Pasture Piggies

Rosarybeads · #1 02/14/12, 09:43 AM

We are looking getting a pair of heritage pigs, breeding them and eating their little ones for our own meat. We have a fenced pasture that is about 3 acres big, maybe a tad less, here in Kansas. Pasture with some trees, mostly decent grass. We really weren't wanting to rotate pastures... will that work? All the articles I see talk about rotating, but I was wondering how much space you would need to just simply keep them in the same spot year round. Is there a reason why you can't do that? I don't want to get them and then find out I have to create multiple pastures for them!

Also, is there any problems in keeping a few additional animals with them, like a couple of goats and sheep? Anything I should be aware of? Or I am really asking too much for that small spot? We would be heavily supplementing with hay (we have loads of it); and general table scraps; but otherwise we were really hoping to just sustain the pigs (mostly) off of the land. Although a little bit of commercial feed would be fine. We just don't want to spend a fortune on pig feed like we did on the big breeds we had; THAT turned out to be very expensive pork!

Thanks in Advance for any info or suggestions!

ONG2 · #2 02/14/12, 11:00 AM

We have goats and sheep in with our AGH and no problems other than when we give them all a bit of grain, then it is only the usual yelling and name calling.

The concern in Ohio with having a small number of animals per acre is keeping the pasture tender. If you brush hog a couple of times you should not have a problem, but if you let things grow up, it gets tough and they won't eat it near as well.

mitchell3006 · #3 02/15/12, 10:19 AM

Most heritage breeds are "closer" (for lack of a better word) to the pasture than commercial crosses. Their bodies are better suited to convert grass, roots, acorns, and bugs into meat than the commercial varieties that have been bred for controlled diets. It sounds like you have enough acreage to get started but remember that pigs are like rabbits so have a plan to remove excess piglets either through sales or supper when they get big enough. Use the grain feeding to keep them gentle so you can better handle them. The hay should work well for heritage hogs. Breed for thriftyness and the ability to do well without grain.

Goats and sheep should work fine with pigs. They tend to eat different foodstuff and should not be in direct competition. The goats will test your fence and patience but will clean up the pasture from any woody brush. The hay will work for all and if fed in round bales, tends to attract worms and grubs under the bottom that will provide protein for the pigs.

Sounds like a workable plan.

stanley · #4 02/15/12, 03:08 PM

I have all types of animals in with my pigs including poultry. I started with one large pasture but found it works easier with some cross fencing I now have three pastures so I can control the grazing better and am able to isolate animals if I need to. Start with what you have you can always run temporary electric if you need to separate the pigs

**highlands** · #5 02/15/12, 04:42 PM

If you don't rotate them you will get less benefit from the pasture and the animals will damage the pasture more. Managed rotational grazing is fairly easy to do and it gives a lot of benefits including better food for the animals, better land usage, less soil compaction, natural parasite management and the pasture will look and smell nicer. It doesn't have to be difficult. Just setup a simple nine-square, or less. The basics is not to come back to the same area for roughly a month. The rest is details. See:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:...onal%20grazing

We keep sheep, chickens, ducks and geese on the pastures with our pigs. Goats should work fine too. More of a fencing challenge.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

bruceki · #6 02/16/12, 01:31 AM

Most pig farmers don't use rotational grazing when they keep their pigs out on dirt; they do perimeter fencing, where there's a fence around the outside of the pen, and the animals are allowed to free-graze inside.

I don't think that 3 acres of ground will provide enough forage for 2 full-sized pigs and piglets. Supplying hay is a popular option, but most people who feed hay to their pigs supplement that hay with something that is much more nutritious -- like whey, a by-product from cheese making, or fruits and vegetables from grocery stores, or some other food source. And not a little bit of it, either. Like hundreds of gallons of whey, or hundreds of pounds of fruits and vegetables.

You will get some benefit from keeping the pigs on dirt; and you can select things to grow that pigs find tasty and will help reduce your feed bill, like alfalfa, for instance. In the winter, when things aren't growing, you'll get no nutritional benefit from the ground.

Mixing different species -- pigs and sheep, for instance -- is usually good. The critters find different things tasty -- what a sheep likes a pig may not, and vis a vis -- so you get better utilization of the ground, but you may find that your forage turns into dirt faster than you'd think, so you need to be careful about stocking levels.

Bruce / ebeyfarm.blogspot.com

barrybro · #7 02/16/12, 07:57 AM

I plant corn so they can eat in the winter. The pigs need to be a little bigger (150lbs) before they knock the stalk down to eat the ear. I had about an 8,000 square foot area of corn planted. I had 6 pigs that I bought in Novemember (50lb feeder pigs). They really started going after the corn in mid January and I now have about 5% of the corn still standing. They seem to do a very good job of eating all of the corn off the cob. It has worked out very well for me this year.

Barry

**highlands** · #8 02/16/12, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosarybeads

We have a fenced pasture that is about 3 acres big

Figure a rough rule of thumb of about 10 pigs per acre if you do managed rotational grazing so what you have is plenty of space.

Rogo · #9 02/16/12, 05:23 PM

No two do things alike, just what works for us!

No pasture here in the desert. No pens/no stalls. Critters roam free on the acreage within the perimeter fence. Equine, poultry, pigs. I provide feed. Hay is free choice fed to all. The pigs get eggs from the poultry, oats, barley, and DE.

I'm not running a business, it's just me here. Periodically someone wants to buy a piglet either for meat for their table or a pet. The AHH pigs are quite small.

What's done here, works here. Nothings in cement, things can always be changed!