I had no idea there was an ag category?

Question

Is anyone keen on pigs? Every year when I raise pigs I always have a tough time and usually am in need of help. Now im excited there's an entire ag section.

Answer 1

The agriculture section is not that old, but welcome to the ag section. Many of us had to lobby hard to get this section. Plug in "raising pigs" in the search for questions and you will see that there are several people on here that are knowledgeable about pigs and will help you out when you have questions.

Answer 2

There is a lady who raises pigs who answers in this section at times.  I have stared you question in so she will hopefully notice your question.  You cannot mention names anymore or Yahoo will delete your question/answer for chatting.  I'll ask this lady to answer this question.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

P.S. She is very "savvy" with her answers.

Answer 3

The Ag section is great, a lot of knowledgeable people here.

We used to raise pigs every summer when I was growing up.  My Dad kept track of all the grain we fed them and how much they weighed at slaughter.  He felt two worked best as they competed for "hogging down" the food we gave them.  Tried three one year and they didn't do quite so good.

We mixed the grain with water and slopped them at first but later built a dry grain auto feeder and they had no trouble with that and it saved a lot of work.  We could put two hundred pounds of grain in the feeder and then just fill the trough with a garden hose.  This way they could eat anytime they wanted and I didn't have to mix the slop and lug it up to them twice every day.

The only other problem I remember was the August smell and our neighbors would complain once in a while.  This was in New Hampshire.

We did a lot of the meat prep also, grinding and seasoning the sausage, smoking the bacon and hams, pickling the shoulders.  Had a neighbor who would take the heads and do all the work for head cheese, then split the final product with them.  I never liked that head cheese but my dad loved it.

If you put in detail about you tough times I am sure you will get some good answers.