I know this is not fruit related but I figured I would test out my friends here also…
I am going to raise me some hogs for meat this year and need some advice or someones knowledge/experience. So far I have been quoted anywhere from 150 to 250 for Berkshire feeder piglet; is that average for my area? I have been trying to find information but can’t really find direction. Hopefully some of the members here are livestock growers as well.
Jennifer…i would highly suggest that you seek out a local sale barn. Maybe those are normal California prices but they are almost three times higher than what we pay here for a decent piglet.
If puggy isnt we are. Once our side orchard is finished being planted out and the trees are a size in which I can trust around hogs. But not full size hogs, we are planning to use pot bellies. We have pastured pot bellies and find them to be a rather well behaved pig. Ours have never rooted and as long as fruit isnt within their reach they wont bother it. Should keep the weeds down on the orchard floor and keep clean any fallen fruit.
I have a feeling you are getting a quote for a registered purebred Berkshire ! No way they should be that expensive for a feeder. And yes ANY type of barnyard pig is fine. There will be no difference if it is going to be butchered in any mixed breed of barnyard pig ! In fact for what it sounds like you are doing , a non purebred pig will end up doing better.
A Berkshire, Yorkshire, or Landrace would work nicely. Some say Durocs and Poland China’s have a higher tendency for taint. I like females because you dont have to worry about castration.
A few years ago we had our kids raise show hogs. We have raised hogs before for our freezer but show hogs are a WHOLE different world. Glad we did it once.
No real reason to get into purebred, registered and expensive piglets if you are just raising them for the freezer, unless the breed has something extra special about it. Around here, piglets go for 70-100 per. I have raised Yorkshire cross pigs, they grew quickly to 250 lbs in one season. I also raised American guinea hogs, a smaller breed of lard type hogs, these take 2 years to get up to 200-250 lbs. Great personality, good eats too! I liked the smaller hogs for our homestead, and I pastured them through the orchard. Really improved the soil fertility. Once my trees get into bearing by the bushel, I think we will need pigs again…
Please remember pigs are at least as smart as your dog. They hate to be confined almost as much as goats do. And will tunnel to escape. The cost of shelter and contained pasture has to be calculated into your plans.
Oh, and the buggers will scream better’n a drama-queen when feeling corraled or hunted…
I grew up on a hog and dairy farm. Cow poo smells bad. Hog poo smells plain out foul. I’d never have a pig of any kind around my home. Can’t understand the people with pet pigs, yuck.
There is a huge difference between having one or two hogs in a open corral or pastured situation and having a confinement hog farm. Id agree that hog manure is the most foul manure in the whole world. In a small pen it gets everywhere and reeks! Thats how we had to raise our show pigs and towards the end when they were full grown the smell was hard to take. But when we raise a hog out in our open corral with the other animals its no issue at all.
Pig manure is bad, but in my opinion a confinement chicken operation is worse. Those things make my eyes and sinuses water and revolt!
I used to raise pigs but it’s been a long time. Still, I looked up the live wt. price of market hogs, which is running about $50 per hundred wt. That means a 250 lb. hog would bring about 125 bucks at the packer.
