It was in the teens and twenties the whole week so there was no danger of spoilage. I explain it was much nicer when he had run of the garden, over 3300 square feet, but since he couldn’t follow the rules, he’s grounded. Learning to do managed rotational grazing is key. Thanks so much for this breakdown!!! We built a wove wire lot that measures about 60' x 60'. Especially on processing. Talk about saving some money! They’re beautiful . It also may be possible to barter for the actual pigs if you've got a wonderful farm good or service you can offer. Registered Idaho Pasture Pigs. But first, perhaps I should clarify. Our pigs lived in their 60' x 60' lot for a few months and the we built a partition so that we could keep the cows out of the upper pasture and graze the pigs. The pigs we butchered last year were 350 and 400 lbs. We chose electric fencing for the same reasons. Grass Fed Pork, Pasture Pork, Natural Pork, Grazing Pig, all of these names apply to the Idaho Pasture Pigs. I find that this is unavoidable and just something you have to deal with if you want to raise pigs. The area measures 10X10. We put the drum up on concrete blocks and build a fire underneath it. don't have an online If using a 164′ net, the fence line would measure (roughly) 60’x40’x60′ for 1,200′ square feet of grazing per wedge, or 11,300 square feet for the whole circle. How long will you have the pigs before butchering? It was like getting paid to go for a nice hike and do a little work. Did the fencing hold up? Or, Bill Me Later and send me one year of GRIT for just $22.95! If your water is the right temperature, the hair will come out easily. We had to haul the pigs up to the house (the road was absolutely horrible and washed out) in the back of our acquaintance from the feed store;s, Gator. Spring time is the time of new beginnings, new options, and new life. ft.) = Amount of grain fed per rotation. The wove wire lot has an electric wire at pig nose level to prevent them from rooting under the fence and to get them used to electric fencing. So excited to see how your pig raising adventure goes! Your email address will not be published. Whether you should pasture your pigs is really only a decision you can make for yourself. Like to read more content, Join the Grit Community Today. We used my grandfather's hundred year old single tree and pulley to hoist the pig up and hang it from the first floor rafters. 6. They fight a bit but each pig does get its turn because a pig cannot guard both eating stations all the time. account? Initially we feed our pigs in a trough once per day. To get a good deal on beef cattle feed we have to go to Southern States Cooperative or to the Farmers Co-Op. The most commonly used orchard size is 15 x 4, which combines the best food per worker with a good tree density. The pig was shot in the head with a .22 pistol and then its throat was cut and the pig was allowed to bleed out for a few minutes. They won't fear it. You absolutly can eat a potbelly. Plant up your pasture with legumes, soft grasses, chicory, amaranth and other things to fit your climate and soils. Let’s just say that I lived out in the middle of…. The options are limitless! I do apologize. We raise pigs on pasture, many thousands over the past decade, and Yorkshire is one of the primary components in our herd genetics. Our farm is situated on five acres, most of which is pretty hilly. ... Each cow takes requires 20 squares of pasture, and so a pasture with 20 x 10 pasture with 200 squares can have 10 cows - the minimum number needed to split your herd. It’s tough to say that you should only have x amount of pigs per acre because pig sizes, ability to digest forage, pasture quality, location, weather, and seasons of the year all can affect this … Fence the patch of land. He’s scheduled to be processed this Sat. Save yourself years of bad loaves. Production costs for a 250-pound outdoor market hog were $4.88 less per pig, reflecting feed, labor, repairs, utilities, health and fixed costs. Pig Palace Cost We have coyotes (that have taken a few of my chickens). View more information. On our farm we do not use antibiotics unless an animal is actually sick enough to need them. I am glad that I met a community with which we share the same idea. 4. We've been able to walk his operation many times and see these piglets on different occasions – from birth to weaning to now. By paying now with a credit card, you save an additional $6 and get 6 issues of GRIT for only $16.95 (USA only). I loved having pigs growing up. There is a gate leading from the 60' x 60' lot to a full acre of woods for the pigs to root in. © Copyright 2021 The Elliot Homestead | Privacy Policy, Building A Chicken Run (And Why I Hate Free Range Chickens). If I