Small-scale Outdoor Pig Breeding

Wendy Scudamore

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781785000645
• Topic: Technologie et ingénierie
• Subtopic: Élevage d'animaux

Small-scale Outdoor Pig Breeding is a comprehensive guide to breeding and rearing pigs in natural conditions without compromising their well-being. The book provides support for novice pig-keepers hoping to breed their own pigs. Moreover, it also acts as a valuable reference for more experienced breeders and offers information about different breeds of pigs and their respective needs. Topics covered include: choosing a breed; selecting a boar; hogging and mating; gestation care; farrowing; and hand rearing. This invaluable reference guide to breeding and rearing pigs is aimed at all pig-keepers, whether novice or more experienced, and also smallholders, farmers and rare breed enthusiasts. Fully illustrated with 77 colour photographs and diagrams.

CHAPTER 1

FORWARD PLANNING

When I bred from my first Kunekune gilt, Sybil, I asked myself the question: ‘If she had ten piglets and I couldn’t sell any of them, would I be prepared to keep all ten?’ The answer was ‘yes’. Had the answer been ‘no’, then maybe I would never have started breeding pigs. As it was, I was prepared for the possibility that I would be stuck with the whole litter, and I actually only intended having one litter.

Sybil did indeed give birth to ten piglets; nine lived, and all were sold apart from the two we chose to keep. Since then we have never looked back, and after many litters, hundreds of wonderful piglets, many joys and a few tragedies, I will share with you what I have learned so far.

I begin on a cautionary note, as far too often I have seen enthusiastic people start with more than they can cope with, maybe at the wrong time of year, and with little experience under their belts. They bulldoze forwards without giving a lot of thought to what they will do with the piglets, and hoping to glean enough information from friends and neighbours along the way to equip them with the necessary knowledge. This is more a case of crossing the bridges when they manifest themselves, than being prepared for such an undertaking – and pig breeding is an undertaking. It will involve a financial commitment, a dedication, and a commitment of time and energy.

Anyone who goes into small-scale, outdoor pig breeding thinking they will make a living from breeding and selling piglets will be sorely disappointed. Even the most experienced and successful breeders of pigs don’t make a living from piglet sales: there is simply not the demand, the prices are not high enough, and the market is not wide enough to enable you to make sufficient income from the number of pigs that you will be able to produce on a small scale.

Begin your venture with this in mind.

What you will be able to do if you do it well and plan carefully is to produce enough piglets to cover all your costs and leave you with a little profit, produce your own sympathetically reared and healthy food, with possibly plenty of it to sell too, and enjoy the pleasures of pig keeping as it should be done.

If you are keen enough to become a breeder of renown, so much the better, but don’t put yourself and your pigs under such pressure that the enjoyment and the ethics take a back seat. In other words, ‘don’t give up the day job’!

WHY AND WHEN TO BREED PIGS

If you intend rearing your pigs for eating, then you should never have the problem of dealing with surplus stock, provided that you don’t produce tons of surplus meat. If you are not a meat producer you will need to consider just how many litters you can expect to sell, for what purpose you will sell them, and how you will assess and create a market for them. Time your litters so that you are not dealing with too many piglets for sale at the same time, or too much meat for your outlets.

I have also known many people who have bred from their pigs thinking that they will rear them for the pot, but when the time comes and the piglets are grown they have found it very hard to send them off to slaughter, and in some cases never did. If you intend sending your pigs for slaughter, a word of advice: do not handle or make friends of your piglets. You will remember (if you already have them) how quickly your adult pigs became ‘socialized’ when they were young, and very young piglets quickly become inquisitive, full of character and highly endearing: it is therefore best to keep a distance from them, and not let them become part of the family!

