Pigs per acre

Bkpigs

Member
Anyone have experience with raising hogs of pasture? I am trying to find ways to make more use out of my property. I currently have 23 acres; of which about 10 or eleven are hay and 7 of it is timber with the rest in ponds and the homeplace. 11 acres is a bit too much hay for my work schedule and equipment to be doing myself. I am raising Holstein steers but I direct market them so I am not capable of jumping too quickly on the number of those.
I worked for a large hog farm for 7 years and have a college degree in Animal Science so I have plenty of experience with hogs, it is just raising them on pasture and in smaller numbers that has me baffled. How many sows can I run per acre on the hay fields or timber? What about Boar management with a small number of sows? How do you handle the farrowing and subsequent re-breeding?
Anyone know of a good book to start with? Or website?

I use my Farmall 300 to bale the hay now.

Thanks!!
 
Oh man, it's been fifty years since dad pasture farrowed but it seems like he had a couple dozen sows in one 6 acre hog pasture. I can still picture it like it was yesterday. The hog pastures were seeded to Alfalfa and it seems like we took one cutting of hay off before the sows were turned in. You might be better off with some old breeding like Hamp or York if you want hogs robust enough to take pasture life. The new lean breeds don't have the stamina. They will live but they won't perform well. There's a farmer a few miles away from me who is serious about pasture farrowing with water lines buried to each paddock along with strong portable buildings and good feeders. He uses the old line breeds and has a special market for them. If you use permanent fence you will need good woven wire fences that are right down on the ground. I ran a few sows on a pasture sowed to rapeseed once and used electric wire. I found out real quick the sows will need to be trained first or they will run right through it in their enjoyment of beeing free to run. They are real hard to chase back once they have been bit on the way through the fence the first time. They stayed in once they were trained. You might need to worm them after they have been out there for awhile.
 
starting in 1970, when I was just 13, used to have and take care of as many as 350 , and no fewer than 100 at any given time until 1994,. that was my job , older brother was in charge of crops , my younger brother helped who ever was in need as we all did ,, when I married, my wife and I bought a run down farm and started raising our own pigs. 20 sows and pigs over a couple yrs time will make a noticeable mark on 20 acres of pasture ,,. red clover is best pasture ,, and will hold its own , however the hogs will have favorite lounging areas that will get worn bare ,,, pigs pasture farrowed in that environment will be the picture of health .. prettiest picture was a sea of about 60 pigs happily following about a half dozen mommas eager for some extra feed crossing the uneven terrain ... don't know where you are , I am in Louisville ky area ..weather here can be quite cold and nasty for successful winter pasture farrowing, during our winters here I always farrowed crates for about 3 -5 weeks , that was easy ...than moved to 8x8 pens in the barn ..lot of work , cleaning, feeding ,bedding ,. but I was younger then , and my kids and wife liked to help .. we finished on a slatted floor pit we built in 1970 at my parents farm,. that was easier too ,,. often fed after dark , and ground most my feed at nite too.. fed mostly corn , , oats was my best anecdote for any health problem we encountered. also fed wheat , barley and milo , .. all have different protein values ,, that I can not recall ,,. but you probably know them ,funny .. one spring morning I recall , getting up at 1st lite , walking out to the barn , with a cup of coffee , half asleep , content in the knowledge that every one was pregnant ,including the dear wife was expecting our 4th child ,,new calves were coming on , had a sow penned up under the hayloft , and as I peered in the still dark barn , I could see about 6 or more baby pigs busy getting to know their way in the world with a couple yellow chiks ! ,. WHAT,. and then another chik fell from the hayloft above !!,, lol ,,that made me d o a double take .. that was good busy life that had a lot of joy from our work .. and I would not change a thing
 
agreed with fixerupper , especially about the new breeds ,,. and electric fence ,,, funny thing I could take the fence up and pour feed on a sheet of tin across the old line and those sows would take 2 days before they would cross the dirtline .. best way to herd hogs is with feed and calling them up ,,. mine would follow me with a empty buket to the next town as long as I tapped the buket with a stik ...lol
 
I raise American Guinea Hogs they're smaller than standard breed hogs but are very good
on pasture.I'd suggest running hogs in the woods or scrub land as they will eventually end up tearing up a field.
 
