Pigs can make for wonderful livestock, but I hear lots of beginning homesteaders turn them down because they can be a… intimidating. Pigs have a reputation for being messy, destructive, and of course, very smelly!
These points have merit, but they aren’t insurmountable. And besides, you haven’t even heard what pigs can do for you! They are one of the most versatile and consistently productive livestock animals you can keep, and whether you’re looking to diversify or just try your hand at animal husbandry, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, I will tell you everything you need to know about keeping pigs on the homestead.
Why Keep Pigs?
The best reason to keep pigs is because they have very real and unique advantages compared to other livestock like goats, cows, and chickens.
Pigs are one of the most productive livestock species when you consider raw efficiency. They put on more weight, and do it more quickly, than the majority of breeds from other species. That means you can enjoy a harvest of meat or fat that can be put to a wide variety of uses. Pigs also have real logistical advantages that you would be smart to consider.
Pigs can be kept in a smaller space or left to range over wide-open spaces. Pigs are also omnivorous and can subsist on a wide variety of different foodstuffs, including kitchen scraps and, in certain cases, food that would otherwise be thrown away, no good for human consumption.
They can be used to cheaply clear and till land, and their manure can make for wonderful fertilizer. Plus, when well-cared-for, most pigs are happy and predictable animals, making them easy to handle.
Basic Types of Pigs
The first thing you need to do as a prospective pig purchaser is figure out what you want to keep pigs for. This is pretty straightforward; you’ll keep pigs either for their meat or lard, or both. You don’t milk a pig like you would cows, goats, or sheep!
Accordingly, domestic pig breeds are roughly grouped into meat and lard breeds, with a third dual-purpose category and a sometimes-considered fourth category consisting of pet or show pigs.
Good meat breeds include the legendary Yorkshire and Hampshire, both renowned for the quality, quantity, and efficient gain of bacon and other cuts. Lard, used in all sorts of products and not just for cooking, is amply supplied by breeds like the Tamworth.
If you want to do a little bit of everything or just can’t decide, definitely check out breeds like the Berkshire, which is known for the quality of its meat and fat alike.
A detailed overview of different domestic breeds is beyond the confines of this guide, but suffice it to say there is a breed for every desire and every property. Some do better in hot weather, others in cold weather; some are bigger, others smaller. A short list of some of the most popular and productive domestic breeds in the U.S. is below, and what they are raised for.
- Tamworth – bacon, pork
- Poland China – pork, hams
- Duroc – pork, hams
- Large Black – pork, bacon
- Chester White – pork, breeding
- Spotted – lean pork
- Yorkshire – bacon, chops
- Landrace – bacon, breeding
- Hampshire – lean pork, hams
- Hereford – pork
- Berkshire – premium pork
Space Requirements
At a bare minimum, an average adult pig needs 16 to 40 square feet in a pen for comfort and also to prevent scuffles and fights. Whatever sort of enclosure you are building, make it rectangular! Pigs instinctively designate the corner farthest from their sleeping and eating area to be for defecation and urination.
As a rule of thumb, if you plan on free-ranging your pigs, you can keep between two and three adults for every half-acre of land, assuming that land is of average quality concerning nutrition. Rich, bountiful land means you can keep between four and six adult pigs in the same space.
Note that there are many, many variables to consider concerning this stocking rate, e.g. space, quality of forage, soil quality, climate, etc, and you’ll need to analyze your land specifically to come up with the right number.
Penned or Free Range: Which is Best?
It’s a difficult question to answer quickly and easily, but I’ll give you several considerations to think about so you can make an informed choice.
Keeping your pigs confined makes your life a little bit easier when it comes to keeping up with them, feeding them, and checking on them, but it will increase odor, noise, and other aggravations if close to your home.
For folks without a lot of land, or those who don’t want their land chewed up and destroyed, putting your pigs in a pen is a time-tested and proven strategy…
Free-ranging has serious benefits, too: hogs that are allowed to free-range can provide at least some of their own food by rooting and foraging, and there are so many different kinds of plants that they can eat safely. Free-ranged pigs tend to be happier, healthier, and provide meat with superior flavor and texture.
Unfortunately, pigs are extremely destructive to land and will quickly deplete it. Free-range pigs are also vulnerable to eating potentially toxic plants that they shouldn’t unless you carefully screen and clean up the pasture they occupy.
You’ll also have to contend with rotating the pasture they are on regularly. Fail to do this, and they will obliterate every root, shrub, and blade of grass. They will also become increasingly more vulnerable to parasites over time as the life cycle of many pig-specific gribblies begins and ends in the soil.
Fencing Considerations
If you learn nothing else from this guide, learn this: you cannot, must not, skimp on fencing for your pigs.
Pigs are strong, tough, intelligent, and very, very persistent. Cows and horses might be a lot bigger and stronger, but even they won’t put your fencing to as severe a test as pigs will. Any weakness, any shortcoming, and your pigs will exploit it either by knocking the fencing down, slipping under it, or popping it off the posts.
The go-to fencing option for most keepers is pig panels, or pig fencing. This is a tough and somewhat flexible woven wire that can stand up to exceptional abuse if you install it correctly.
Another good option is electric fencing, as pigs learn quickly after just a pop or two that they cannot test the fence. Note you’ll also need to keep a hot wire low enough to prevent pigs from crawling or digging under it, and to keep smaller pigs in place.
Pigs Must Have Shelter!
