Posted by Hal/Eastern Washington on January 28, 2012 at 14:27:15 from (71.213.249.231):
In Reply to: educate me on pigs... posted by jose bagge on January 27, 2012 at 14:10:40:
I used to raise a couple of hogs a year and kept them in about an acre of fenced area. That area was pretty rocky and overgrown when I started with the hogs. The hogs rooted a whole lot of rocks out and removed all the smaller vegetation. I was afraid they would smell, but with that much area, the hogs chose a corner for their latrine and there was almost no odor. The hogs liked to have an area under a big pine tree kept wet for a wallow in the hot part of the Summer. They dug quite a hole there. I never had any trouble with them getting out, as the area was fenced with old hog wire and a couple of strands of barbed wire over that. I always kept my hogs very well fed, and maybe that was part of the reason they stayed in so well.
I quit raising hogs after I figured out that I could buy pork in the supermarket cheaper than I could raise it and pay for the processing. We also found that we didn't use all of the meat from our hogs--much of the sausage ended up being given away, as my Wife didn't like it and would not cook it.
If you really want to raise hogs, I would suggest only raising barrows and not letting them get too big before you process them. If you get boars, they need to be castrated ASAP--that job only gets more difficult as they age, and you really need to do it a while before you eat them. In my experience, females seemed to grow more slowly than barrows and as they mature, they come into heat, which makes them harder to work with during that time.
I always enjoyed my hogs. They are intelligent animals and mine were very friendly, inquisitive workers that cleared the area very well. But they also were some work, and I found that they just ended up costing too much as compared with the supermarket pork. Good luck!
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