One of the better pasture hogs is an old breed called large black. They are known for good pasturing up here in Michigan. As for how many depends on breed, pasture type, etc. I was always told by an old pig farmer that you can run yup to 2 per acre if you supplement feed them on good clover pasture.
 
I'd be careful about running hogs in a scrub brush wetland. Environmentalists and the DEQ may not like it.
 
First and the most important thing is where are you going to find breeding stock thats been raised in the outdoors just not many around that do it that way anymore even getting a boar thats been raised on dirt. Timber makes a good place. Before confinement shed came around lots were raised raised in timber. You will need a good place for finishing. We always had couple hundred out in pasture during summer fenced lots of like three acres ect. Moved to new ground every yr. You got to remember doing hogs that way is very labor intensive grinding feed hauling water ect. Unless you have a set up for winter and the feed along with some equipment then sheds ect forget the project.
 
Lots of info on the link below. Lots of folks doing just what you are looking into.

A lot will depend on how good your pasture is and how often you can rotate your herd to let the pasture rest.

The reason that wood lots work is that the trees provide shade for the pigs. That is a crucial must for pigs in the summer. If you are raising in the open you will have to build or provide shade throughout the day.
Homesteading pig site
 
Never seen a pig go through an electric fence, but with pigs, about the time you think you have them outsmarted, they prove you wrong. If you use electric fences figure on cruising the fence every day or so, because it won't take them long to figure out how to cover up the electric wire and short it out. If you decide to stick with this, I would suggest spending the time to bury your chicken wire fence at LEAST a foot deep.
 
I would try to coordinate your animal population with when your pasture is producing the most feed, to reduce feed costs. You probably already know that sows produce two litters per year. If you don't have year around pasture that could be a problem. Feeder pigs might be a better way to start out in hogs rather than farrow to finish.

Some other alternatives that you have probably already considered:

Expand your feeder calf operation to your pasture capacity, expand sales into other markets like sale barn or to meat packers;
Sheep or goats, sell off the fed lambs in fall;
Cow-calf operation, sell off the excess feeder calves in fall, feed conversion of beef cattle will be higher than for Holsteins;
Alternate crops: corn, beans or small grains, bale the straw or stalks for livestock bedding.
Rent out the excess ground.
 
Never did try to "pasture" hogs. Several times we would put up an electric fence around a brushy area (acre or two at a time) and would turn loose 20-25 sows to clean it out between farrowing. They would kill the trees and root them out of the ground. After a couple years an area that had been so rank you couldn't walk through would be as barren as moon scape. Move the sows on to the next area and push in the wallows. Run over the "cleaned" area with a disk and sow it to grass - be ready to keep mowing because the soil would be rich from all the manure. Beat paying a dozer to do the same work. Land is probably too valuable to use a method that slow today - especially if you had more than a few acres to clean up.
 
Joe Salatin is a favorite of mine. His Polyface Farms thinks way out of the box and I like a lot of their ideas. Search youtube for pastured pork. Much better than watching the tele and more info than you can digest. You can take what works for you and file the rest.
Jay
Fixed the link.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=who0VEOPvkk
 
Thanks guys! Sounds like some good tips. I would like to do a cow-calf operation but not sure I have enough ground to make it my worth-while. I thought about doing the feeder pig deal too. That is much simpler so I didn't have any thing hanging my mind up on that.

Guess my biggest hang-ups were the boar management and re-breeding. This adventure is a few years off so I have plenty of time to figure this out.
 
My uncle used to have a boar that got out a lot so they put up an electric fence. Boar went thru it anyhow, getting the bejabbers shocked out of him several times. But they would corral him in the same pen. Finally, when he decided to make a break for it, he stood there looking at the fence & started squealing as if he were shocked. Then he charged the fence & broke out again, squealing all the time. He knew it was gonna hurt but he went anyhow.
 
I have an old school fence charger that has a weed burn cycle. If a weed touches the wire a hot cycle kicks in and an arc occurs at the point of contact burning the weed off. It kicked in one time and never kicked out. If you touch the wire you gain a whole new definition of electric shock! We use it for animals that are slow learners. :shock:

Neighbors down the road could keep cattle or hogs in a field with one strand of wire! The lead a charmed life! lol
J
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top