A common and potentially deadly misunderstanding concerning the keeping of pigs is that they don’t need a shelter like other animals. Apparently, some people think that they can just wallow in the mud and be just fine. Pigs do wallow in the mud, and they need a wallow, but they also need a pen, especially from intense sunlight.
Pale-skinned pigs are highly vulnerable to sunburn and heat exhaustion, and pigs don’t have sweat glands at all. Shade is a must, and they also need something to help them stay warm in the wintertime. For this reason, the old trusty three-sided run-in shelter is good enough as long as it’s lined with wood shavings, straw, or some other bedding that will help them stay warm.
You don’t need to spend a fortune on shelter, but it must be big enough and sturdy enough to house your pigs and be accessible so they can retreat to it whenever they desire. Adult pigs will need anywhere from 8 to 10 square feet each inside the shelter itself.
Feeding Your Pigs for Performance and Health
Like one of my mentors told me long ago, concerning pigs, a good diet means good results. Yes, pigs are known to eat like, well, pigs, and as mentioned, being omnivores, they can eat a wide variety of plant and animal matter. But if you want your pigs to grow quickly, stay healthy, and maintain the right ratio of muscle to fat, you’ve got to dial in their diet.
Whether you give them hog feed, a diet of whole foods or scraps like fruit and veggie peels, stale bread, grains, meat scraps and even dairy products, your pigs should be eating between 2 and 3% of their bodyweight every day. The nutritional target is 16 to 18% of their total calorie intake being protein.
Also, as ever, your animals must have unlimited access to fresh water. An adult pig can drink upwards of 3 gallons of water a day, and that will be more in hot, dry weather. Plan on every adult in your herd needing between two and five gallons of water daily.
Feed your pigs correctly and make sure they stay hydrated, and they can reach a suitable weight for slaughter between 5 and 8 months.
Slaughter at the Appropriate Time to Prevent Cost Overruns
If you commit to owning pigs for anything other than the hobby of keeping them or as a pet, you must stick to a schedule for slaughter. Otherwise, your pigs will eat more and more and more, potentially costing you a fortune.
Pigs can pack on hundreds of pounds in just half a year’s time, and as a rule, they are slaughtered as soon as they reach a market weight of between 250 and 300 pounds. Pigs do get bigger than that, though, a lot bigger, and once they clear the 300-pound marker, they can be eating upwards of 8 pounds of food every single day, and that is per adult!
Cost Considerations
Assuming you’ve got enough space to raise your pigs, you’ll need to factor in some other expenses. The pigs themselves cost money, of course, and depending on the age and breed, you should expect to shell out anywhere from $50 to $150 per head. Note that rare breeds, distinguished lineages, and expert breeders will all fetch higher prices.
Shelter is a big one, and though pigs don’t need a particularly sophisticated structure, you should budget anywhere from $100 to $500 at the minimum for building them a three-sided run-in shelter. If you need to cut costs, you might be able to repurpose something like an empty, clean water tank as a sort of hut for them to stay in.
Last but not least, also consider the cost to have your pigs butchered and processed if you aren’t going to learn how to do it yourself. These fees vary considerably depending on where you live and what time of year it is, but on average, you can spend anywhere from $50 to $90 per head.
Healthcare: Illness, Parasites, and Common Problems
Pigs are generally healthy and hardy, but ask any seasoned pig herder, and they will tell you that parasites, internal and external, are likely to be your biggest healthcare concerns. Fleas, lice, mange, and a rogue’s gallery of nasty internal bloodsuckers like whipworms and roundworms mean that regular rounds of medication are a must.
They also tend to be vulnerable to lameness from foot rot, swine fever, and various respiratory bugs. Vaccination is possible for the most common and devastating swine illnesses, though, but this is a cost and logistical need you’ll have to account for. Plan on retaining the services of a pig vet and spending anywhere from $10 to $30 per head, per year, for basic healthcare and deworming.
Bringing Your Pigs Home
The best thing you can do to make sure your pigs arrive at their new home happy, healthy, and calm is to have everything in order before they arrive. Make sure their enclosure is set up, totally secure, and properly fenced. If you’re using electric fencing, it should be energized, so pigs learn quickly that it shouldn’t be trifled with.
Make sure you have fresh, soft bedding for them to lie down on when they want to get comfortable, and have water waiting for them. Stressed pigs drink more and drink often.
The best tip I ever got was to keep transplant pigs on whatever food they were eating and then slowly transition them to the food you plan on feeding them. Most pigs have a highly adaptable stomach, but the stresses and uncertainties associated with a new home can lead to digestive upset in conjunction with a new diet.
More Pro-Tips for Raising Happy, Healthy Pigs
- Pigs are herd animals and highly social. Resist the temptation to get just one pig as a beginner: a second pig to keep the first company is hardly any extra work once you’ve gone through the trouble of setting up for the first one and both will be happier.
- Pigs roll in the mud and muck, but will not roll in their own waste unless given no other choice; they try to wet their skin so they stay hydrated and protected from the elements. Make sure you allow space in the pen for a proper wallow and they’ll be less stressed.
- Keep an eye on your electric fencing: rooted dirt can short low wires, and any fault or failure in the rest of the system can lead to a jailbreak. Once one pig figures it out, they all will!
- Beware of sows that go into heat for the first time: some become highly aggressive and dangerous. They can destroy fencing and other enclosures and even attack you or your family. My advice is slaughter or cull any sow that shows the least bit of aggression when in heat or during the run up to farrowing.
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