Homesteading - Best Hogs on the Homestead?

in #homesteading6 years ago

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Do you have hogs on your homestead? What is your favorite breed?

There is a lot of misunderstand of hogs. Lots of people things hogs are dirty animals when they actually are one of the cleanest animals on the homestead. They even prefer to use the same areas for the restroom over and over and where most livestock like goats and cows will mess all over their padlocks including their houses hogs will not. The only thing dirty about hogs is they don't sweat so they need mud to keep cool and to help keep the bugs away. If they are in a small pen hogs can get pretty nasty since the area is not large enough for them to separate their mud holes and where they defecate so they do end up rolling in their own waste and also develop a smell but this is more the farmers fault then the hogs.

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One of the biggest things about hogs that I enjoy and many people don't understand is hogs are one of the more intelligent animals on the planet, are the closest to human anatomy and also share many emotions that humans have. Hogs can get depressed, jealous, angry, happy and many more emotions people have. They also develop their own personalities which makes each one an individual and different from the rest.

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We raise mainly heritage breed hogs since we prefer not to raise ours like a commercial feed lot. At this time my favorite breeds have been Old Spots, Large Blacks, Red Wattles and we do toss in a mix here and there when I find a good looking one which is usually a duroc / half wild, like one of my breeding males, or several mixes like my largest female that pushes close to 1,000 lbs. I have found the commercial breeds that do get to weight faster do not do so well on pasture and a more natural diet like fodder, hay and corn. They seem to only produce on grain and more of the commercial grain. We feed organic grain so the hogs will grow slower and take longer to put on weight. There are lots of tricks to produce quality meat on a hog though.

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It does take us longer to fatten up a butcher hog on pasture then in a pen but the meat is always better quality since it is not from a fat overweight lazy hog that can barely turn around in a stall. The meat is also much darker in color and some breeds like our red wattle hogs produce a very dark red meat that almost looks like beef in color and is not pale and white like what you buy in the store. I prefer the old spots for the better ham hogs with the marbling that is wonderful and we like the large blacks for their longer bodies that produce a nice belly for bacon. The red wattles is my favorite for dark red meat that makes really good pork steaks. Our hybrids are only kept due to the fantastic growth and size that they put on compared to our pure breeds. Sometimes to get the best of both worlds you just got to have both.

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I have noticed that the hog breeds with the large floppy ears like old spots are a lot less attentive and aggressive in their surroundings then the breeds with upright and erect ears. These breeds seem to be more attentive and very up front in your face and sometimes it can be like staring down a chest high 800 lb wolf and because our hogs are leaner they are very strong and fast. One of my large hogs can easily not only run as fast as my pit bull but can also stop and turn on a dime just the same which when it is a large strong animal like that can easily be a handful if you are not careful always making sure they understand who is in charge.

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What types of hogs do you prefer to raise?

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We don't raise hogs yet. We were looking at Kunekunes, but I'm not sure. I am going to want something that roots, and I think they are more of a grazing hog. This is a great post as I haven't heard of these breeds before and they look pretty rugged.

Thanks.

Kune Kunes are good for not tearing up the pastures as bad and also for being smaller so you can butcher them yourself. They are also easy on the fences but take longer to get up to size for butcher. What people don't realize though is the smaller the hog the harder they can be to keep penned. They are still very strong even at a smaller size and will not run over the fence but can find smaller holes or weak spots to exploit that a large hog would not even consider trying to squeeze threw. Old spots are a good medium breed that will get around 400 to 600 lbs on average and large blacks will be a little larger depending on feed stock. Very docile hogs though and we have fenced and penned most of ours with pallets with no problems at all.

That's good to know. I am thinking to start we will be clearing a bit of land, so I'm thinking rooters will be good for helping with that. I was going to do that and goats to clean out scrub and work the ground a bit before we do anything with it. We haven't got the property yet though, so who knows what we will need in the end?

Make sure to run your goats before your hogs. Running the hogs first or with can give things like Salmonella to your goats. Also watch any trees you want to keep. If you leave your goats in to long and they eat everything they will start to ring the trees eating the bark and killing the trees. You can fence around the base of the tree to stop this but the hogs will root up the roots eventually also if left in to long killing them. The key is to keep them rotated so they don't destroy it all unless you are wanting perfectly clear pastures ready to plant and then they will do that no problems.

This is my hardest hog to handle and if you notice he is very small but very very strong and lots of attitude.
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Hahaha, he looks like a bad ass.

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such cute pigs! ive heard they make great pets, very similar to a dog. i guess for homesteading purposes though, thats not the goal. 1000lbs is massive!!! i cant imagine having to prod one that size anywhere, lol :)

Yeah they get large but we also do micro hogs. I did a few articles on them a while back if you are interested. This is my mini boar.

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going to check it out now! my landlord said no pets, but Im wondering if he'd feel differently about a mini pig :D

Just know mini pigs are very smart and have emotions so they get jealous and mad. If you come in and don't pay attention to them they will walk right up to you and pee if they are upset. Also they can fill a litter box in one pee. We house train ours to go to the door when they need to go out instead of littler boxes because they do go in large amounts. They are one of the most loving and fun animals to have but can be a handful. Our uncut male roots on my legs all day long and pushes over trashcans. He gets his tusk under doors and pops them open so he can travel threw the house where he wants. Just know what your getting because some people buy a mini pig and end up with a 200 lb pot belly pig. We are very lucky and have 3 very small pigs but they are rare at this size so make sure to do some research first. Nothing worse then getting a mini pig and then having to get ride of it.

Thank you for the tips - esp about the house training! Sounds necessary, lol. I had no idea they were so emotional and vindictive, either. But they do sound like a lot of fun. Ill be on the look out for a really mini mini pig to make sure it doesnt turn into a 200lb monster. Although, I think our yard might have the room for her just in case. Ill skip the tusks for the first one!

We have not started to raise hogs yet but we want to. My husband is hesitant to start because he says Ill fall in love with them and they will never become food. Looking at your pictures and looking into those eyes I don't know if I could kill them. I think I may have to toughen up a bit more and start with turkeys. If I can eat them then Ill try hogs. What is your expeirence with first starting. Someone told me to never name the animals I tend to eat. Any advice would be helpful as I truly dream of one day being totally self sufficient and raise all my food. Thanks for sharing looking forward to hearing back from you

I also upvoted you so others can read about raising hogs.

We name ours and it is never a fun day when you are butchering but we look at it as the hogs have a nice clean life and are treated very well. We give them a good life with lots of love instead of that commercial feed lot crap way of living. You can get attached to your breeders since they will be around for awhile but even then years later it is a waste to just let an animal die and in no way show the animal respect by wasting it.

Great post. I am interested in hogs. I have lots of bush they could hang out in. I know very little about breeds though.

Stick to your heritage breed hogs if they are going to be pasture or forest raised hogs. Commercial breeds will not do so well if they are foraging for their feed stock most the time. Thank you.

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