Raising Pigs Properly

by Natalie S. Knudsen of Hartsville, TN

Raising pigs for meat, lard and hide (otherwise knows as pigskin) saved many small farmers from starvation and financial ruin for centuries. From the 1930s through the early 1990s, pigs were referred to as “mortgage lifters.” Their production and sale helped pay down farm debt while keeping businesses including veterinarians, feed stores, building and fence suppliers alive in small communities. While the “piggery” has undergone many changes in the last two hundred years, the basics of sound husbandry has not.

My husband and I have been through numerous production models in the swine industry. Our latest move from Minnesota to Tennessee essentially transitioned our swine operation from completely contained confinement buildings to outdoor free range. We gave up concrete, climate control and automatic feeding for mud, chasing pigs through timber and more mud. The new plan has definitely down-sized the herd from hundreds of sows to two and has seen cedar posts and wire panels replace farrowing crates and manure pits.

Many small landholders new to the country life want to raise pigs but have little practical experience. The pig farmers who utilized outdoor feeding and pen-farrowing with 10-20 sows have passed on without sharing their knowledge. With combined experience of more than 100 years – we’re not ancient yet, you notice I said “combined experience” – my husband and I would like to offer a few basic suggestions for successful pig raising and humane husbandry.

Baby piglets are cuddly and even smell good, weaners/shoats are playful and cute. Sows and boars are large – up to 700 lbs. And like the hippopotamus, are incredibly fast and dangerous. Give them the respect they deserve, never enter an open pen where a sow has a litter of piglets or where a boar is with a sow in estrus. We know more than one experienced pig farmer who has been severely injured by the tusks of a mature boar that he handled daily and seemed friendly.

We’ve also seen a number of well-meaning people adopt a pig from a rescue operation. While I have great respect for the heart of people who run rescues, this may not be a good idea if you aren’t familiar with pigs in general. It is easy to mistake a full-grown or fat miniature, micro or teacup pig (they can grow to several hundred pounds) with a meat-type pig that will provide some nice pork pork chops, ham and bacon.

Like any other human or animal, pigs need a balanced diet for their health and to produce a healthy meat product for you to consume. Corn, soybean meal and a balanced mineral mix will do the trick (more on this later). Fresh garden produce that is ripe or mature and not spoiled (i.e. squash, watermelon, greens) are safe to feed to pigs. I will feed sows that have just farrowed a fresh egg or two to stimulate their appetite.

If you have forested areas, pigs like to forage on nuts and roots. This is also a great way to get rid of scrub trees and Japanese privet. Allowing pigs to free range on acorns will not automatically produce the high-end Italian ham known as prosciutto. Sorry!

It is also illegal to feed pigs kitchen garbage. Pigs are not garbage disposals – especially not of meat products. African Swine Fever, a deadly swine disease, has been found in almost every country except North American. This disease can be passed through raw and processed pork from an infected pig to a healthy pig through the feeding of meat products.

Pigs are wily buggers. They will find each and every hole through, under or over a fence – or just make their own. Be prepared! They can put a backhoe to shame with their trenching abilities. However, if you want to work up a piece of sod or get rid of Johnson grass roots call in the pigs! Old-timers also swear that turning pigs into a leaking pond will seal the bottom. (This has not worked for us, unfortunately).

We have a 600 lb. sow in a large outdoor pen with a shelter. This pen is constructed of cedar corner posts, 6-ft metal T-posts set every 4 feet with wire hog/combination panels wired to each post. It is merely a suggestion of containment for this sow, she regularly puts her nose under the bottom rung of the fence, and lifts posts and panels completely out of the ground in a single motion and escapes.

Pigs must not be allowed to free range without fencing as this encourages feral pigs. Feral pigs are spreading rapidly across Texas and the Southeastern US. They carry swine diseases to domestic pigs, destroy property and have been known to attack and kill pets and humans.

Adequate parasite control is imperative. Pigs live outside and root in dirt giving them access to both internal and external parasites. A single dose of ivermectin will take care of both but left untreated parasites will stunt a pig’s growth and damage their wellbeing. While helping a neighbor – who was new to pig raising – we encountered pigs with mange so bad you could see them crawling on the pigs with the naked eye. That was an all-over body shiver for me, I can tell you. We quickly offered to treat their pigs for them free of charge.

More next time about the history of pig breeds and their evolution, sound nutrition, breeding, and farrowing house design.

Pig Tale: We usually give our herd boars a cute nickname based on their temperament. The last one I named Door Knob – I’ll let you ponder that.