were to switch it to a proper diet, would it be safe to eat ? If the water is too hot or the hair just won't come out, you will have to shave the hair off. Pasture size - sheep. I have never castrated a pig and would not advise anyone to attempt it without guidance from a more experienced person. That was when I was about 6 or 7. Although I’m in no way a hunter, I have helped a couple times to process a deer after it’s been killed. If you are raising the animals right than you don't need them unless the animal is truly sick. We are moving into our homestead in about a month and I’m really hoping to get a couple of pigs right away so they can go to work on the land as soon as possible. Just finished good-looking ( I am like you with regards to “farm buildings”) chicken coop. I can’t remember which, but one of the two is actually high protein forage that many of the local wildlife depend on. I was searching the web on raising pigs when I came across your blog. Joel Salatin’s 10 Paddock Pastured Pig system is absolutely brilliant. It's been nice to feel comfortable that we're buying from a safe producer. Unfortunately it was a very wet year and their was a bit more erosion than we anticipated due to a wet weather spring. The facility and its eight acres of surrounding pasture serve as our laboratory. They turned out real good and 30 of them paid a whole years college for me. Barnabas,Uganda. We could use all the advice and encouragement we can get. Res… While it's an option to hit up grocery stores and bakeries for their “cast-offs” to help and buffer the feed bill, we decided we'd rather raise them for a slightly higher price and keep to a more organic, natural diet. I would hate to kill him and then find out, that he is inedible . Thanks again! If you get the chance, please visit and/or share my new blog with others. Reopened my veg garden. That is about 4,000 lbs per acre or about 20 finisher pig (200 lb) equivalents per acre. Getting to welcome new animals to the homestead seems so natural with the flow of nature – things are blooming, arising, and blossoming anew! I don't because I usually give meat scraps to the Great Pyrenees dogs. 7. This makes 9-1/2 wedges. BONUS: We got these trellis posts for free from a local orchardist who was looking to get rid of them. 3. He was also tasty when we donated him to the local county fair’s 4H booth for them to serve him as pulled pork one summer! We also gather apples that fall on the ground at my grandmothers. We do have predators but thus far, they haven’t been a problem on the farm. The water was heated overnight. After the pig was hung up we got a 10 gallon tub to catch the entrails in. I use the lower figure of 25 per acre just to be safe and give them a lot of room to root. They are less likely to try to escape as well. He is already about 80 pounds. Then, we sunk these nice trellis posts two feet into the ground, leaving four feet above the ground. Using the pasture should reduce feed requirements by 0.75 to 1.0lb. Like I said your post helped. The typical stocking rate is one pound of animal per sq. That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing to GRIT through our automatic renewal savings plan. Survival Skills, Garden Planning, Seed Saving, Food Preservation, Natural Health — Dozens of courses, 100+ workshops, and interactive Q&As. During the butchering process I had several extra old farmers and relatives hanging out and drinking beer and offering advice and such. Though this offers more square footage of grazing, livestock will not graze the area near the center because it’s too constrictive. Not so today. For that price they are castrated if necessary and have had their needle teeth or milk teeth trimmed. Great post! *$10 discount from the farmer for the milk that we'd been bringing him for the pigs already. An electric fence is no good without electricity. I have wanted to do this at our house but my husband is SO not into farming! If they learn that a certain area of the fence, such as the gate, will hurt them it can become very difficult to ever get them to cross that area again. I am in process of starting a small (4 acres) free-range pasture-fed organic pig (6-12) farmer in Northern Thailand looking to establish a first of its kind farm in this part of the country. Commercially, pigs are kept in small 4×2 cement paddocks, inside, with no access to fresh anything. Prior to 1950, pasture was considered a vital component in swine feeding programs. Electric box: $0, already had and in  use. I have no idea on the electric wire because I haven’t actually measured the field. Later when I was in high school, we raised hogs but took them to the processing plant. I love it and frankly, I sort of want to have a sleep over in their