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Starting Member
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Last Login: 9/14/2010 5:16:46 PM
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| Help! We live on 100 acres, just moved here. Thinking of getting 2 or 3 piglets, found someone selling Red Wattles for $50 each. Good pig? Good price? How do you take care of pigs as far as medically...do they need to be wormed? Vaccines? What do you feed them? I have searched and searched the internet and even called a large animal vet to get info....not having much luck! Any info would be appreciated! Thanks so much! Melissa
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New Member
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Last Login: 3/11/2011 8:06:15 PM
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http://www.thepigsite.com/
Brian Wright
Large Black and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs
Raised humanely on pasture
Homegrown Acres
Heritage Hog Blog
HomegrownAcres@gmail.com
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Starting Member
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| Thanks for the reference to that site. I had actually found it before. It's pretty technical...unless I am looking in the wrong places. It also seems to be more for someone raising large amounts of pigs. Still trying to find out if I need to give vaccines to 2 or 3 pigs we want to raise for eating. Thanks so much!
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Advanced Member
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| www.redwattleproject.com OMG!!!!50 DOLLARS for Red Wattles????? Are they pure breed? I'd paid $100 each for 3/4 red wattle and 1/4 hampshire (2) gilts. We also had to drive 5 hrs one way to go and get them. What a deal you got there! Are you wanting to raise them up and let them have babies or raise them up to eat or sell to a meat market? Either way you need to worm them once a month and I would change the worm medication each month. Atgard is a pellet wormer and so is Safe-Guard, then you have Ivementine (sp?) injection or paste, then there is Pig Swig which is liquid (we don't like this one) and then the Wazine (sp?) which is liquid, too. Depending on their age and weight you can start them off with a pig starter, then move to a pig grower and then move to a maintance or sow feed. We also put a cup of loose livestock minerals in their feed. We weight our feed every time we feed up, to keep track of food intake for P2's Swine Project Book. They are picky eaters, our at least our son's 2 are. They will eat apples and watermelons only, they will let the other fruit and veggies spoil in their pan. www.showpig.com has all the information on vaccination if you are going to breed them. KGB can help you with feed questions and there are several vets on that site and you can pick them out like DrAmy and HogDoc. Son and I found out that they grow slower then the landrace/yorkshire cross barrows that he had 1st. Just put the weight tape of Ruby (son's show pig) she's 106 #'s and at this age when we had Gilbert (cross barrow) he was 154 #'s. If you put the time in with them, you will not want to go to another breed or at least that's how we are feeling now. We spend 15 minutes in the morning with them and then anywhere for an hour to two in the evening(Ruby is his show pig, got to get her up and walk her). As long as they have fresh water and fresh feed with some mineral, the only other maintance we do is a lice/mite powder in their shelter and fresh hay (beeding), don't like pine shavings (can cause breathing problems in your pigs and eye infections). Stevie and Blonde on www.thepigsite.com are great people to ask help from. We have a veggie brush that we use everyday to "bond" with the pigs, they were nothing like the barrows P2 had 1st and I have to say I enjoy the gilts a lot more then the barrows. Good luck. Oh, are you all going to build a pen for them or how much land are you going to let them run on. The more land they are allowed the more energy they are going to use and grow slower then our two. Son has them in a 28' x 28' pen.
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cweick has given some good advice but I have to disagree on worming and vaccinations. If you choose to worm your pigs on a monthly schedule and keep them in the same place then over time you will help develop worms that are resistant to the antithelmic you are using. You will need to change antithelmics (as cweick advises), causing the same problem. If instead of worming them you move them to a new place every few weeks, and not let them back on the same place for a couple of months, then you should not have any need to worm them. I know this only works for those who have space to move their pigs around but two pigs don't require much space and you have a hundred acres.
There is also usually no need for preventative antibiotics. If you are in an area where brucellosis, psuedorabies or other bugs are common, then perhaps it might make sense. But absent that, don't treat your pigs if they aren't sick. Most parasites and illnesses can be prevented through good practices such as keeping their water fresh, cleaning their area daily, giving them fresh, natural (non-medicated) food and rotating them.
You are right that the website I provided is based on keeping pigs in pens; often in large groups. But there is a tremendous amount of good advice there for small herds as well.
I've raised a lot of pigs and learned a lot through my mistakes. My experience has shown me that the natural method is best for a number of reasons. Give them as clean and natural an environment as you are able to. Learn as much about pigs as you can. Read the old texts (from the 1800s) and gain from the experience of those who had never heard of raising pigs in a crowded environment. Your pigs will reward you.
Brian Wright
Large Black and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs
Raised humanely on pasture
Homegrown Acres
Heritage Hog Blog
HomegrownAcres@gmail.com
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Advanced Member
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| Can I get an AMEN to the above.....AMEN
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| Can I add in here with some questions of my own. We are thinking about getting some pigs as well. I have read about pastured pork, but then people talk about them rooting everything up? We have some goats in a 5 acre pasture 1/2 with some overgrowth/trees. I would like to put them in there. Where did you get your red wattles? I have read good things about them. Some breeds seem to be better suited for pasture raising, the wattles is one of them (I think).
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What Homegrownacres and cweick said is good information to start you with. We have to add that if you can get an automatic water for them do so. For the past year we've been using pans for water, and almost sold the pigs it was getting so bad. Got the automatic water and it's heaven sent. No more of them dumping it and you know they always have water even when it's hot. And also it keeps Just the mud hole muddy not the rest of the pen.
There are two types of people:Those who can walk away from the farm and those who cannot. Those who can walk away should not walk but run to a much easier lifestyle.
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You can set up an automatic waterer very easily. DH tore down an old farrowing house and saved the waterer panels. We just connected one end of a hose to the fitting on the waterer and the other end was connected to a tub on the outside of the pen fence. The tub sets higher than the waterer so it gravity feeds. Saves a lot of water waste and wallowing in the water troughs.
Visit The Christian Homesteader
http://farmwoman.proboards.com/index.cgi
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| I just walked out into the field, got a empty mineral tub. Use a saw-all and made it look like a chair (so to speak). The cut a "U" and sat the float in the "U" and was able to put the back in the corner. The I added stepping stones in front so they could not put the tub out of the corner. Has work well for 2 sets. The way we found P2's (2) was I put out an ad for 2 July born barrows for a 4H project. Mr. D.J. called us and we talked once a month until June and then ROAD TRIP and decided to go with gilts instead of barrows. If you have an auction barn, call them up and see when their sell for pigs are. Down here it's a cetain day of the mth. Call you 4H/FFA leader, you can buy pigs from your State univerisity, pricey, but good solid pigs with ear notches (if that's important). Check with your vet, if you co-op sells pig feed then someone is buying it and see if they can give you the name/# or the other way around. Certain time of the year there are pig auctions due to the kids that do 4H/FFA need to show by date. Google the breed you want and email the people in your state. Just don't give up. It took P2 2 yrs before he got his 1st set. But the boy had to save $500 to make the pen and I paid for the pigs and feed. Oh they are NOTHING like those land/york barrows that we got back in March. Ruby and Garnet are smart as a whip, P2 took little time and has them doing dog tricks. Just wished, he never taughted them to bark for their feed, it gets the through out dog upset because she thinks they want to harm me. But we spend so much time with them and I know Ruby cues on a bad day. Just can't get attached to Garnet (freezer pig).
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