Help me with this pig stuff =P?

Question

um i need to know if its better to raise pigs outside on a paddock or inside? give reasons please... thanks for any answers

Answer 1

If they are inside they can be disease free where outside the elements and visitors can bring disease. On the other-hand the diseased pigs can become politicians and raise your taxes.

Answer 2

All life needs the outside. For animals, even they have mental health considerations and I think you will find your pigs will be happy and healthy. But give them the best of both worlds. Put them up at night for their safety and comfort. It is such a little thing to give a small measure of quality to your animals lives. God intended that humans husband the earth with compassion and wisdom. That is what being human should mean. Don't fall in line with the concentration camp farming mentality. It is a terrible thing. good natural food, exercise, and companionship are little to ask for our animals. They make life in the country and on farms specifically a very special thing and for their help we are grateful and that is how we can show it. If you need a more tangible answer, they are a working part of the farm ecology and their place is important in our farm and field.

Answer 3

depends why you are raising them and what is most important to you?

a fat pig?

a happy pig?

a healthy pig?

pigs are going to be healthier if they are happier - less stressed and mentally stimulated

did you know pigs are actually as intelligent as dogs??

thus a pig confined in a small pen is going to be one sad piggy...

they should be outside (weather permitting) but given access to appropriate shelter.

Answer 4

SWINE DOES BETTER AS FAR AS GROWTH, FEED CONVERSION AND HEALTH IN A TEMPERATURE OF 63 DEGREES F. THE PROBLEM IS MAINTAINING THAT YEAR ROUND. SO I WOULD TRY RAISING THEM IN SIDE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.

Answer 5

Better to raise them outside on pasture. You should also allow some shelter that they can go into when they want to, for warmth or shade. Pigs are not big grass eaters but they can make up to 20% of their diet grazing, and will also pick protein from grubs, bugs and worms. Inside may be faster and more efficient, but outside you will have healthier and more content pigs.

Answer 6

Lets picture a herd of swine.

Outside you have 3 or 4 boars, 80 or a hundred sows, and 1,000 or more piggies.

The boars fight for sows, the sows fight for territory, the fat pigs just fight, they all try to kill and eat the other boar's and sow's piglets.

You raise them inside. The boars are in separate pens, out of sight of each other, they are not fighting.

You put the sows in with them to breed.

The piglets when they are farrowed (born) are safe from the other boars, sows and fat hogs.

When you wean them they go into their own pen, all them the same size so the fat hogs don't eat them, as they grow you move then into bigger pens.

All pens the size for a small herd and all pigs the same size so they don't fight or eat each other then you move them out into trucks to market.

While you are raising them inside they are not picking up worms, bird diseases or trichinosis.

They are fed the optimum feed (and it has to be good, bad food will kill them)

So as a hog farmer what are you going to do?

On top of that if you raise them in pens you don't have the wild dogs getting at them, a sick animal bring a disease to them, or them getting through the fence and poisoning themselves in the neighbours rye crop field, or biting the neighbours kids.

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Answer 7

In Canada, I work in a hog barn there are a lot of barns in the lower province where if you drove a mile you would hit one every time. Because of our climate it is necessary to have them indoors, the weather can change in minutes and this can affect piglets. When piglets are born you need to maintain there temperature keep them worm and free of drafts. They are born with no antibodies. As for housing them indoors in Canada it is necessary because of the high barn count in the areas and with the amount of airborne disease they can get sick and your barn may loose 50 - 75% of your heard in a matter of days or even hours.

I have only worked in barns where they are in gestation crates, I would be interested in seeing a barn without them and see how it benifits or afects them. I will always be for the farrowing crate, because of the safty of the piglets. I have rased a few hogs on a little farm growing up and have seen them kill (accedntly) there young by laying on them and not being able to get up or don't care to. With farrowing crates they are only in there from 17 - 28 days and this way they are not killing there young, they are able to get away because of the disign of the crate

I hope this help, Rita

Answer 8

some people tend to raise them inside. this is so that they do not lose energy as heat to keep themselves warm which they would if they were raised outside. as a result, the pigs tend to "fatten" up and more product is produced. also they tend to keep them inside to limit their movement, again less energy is used to move and they become fatter, therefore more meat.

i believe that those methods are cruel and you should be raising them outside where they have a natural environment and not in a prison-like atmosphere.

Answer 9

We raise our pigs outside.  They have a shelter to get out of the weather.   I don't know about the optimal conditions for their growth.  I can tell you the optimal conditions for their over all health, physical and psychological.  They need to be outside where they can run (more muscle) and root (that's what they do!)  Outside they may be exposed to more germs, but that's not unhealthy, it aids their immune system.  Inside, protected from germs they could end up getting sicker.  Also outside in a large enough area pigs are cleaner as they tend to relieve themselves away from feeding and bedding areas.  Even better if you have more than one area so you can rotate.

The pigs we've raised this way haven't gotten sick and don't have much fat on them...but they do have a lot of nice lean, tender meat.