If you are planning to rear your piglets to sell on as ‘pet’ pigs or breeding stock, be realistic: pigs for breeding stock need to be good quality animals, and there is a percentage in all litters that will not come up to standard (see Appendix III). These piglets if of a small breed will make ‘pet pigs’ – but think how many piglets you are likely to sell, and what kind of homes you will be wanting for them: there is a healthy market for ‘pet pigs’, but every pig deserves grazing, space, an outdoor life and the correct diet to keep it fit and healthy. Pigs were never meant to be kept as house pets, and in my opinion should not be kept in this way.

Every pig deserves grazing, space, an outdoor life and the correct diet to keep it fit and healthy.

What is the most likely time of year to sell them? Spring and summer are, of course, the seasons when most people look to take on livestock, although during the winter months there are fewer piglets available because summer is the optimum time for breeding. Most people like to breed in the spring, and this is the easiest time to sell, with the whole year ahead of you. It’s also the best time to start breeding if you are a novice, as the weather, ground conditions and daylight hours are all in your favour. However, you must think ahead: your piglets will be leaving home ten weeks after they are born (approximately), so if you want to be selling piglets in June, your gilt will need to be farrowing in April, so she will need to visit the boar around Christmas time.

If you are considering showing your animals, then January-born litters will be the better grown for their classes. Consider which, if any, of your sows you may like to show with a litter, and be aware that a sow will always look her best in the show ring if she is pregnant (although not too far on, of course). If you are experienced, it’s nice to farrow in the winter as you will then have piglets ready in the early spring when people begin to think of buying.

When starting out I would advise ‘staggering’ your first litters. Perhaps take one gilt to the boar, then when you collect her, drop off the next, and so on. This will enable you to use your farrowing house and then get it cleared and cleaned in time for your next litter; it will give you ample time to spend with your litter, and it will make sales of your piglets ‘flow’. It’s better to be a breeder who always has piglets to meet their enquiries than one who has a glut of piglets only once or twice a year. And don’t breed so many piglets that you will be prepared to sell them to anyone who comes along, purely so that you are not stuck with them yourself.

When you feel you have come up with answers to all the above questions, prepare yourself well to begin.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

The financial outlay need not be large: you can start as small as you like and ‘grow’ as you feel able and when the necessity arises. However, you will need all the basics in place before you commit to buying your stock. The planning of your farrowing house will be covered in a later chapter, but before you even begin, land and buildings are a must. You will need at least an acre of ground to keep and breed pigs on a permanent basis, whatever breed you choose, and outbuildings too. Your pigs may live in an arc or field shelter, but you will need storage space that is dry and clean for your feed, hay, straw and equipment.

Feed and Bedding

Buying feed in bulk bags is a cheaper option, but only advisable if you will be able to use it quickly enough; the vitamins and minerals added to pig food will ‘go off’ after approximately a month, so be sure that you can use the feed in that time, otherwise buy in smaller quantities. Another economical alternative to buying feed is to buy in ‘straights’ and mix your own feeds. These can include peas, barley, maize or beans.

Bedding and hay can be stored indefinitely in a dry place, as can other feeds such as stock potatoes or fodder beet.

Pigs love barley straw and will root around in it in winter when there is no grass on the ground. They will eat a fair amount of what you put into their arcs as bedding, but it will keep them occupied and is good for them so be sure to allow them this luxury.

Hay or straw is suitable bedding for pigs, but it must be of a reasonable quality – mouldy, dusty bedding is not good for any animal.

Fencing and Gates

Be sure your fencing is secure and up to the job of keeping pigs in. Some breeds are easier to contain than others, but the very minimum fencing requirement will be good stock fencing, well strained and erected on good strong fence posts. All pigs need their fencing to be close to the ground (so a snout will not fit underneath it!), and a good measure is to put a line of barbed wire along the bottom to prevent the pigs from lifting it with their snouts. In most stock netting the holes are wider at the top than the bottom, so be sure to hang it the correct way up or you may find your piglets wriggling through it!

In winter time when the ground is soft and the pigs are really digging, it is also advisable to run electric fencing round the inside of your fence to stop the pigs from digging too close to it and undermining the fence posts.

Another good precautionary meas...