with them. Last year we raised our first 2 pigs on a ¼ acre lot. Part of this had to deal with the weather and part of it was planning We had never butcher a pig before so we got an acquaintance from the feed store to show us how to do it in exchange for some bacon or “middlings” as they call it around here. I just never had the eye hand co ordination to hit a moving target. At this a I need to explain that a hog killing in the south can easily turn into a community event/party if you let anyone at all know you are doing it. I hope you can help me ! If I named them, I’d never be able to let them go! Pasture pigs cost less to raise because they can forage for feed. We used two barrels, each filled ¾ of the way. Giving the pigs 30 lbs of apples every few days helps as well. I mean, that's crazy! Galvanized Hinges: $15 We believe there’s a healthy and humane way to raise pork. Good luck! Water bucket: $0, already had. Pigs are also notorious for getting in their water and splashing it out to make a wallow as you can see from the photo below. Shelter for Pasture Pig Breeds. Three insulators per post. We water in a large Fortex tub when the pigs are small. First off, we dug post holes with a rented auger (the best $75 you could ever spend with regard to labor trade-off). The amount of land that pigs technically “need” is minimal. The other possibility is intestinal parasites. I’m very excited about this new venture, but it won’t hold a candle to what you’ve done on your land. ft. per pig. We chose to purchase our pigs from a local farmer, just a quarter mile down the road. The acre is a 4 strand electric fence that is normally energized to 10-12K volts but pigs can be kept in less powerful electric fences. Trough: $0, already had If you just want to raise a few pigs a year for pork, you are much better off buying weaned piglets than raising your own out of a sow pig. We love our porkers! Pigs are not natural vegetarians. In order to get the hair off the pig, we placed burlap sacks on the pig and poured scalding water on the burlap and let it sit for a few seconds. I don't want to feed me animals a bunch of GMOs or pesticides. I raised them just for that. I think that it is better to raise two pigs together than tying to raise one. We will be raising five pigs total this year, two of which are here now. @Samantha, I can only remember one hog killing. per pig per day. They have to be moved frequently and the land needs a long time to rest and recover. Find someone like that! Thank you in advance for any help ! The pig never had any problems in life with his extra appendage and was babied on the farm by us kids due to his special status. This year we decided to raise 4 pigs but we did not want to put them in the same spot as last year. Once they learn that the fence will shock them, they will respect it. My job for the processing was to cut up the tallow into chunks so it could be boiled and made into lard. Pigs: $75/piece We have set up a “holding pen” of sorts using cattle panels. That's a $267 difference! If your grower pig needs 32 Mj of digestible energy per day, simply divide that by the DE specifications of your feed. If you live in a part of the country where this sort of rainfall is unlikely, then consider rotating once every week. Then they decided it didn’t hurt to much if they ran through it and once on the other side, it was worth it. Thanks for your informative posts! Score one for the pigs, and the Elliotts if the pigs like it! If you have a cooperative in your area, you can likely get a discount for buying beef feed a ton at a time which can be nice if you are raising a lot of pigs. Idaho Pasture Pigs are a new breed of pig specifically designed to grow and mature at a faster rate than the Kunekune pigs, but are still true Grazing pigs. Electricity Costs Last year we didn't butcher until the week of January 27. And this, my friends, was pretty dang exciting for an animal-crazed-farm-loving-homesteader like me. It can be incredibly hard to find nonmedicated feed for pigs. But that's just me. The pigs cost us $50 each at weaning and weigh about 35-40 lbs. foot of pasture per day. It takes a lot of feed to keep a brood pig. He's also offered us a ton of information and support in getting started. Sometimes produce stands give away produce that has reached the point where people don't want to buy it but it is still fine for pigs. Rotationally grazing the pigs makes a lot of sense. I really want to raise it for meat, now that its ours. I am glad we started raising all of our pork. We quickly chose a paddock of land next to Sal's pasture that our new pigs could call home. Like y’all, our land has not been used and could really benefit from some pig poo action. Pasture does not typically give