Anyone raise pigs?

I recently went over to a buddy's house. His daughter raises pigs for 4H. Last year they sold one, butchered the other. He had a whole freezer full of it. he gave me a few pounds of sausage. Man it was good stuff. A hell of a lot better than the crap you get at the store. That and it was a lot cheaper than buying it. He paid $200 to have the pig butchered and that included all the cuts of meat. That's about 1/4th the cost of buying it at the store.

I know NOTHING about raising them. Are they a big pain in the ass? Is it more trouble than its worth? Just seeing if anyone else had any experience.

 

the lady across the street from me does. she says it is a pain in the ass. she is insane. she trapped a huge wild boar, and he impregnates all her sows. the big boy is effen scary!! two years ago, she caught 6 small wild piglets. she raised them all to 90 lbs. for my help in getting them ready for the butcher, she gave me one. she said, "bring a pistol." i was, WTF? they are still alive???!!! yup. .22 to the brain..one by one. i got fast and gutted and skinned them up. helped that we had a backhoe to lift them up. she took mine to the butcher with her's. $65, and i had two big boxes of vacumn sealed, frozen pork. DELICIOUS! she hasnt offered me another...but i am waiting, and trying to bowhunt them in the meantime.

well, back on topic, poor carol is always tending to the pigs. but she has some land.

 

I remember when I was a kid.... my uncle lives in Canada and they live & work on their own private farm. Farming is a way of life for them.

They had a lot of pigs in all ages & sizes. Pigs are dirty animals, yet they are clean animals. If you have them in a (large enough) pen, they'll keep one side of the pen clean while the other side will be full of shit/pee/mud, etc.
I remember my uncle had about 40 piglets in this area and was amazed at how 'neat' the opposite side of the pen was compared to the shitty side.

They're smart animals.... just try to catch one, it nearly impossible!!

There are people who have pigs as pets....roaming around in their house. I would assume they can be house trained.

I'm just not sure I could personally have a pig as a pet only to slaughter it later in life. Ouch! But yeah, anything FRESH is better. My uncle would slaughter his older cows and my parents would get the entire rear 1/4 of a cow in various cuts!

 

Pigs are super smart and yes they are clean if you give them room to have theyre shit side/ clean side. I would say 5 pigs per half acre and they will be fine. The meat tastes better if you dont feed them traditional slop (garbage). Feed them blemished veggies and fruit for good meat. Dont underestimate how smart they are and theyre strength. We made their trough out of a metal drum and they would push it against the electric fense to short it out and escape! Catching pigs isnt hard if you do it right. The best way is to get close and put a 5g pail over their head and they will slowly back up and you can steer them back to the pen. I grew up around pigs and it was my chore to take care of them with my bro. Feed once a day and thats about it. They need 4-5 electric lines for the fence. The prep work is the worst part.

 

Thats it! Im calling PETA!

 

People Eating Tasty Animals

 

Why spend all of this time, effort, and money on them, when you can just go out and hunt them? Granted I have never tasted wild pig or boar, whatever you want to call them. But I have heard they are good, and most states don't have a bag limit on them and do not need a permit to hunt them and hunting season is all year. Make sure to look up your local state laws though to know for sure.