the outside of the house...not the inside!! He was trying to give antibiotics to the piglets and they were squealing up a storm. Mama came charging right through the wood and went right between Jay's legs and picked him up! I don't know who was more surprised...me or Jay! She had his leg in her mouth and was frothing at the mouth but luckily didn't bite down on him. Jay was nervous and kept telling her he was trusting her. Another time she charged in the house while he was kneeling down and knocked him face first into the straw! I believe if we hadn't handled the pigs so much and gentled them that he would have been hurt badly!

Trying to round up two batches of piglets for castration is another exhausting job. Jay chose to do this nasty job himself and even built a special board to lay them on and tie them down. This was due to the fact that his wife (me!) would have nothing to do with this part of pig raising!! He used sharp razor blades and then put blood dry in the cut. We never lost one pig from this procedure either. Jay waited to castrate until they were weaned (about a month or so) so he would only have to take them away from the sows once. Once was enough! I saw him chased over the fence more than one time by a raging sow! The piglet roundups were always entertaining to the spectator! Once a friend of Jay's came to help him and he was really nervous when the sow would charge the fence. One time the sow actually broke down the fence and Jay's friend was very quick about exiting the area!! Jay would just laugh. But it is very frightening to see a 600 pound plus raging mad sow.

...there are a few things we would do different next time...

It was an interesting adventure having pigs but there are a few things we would do different the next time. We wouldn't raise the sows and boar. We would just buy weiner pigs and raise them to butcher size. We would move the pens further away from the shop and house because not only are they very smelly but when they start running around and rooting under everything, they create a lot of "pig dust". It covered everything out in Jay's shop!! Jay wants to pour a concrete slab! We would raise them in the winter as they are much cleaner then and easier to take care of. We would only feed them hog pellets and scraps from the house and garden. We would purchase a hog feeder so that there wasn't any feed waste. And they would be castrated before we purchased them! It was educational and we are glad we did it!