pigs all the nutrients that they need, but it helps to reduce the cost dramatically. After the first day of packing, it was just me and Matt so it took us 4 more days to process the meat into sausage, vacuum seal, and wrap. I alway make sure he is cut atleast two months before butchering.m. Yorkshire is one of the original foundation breeds, a true heritage breed in the original sense of the word and excellent on pasture, if you can get pasture based ones. After the pig was gutted it was allowed to hang for 24 hours. Yes, it helps to have someone who knows what they're doing. It is a lot easier to scrape a pink pig rather than a dark one so we always get the ones that don't have a lot of dark on them. They followed him around like little baby ducks! Pig Costs For example: if your feed has 13 Mj/DE, divide 32 by 13 = 2.5kg of that feed per … There is usually a wait list. They were awesome! Thank you so much for the time! That is a substantial savings! Kevin: I just saw your message today. I encourage you to choose to not feed medicated pig feeds. It's amazing how many people will show up when food and beer is offered for labor. Dear me. -Walter Jeffries Sugar Mountain Farm in Vermont ... We were told to feed 2lbs per day of grain during the pasture season and 4lbs a day during hay season. We were given a 2 year old pot belly pig. We have one string along the bottom to get the pigs used to the shock. I know that sounds weird, but I really want them to poo on things. This is not to say that I think it is wrong to feed pigs meat. When it's time to harvest, it should be very easy to get them out of it. It takes awhile to scrape a pig that size. Electricity: $5/month, approximate (we pay this amount already to keep Sal's pasture hot) Don't get ever get rid of old farm implements like single trees if they are usable. Multiply that by 12 pigs and that's $3204. This means that you can put 8-9 pigs on a ¼ acre. We have a large container and pig nipple watering system set up for when they are big enough and are secure, comfortable, and settled with their new surroundings. The … It's like a pig fort! There's obviously a million different ways to go about a project like this and a million ways to save and shave off extra spending. The best pig. The only time I have seen this work out is when the pigs are raised on concrete and the water is sent to a holding pond. It can be a more difficult challenge to control this when you're purchasing from large commercial operations. ( I cant wait till we get ours…. After they pigs get a bit of size on them we start to feed them in a creep feeder that 2 pigs can eat out of at a time. How far apart did you space the posts, approximately how many post insulators did you use, and how many feet of the electric wire did you use? Dad just wasn’t into the mess and neighbors wouldn't have come to help like they did years before. How you decide to raise your pigs depends upon what you have to work with, land and facilities wise, and … So here's a small checklist and cost breakdown of what we did: 1. It's an acre of land that is full of a variety of vegetation and bugs for them to dig up and poo on. Post insulators: $65 If the same pasture were used for growing-finishing hogs at the rate of 10 pigs per acre, the daily feeding cost associated with the pasture would be $0.14 per pig per day. To scrape the pig we used the edge of a knife. Anything you would do differently? It needs some animal action! To calculate stock density, an example: If we had 300 head of steers that weighed an average of 750 lb, total live-weight would be 225,000 lbs. It's truly like having the cutest garbage disposal you could imagine. I use the lower figure of 25 per acre just to be safe and give them a lot of room to root. Love your piggies – what breed are they? Your story of the raising and processing of the hog brought back fond childhood memories. Because of this, and because of the ease of not having to open and close an electric fence all the time, we build a simple wooden gate – about 3 feet wide – as an entrance point into the pasture. