Farm

Everything You Wanted to Know About Raising Pigs

On April 27, 2022 by Mary

After four months, and 4,000+ pounds of food, our little Christmas piggies were sent to the butcher last week.

Raising these pigs was such a fun experience! I learned so much: how they grow, what they need to thrive, and their eating and drinking habits. When we first got them, I didn’t really know anything about caring for pigs. My husband and I both spent time reading, researching, and watching videos to learn as much as we could. Turns out it’s pretty simple and straightforward!

Because it was a great learning experience for all of us here, I recently asked on social media what questions my readers had about raising pigs. This post is to share the answers to those questions, and hopefully provide some valuable information to anyone else who wants to learn more about pigs, or even raise some of their own.

What Are The Must-Haves For Raising Pigs?

Pigs don’t need much! Mainly just food, water, shelter. We set them up in our barn with access to an outside pen. The inside and outside areas were each approximately 16′ x 16′, and it was more than enough space for all four pigs. They usually wanted to be piled on top of each other, anyway! We used a 50-gallon barrel for their water, and put their feed right on the ground. (We started out using bins/buckets, but they always dumped it into the straw.) We’d like to get an actual trough or feeder for the next batch of pigs to make things simpler.

We fed our pigs twice a day, and always made sure the water barrel was full. Their pen got cleaned out as needed, and we tossed in fresh straw every week or two.

What Is Their Cleanliness Level Compared To Chickens?

To be honest, this is an apples and oranges comparison. One is a 250lb animal that lives to pack on fat and sleep, and the other is a 6lb bird whose body is working to produce eggs constantly. The size difference alone is enough to confirm that pigs are more stinky and messy than chickens. An interesting fact, however, is that while a pigsty smells just as bad as you’d expect, the pigs themselves are not smelly animals. They don’t sweat, and therefore don’t really have an odor. They will, however, roll in the same mud they poop in, and then they smell pretty gross!

One way the pigs are easier to clean than the chickens, though, is that the pigs will choose an area of their enclosure to pee/poop in, whereas chickens go anywhere and everywhere.

What/How Much Do They Eat?

Pigs will eat anything. For feeder pigs, their diet is primarily a mixture of grains. We purchased swine feed at our local farm store, and also gave them kitchen scraps, nuts from around the yard, and extra eggs from our chickens. They especially love milk, acorns, fresh veggies and baked goods.

As far as how much they eat, it gradually increased from about about a pound or two per day, up to 8-10lb or more per pig, per day, in their last few weeks.

How Much Does It Cost to Raise Pigs?

The cost could vary quite a bit depending on your location and the current market prices of piglets, feed, etc. To start off, piglets can cost anywhere from $50 to $100+ apiece.

The biggest cost is definitely feed. For this round of pigs, we used bagged swine feed. At $0.34/lb x 4,000lb, we spent $1,360 on feed alone. However, if you have access to a garden, lots of food scraps, excess eggs from your chickens, or a way to get/make cheaper bulk feed, your feed bill can be less. Lowering the feed bill is one of our biggest goals for future pigs we raise.

Some other costs included straw for bedding, a heat lamp when they were tiny piglets, their water barrel, and the fencing for their outdoor pigsty.

If you’re considering raising pigs, some prices to research in your area would be: cost of piglets, materials to make a proper enclosure, straw for bedding, a waterer and trough, and feed.

Can Their Manure Be Used For Anything?

Pig poo can be used as fertilizer, but is best if it has been composted first. It is a “hot” manure, meaning if you throw it right on your plants, it can burn their roots because it’s so strong. I’ve also read that it isn’t recommended for vegetable gardens because it could harbor worms and parasites. When we cleaned out our pigpen, we put the waste in a ditch on our property. I may use it down the road for our flowerbeds, but probably won’t ever use it in our veggie garden. I’d still like to do some more research on this one.

How Much Do They Weigh When They’re Ready To Process?

Our largest pig weighed in at 310 pounds, and the smallest was around 270. Depending on the breed, pigs can easily grow to be 700-800 pounds! But for feeder pigs, 250-300lb is pretty ideal. The piglets gain weight rapidly, but their weight gain slows after reaching about 150lb. It makes sense financially and practically to butcher them when they hit the 250-300 mark. It gives you a good amount of meat, and you don’t spend a lot of extra on feed. (Additional poundage requires more feed per pound gained.)

What About Finding a Butcher?

No one specifically asked about this, but I think it’s worth mentioning. You may want to call your local processors and book a butchering date before you even purchase any piglets. Butchers take orders very far in advance. Don’t forget about hunting seasons in your area, either- many people don’t process their own venison, and butchers can quickly get booked up during deer season. Depending on your area, you could have a year or more wait.

In addition to having a processing date, be sure to have a plan for how they’re going to get to the butcher. We rented a livestock trailer, which worked well, but we do need to perfect our loading method a bit. They’re huge, stubborn and strong when they’re full grown. It took a lot of effort, patience, pushing, pleading, swearing, praying, and leftover cake to get them loaded.

Final Thoughts

The last note I’d like to make is on piggy dispositions. They truly are such fun, smart animals. They recognize faces, have individual habits and quirks, and are quite sociable. Our pigs loved belly scratches, and even put up with the chickens climbing all over them throughout the day (probably because they realized that if the chickens hung around long enough, a tasty treat might pop out. Like I said, they’re SMART!). I really enjoyed taking care of them and spending time with them in the barn. I can’t wait to get another litter of piglets in the coming year.

I hope all this information is able to help someone who was on the fence about raising their own pigs, and satisfy the curiosity of my suburban readers. It is a fun learning experience, and pigs are great animals.

Please feel free to leave a comment with any other questions you have! You can also check out my Instagram page to see more of the day to day happenings here at Iveyshire.

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