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Have you thought about having pigs on your homestead, but you don’t really know where to
start? Let’s talk.
Pigs & homesteads go together like a hand in glove. For this article let’s talk about raising
feeder pigs, sometimes also called weaner pigs because you bring them home right after they
are weaned. Piglets are typically weaned at 8 weeks. By this time they are fully independent,
eating feed & no longer need to be with their mama. It is best to buy pigs in pairs or more as
they are social animals & don’t do as well alone. If you are purchasing feeder pigs for your small
farm or homestead & can’t quite see your family needing the pork from 2 pigs you can see if a
friend wants to go in with you & split the costs & each of you ends up with one full hog in your
freezer. But I’m betting that once you taste your home grown, home raised pork, you will find
that one just isn’t enough!
It takes about 6 months from weaning for hogs to reach maturity. The processed weight will be
approximately 75% of the live weight, which means if you butcher at 300lbs you will end up with
approximately 225lbs of meat. 300lbs is a good goal for butcher weight in large breed hogs such
as Hampshire or Yorkshire- both excellent breeds for meat hogs & typically easy to find. You
don’t want to go much smaller as the time, effort & cost for raising & butchering needs to be
balanced out by a full freezer.
But the homestead pig can do more than just fill your freezer. They can also be put to use on
the homestead. Temporary fencing, such as hog panels or electric netting can be used to
pasture your pigs over your future garden area. In just a few months they will eat down any
weeds or grass & effectively till the ground for you leaving you with ground ready for planting. If
you live in a mild climate where the ground does not freeze you can winter your hogs on the
garden. By spring it will be cleared, tilled, fertilized & ready to plant with very little effort from
you. Hogs can also turn excess produce, all of your garden scraps, extra milk & eggs & pretty
much all your kitchen scraps into bacon, ham & pork chops! They are extremely efficient at
converting feed to gain. If you have a home dairy they are especially helpful in preventing waste
as any extra milk & whey can go to them. The ability to supplement their feed ration with scraps
can significantly lower the costs of raising them.
So what sort of facilities do you need to raise your feeder pigs? Honestly nothing fancy. Hog
panels, which are 3 foot tall welded steel panels, are readily available at any farm store & are an
economical choice. Electrified woven netting is also readily available & an excellent option
although it does require a significant outlay of money initially. Both are extremely versatile &
portable options meaning moving your pigs around your farm to best utilize feed, shade or other
options is a simple matter. Hog wire, which is galvanized welded fencing must be stretched
between cemented fence posts & as such is good permanent option. It’s important to remember
that whichever fence you choose, hogs are strong & smart & fences must be stronger &
smarter! You will need some sort of shelter for your pigs to protect them from wind, rain & sun.
This could be an actual barn or shed or something as simple as a hog panel bent into an arch &
covered with a tarp. This is an excellent method for a temporary shelter you plan on taking down
after the pigs are gone. You will need a way to water them, something heavy that they can’t tear
up is your best choice. A heavy bottomed short trough works well. We have several water
heaters, cut in half with pieces of angle iron welded to the bottom. The angle iron makes it harder for the pigs to flip. You will also need a feeder – again, something heavy that they can’t tear up easily. Water heater halves work for those as well.
Other than scraps, what do you feed your pigs? A commercial hog feed found at your local
feedstore is your best bet. You can find organic, non-gmo, non-corn or whatever your needs are
pretty easily these days. Younger pigs require a higher protein feed to support growth, usually
18%. As they grow out & fatten up they require less protein. Most feed will be labeled as a
“grower” or a “finisher” to help you choose the correct one for the stage your pigs are in.
Now that you know how to feed & house them, where are you going to find them? The best
scenario is always to buy from someone you know & trust. If you don’t know anyone personally,
ask around, maybe a friend of a friend raises pigs. The next choice is online in social media
groups where animals are listed for sale or Craigslist or something similar. It’s important when
buying from someone you don’t know to go to their farm & look around before making any
deals. Is the farm well cared for? Do the animals have adequate shelter? Do they look healthy?
Ask questions. How old are they? Have they had any vaccines or medications? Are the males
castrated? If you don’t get a good feeling from the seller, don’t buy. Price is going to be
completely dependent on the area you live in. Ask around, look at ads, have an idea of what the
going price is so you don’t pay too much. But be wary of pigs that seem to be priced too low.
The “deal of the century” often comes with health issues or some other problem.
Now that you know how to raise feeder hogs, in the next article we’ll talk about raising pigs
“from farrow to finish”. What do you need for sows? Does it even make economical sense to
raise your own pigs? What do you need to know before you become a pig breeder? Stay tuned!
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