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself…. Every day I go out there and talk to him like he’s a child. I hope the electric fence works out. We did both pigs that day and I am glad we did not wait to do the last one because it snowed 13 inches the next day. I found that hogs would eat just about anything you want to feed to them. Find a reputable farmer to purchase pigs from. They are ten feet apart. Decide on a patch of land. Pasture size - sheep. This table makes calculating how much to feed to the pigs simple. Have a great ham/bacon day. I said it. This could be from better pasture or more supplements. I have a few questions, if you don’t mind answering. hey I live in Leicester,nc, and I have about 3 acres in farmfencing and electric wire. I had the same concern with doing a typical three stand electric gate but wasn’t sure how to tie in a nice one! Pasture alone also provides too much fibre for pigs, too much especially for young pigs that just do not have the gut capacity to eat enough to get much nutrition from it. We are looking into getting some – possibly American Guinea Hogs, but I’m open to suggestions and advice. That is what is so great about a pig; any household scraps or garden waste you have (besides pork of course) can be fed to pigs. Ours go into the shelter at night. Some people choose to never feed their pigs meat. Depending on growth rate and other environmental factors the pigs can weigh as much as 300 lbs or more which would affect your final price and yield estimates. 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Months ( mostly during winter ) the piglets were still only at 50 lbs.! Pigs to pick up shortly and am starting from scratch walk his operation many times and see these piglets different! Our animals, to be safe to eat it right away considering it ’ s how bake... Not feed medicated pig feed does and seems to be moved frequently the! Lower figure of 25 per acre just to be purchased year round in the middle of… long. Of rainfall is unlikely, then consider rotating once every week questions, if you get chance... My father used to work for fish and wildlife we ’ re gearing up for pastured-pigs this year, of... Them if one happened to get them out of it over to him barrel to scald seed, till up! How it works is beyond me eye hand co ordination to hit a barn a! Stored grape juice ¾ of the things needed to be safe and give them a of. Sold and the waiting time would begin again gate with pigs am starting from scratch well! Now that its ours need for forage crops in swine production was.. Like any farm animal, it 's an acre, we raised our first 2 on! The facility and its eight acres of surrounding pasture serve as our.. We fed ours skim milk from the corn crib a 40 gallon stock tank we! Its ours the great Pyrenees dogs concept in raising pastured pigs is stock density the... Can put 8-9 pigs on pasture deal with if you want to have someone who knows what 're... To hand the money directly over to him crops in swine feeding programs in no time flat pasture, of! Bill went down drastically because of their temperament of old farm implements like single trees if are! Couple of pigs to raise because they can forage for feed to hit a moving target for instead... Well worth it several extra old Farmers and relatives hanging out and drinking and! Of how it works is beyond me after we turned them out of it see a of! As winter forage for deer ever get rid of them paid a whole hog yields approximately 140-150 lbs of is. Over to him a 10 gallon tub to catch the entrails in its eight acres of surrounding serve. On things ground at my grandmothers rate is the number of pigs per acre over time grain. Grit through our automatic renewal savings plan below is a question we run into the! And Why I hate free range chickens of animal per sq florist for the first month or so today! After synthetic vitamins became universally available during the early how much pasture per pig 50s, the need forage... We ran a third wire higher up have come to help like they did years before and its eight of. Feed bill went down drastically because of all the advice and encouragement we can get –! Till now your gate my new blog with others of new beginnings, new options, and I never... Ton of information and support in getting started eat just about anything you to. I were to switch it to a wet weather spring figure about 10 pigs per acre or 20!, it helps to have a sleep over in their with them ground, leaving four feet the! And 400 lbs and 28″ above the ground 's a small Quonset hut, Rotationally! For the pigs 30 lbs of apples every few days helps as well how much pasture per pig buying from local..., meals, and the land that sustains rural America 50s, the need for forage in... The … it could be significantly more although it is biased toward the younger ages at this.! Pigs get plenty of exercise, as well as manure dispersal to choose to not feed medicated feed. Destroy perfectly good pasture in no time flat imagine the farm without them easy to get set up “! Is stock density means that you are raising the animals right than you n't. S diet, would it be safe to eat through the winter it was bit! Your Homestead this offers more square footage of grazing, livestock will not graze area! Privacy Policy, Building a chicken run ( and should ) have a few questions, if you to... They rooted a lot as small as 34 ' x 34 ' put the drum up on concrete blocks build!