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Articles
Small Farms Are Perfect For Raising Pigs On Pasture
Small Farms Are Perfect For Raising Pigs On Pasture
Whether seeking out a single farming enterprise or a way to diversify your operation, pasture pigs can make great additions to a small farm. Popular pasture pig breeds include the Idaho Pasture Pig, Kunekune, Large Black and Tamworth.
Outside of producing pork for home use or sale, you can also use pigs for clearing brush-filled areas, rototilling gardens during the winter months or even sealing shallow ponds.
One significant lure of raising your own pigs is the amount of control you can exact over what, from feed to medication, goes into your animals.
“You’ve got the ability to raise these pigs the way you want them to be raised,” says Jodi Cronauer, registrar of the Idaho Pasture Pig Registry. Cronauer raises Idaho Pasture Pigs and Kunekunes on her Wisconsin-based White Bison Farm. You can choose, for example, what vaccinations you will use, if any at all, and how to address deworming.
Another reason is the improved taste of the meat. Fans of pasture-raised, heritage-breed pigs claim that their meat tastes far superior to that of pigs raised commercially. And the hogs themselves benefit from being raised outdoors on a nutrient-rich pasture.
Land & Forage
If you are convinced that raising pigs is for you, the first step includes assessing your property to assure it’s a viable operation.
Heritage breeds, such as those mentioned, prefer forest or pasture areas. Forested areas should have available fruits, acorns and nuts, collectively known as mast. Any area you are considering should also have available water sources for hydration as well as areas where wallows will develop for cooling.
If these areas are available on your property, can they be fenced?
Finally, ask yourself if you have enough land that you can rotate pastures to prevent soil erosion. A variety of factors influence land requirements. You can consult your county extension agent or soil conservation service about your specific needs.
Because of his location, Bill Wehlage of Bacon Acres Farm in Oklahoma requires a larger area for his pigs.
“If you rotate diligently, you can run five pigs on 5 acres, rotating half-acre paddocks every couple of weeks,” he says. Wehlage has supplied farmers in 28 states with registered Tamworth breeding stock, also selling pork online and locally.
As long as there is availability, type of grass isn’t as big of a concern.
“The thing about pigs is anything with more of a broadleaf mixture is going to be better for them,” says Jason Johnson, who raises Large Black pigs on his Lucky George Farm in Iowa. “It’s going to improve their ability to digest.”
Johnson also prefers to have some clover in the mix. If necessary, pigs can also be fed hay. Grass hays mixed with properly harvested alfalfa are preferred over timothy.
Read more: Can you feed your hogs hay? Sure—here’s what you need to know.
Breed
There are key differences and similarities among the breeds. “We wanted pigs that would do very well with the kids,” Johnson says. “For pigs, they [Large Blacks] are one of the most docile and easy to manage. It’s not all about the look. Large Blacks are good on pasture with marginal forage.”
Wehlage, meanwhile, is thrilled with his Tamworth pigs.
“We find them to be very hearty, sound in feet and leg, easy breeders, great mothers, and easily trained to electric fencing and nipple waters,” he says. “They also have an excellent feed conversion rate for a heritage breed and are very tasty and lean.”
Cronauer is equally enthusiastic about her Idaho Pasture Pigs and Kunekunes. She touts that she can’t think of another breed of pig that grazes as well as these. She also says that both breeds are very friendly. Size-wise, Kunekunes are slower-growing, smaller pigs that tend to be better producers of lard.
Irrespective of selected breed, Cronauer emphasizes choosing by conformation.
“I always say look at a pig as if you are going to eat it,” she says. “You want a pig with a nice long back, big butt and nice front shoulders so you can say ‘look at what we are going to get off of this pig.’”
Processors
Regardless of whether or not you choose to resale packaged pork online from home, locally at a farmers market or even if you are raising pigs for your own food source, you’ll need to locate a processing facility.
Any pork sold not on the hoof must be butchered and packaged at a USDA processing plant. Requirements are slightly less stringent when butchering and packaging for home-use alone.
Shelter & Containment
One of the many benefits of pasture-raised pigs is that the required infrastructure is minimal. “A few pigs can live in a crude hut or shelter,” Wehlage says. “In the summer, many of our pigs have no shelter at all as long as they have shade from trees and good mud holes.”
Johnson takes a similar but slightly different approach. “You have to have some sort of shelter, but that can be made from a lot of different types of things,” he says. “You can take a cattle panel and bend it and put a tarp over.”
For her operation, Cronauer makes use of A-frame shelters year-round. The shelters can also be used for farrowing. She feels that the design of the A-frames helps to position the sow during farrowing and prevents the piglets from getting laid on.
As for fencing, different types have advantages and disadvantages. For example, panels can work well but can be burrowed under. The general consensus among those that raise pigs is that electric fencing is the most economical.
“If you have five pigs on 10 acres, that’s going to be a big enough space that they are not going to get bored and try to break out,” Johnson says.
Smaller lots will require fencing that the pigs will respect. Pigs have to be trained to an electric fence or they will run through it. Electric fencing should be approximately 6 inches off the ground to prevent pigs from escaping under it.
Electric fence netting can be used to train piglets to an electric fence.
Read more: Check out these ‘pig-richment’ ideas to keep pigs engaged during cold months.
Transportation
Cattle or horse trailers are the preferred method for transporting pigs for processing.
“A week before the big move, begin to feed the pigs in the trailer,” Wehlage says. “The morning they go to the processor, they will hop right in. The rule of thumb is that you can’t get in a hurry with pigs. Take your time. And plan how to make them ‘want’ to go where you need them to go.”
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Rodale Institute: PASTURED PORK
We believe there’s a healthy and humane way to raise pork.
When we built our state-of-the-art pastured hog facility in 2015, we wanted to create a scalable model for other farmers looking to raise hogs the right way. The facility and its eight acres of surrounding pasture serve as our laboratory. There, we’re investigating best practices for raising hogs in a way that benefits the farmers, animals, and the land.
THE PROBLEM WITH PORK
97% of commercial hogs are raised in small, indoor, concrete-floored pens. Almost half are raised on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), also known as factory farms. These intense operations lead to overcrowding, animal stress, disease, and excessive waste. The United States is one of the largest producers of this kind of conventional pork, second only to China. We developed our facility and research on pastured pork because we believe animals can be raised another way—one that results in a healthier product for people and the planet.
BENEFITS OF PASTURED PORK
ANIMAL WELFARE
Pastured animals are free to express their natural behaviors. They’re less stressed and get along better with each other and with handlers.
DIVERSE DIET & NUTRITION
Pigs that forage have access to a diverse array of plants and insects that keep them healthy and entertained. Pigs are smart and need variety.
REDUCED COST
Grazing on pasture means pigs need less feed, which tends to be an expensive input.
WHAT WE’RE STUDYING
Some of the questions we’re asking include:
- How can we reduce the impact of pig parasites?
- How much pasture are the pigs consuming?
- How much feed is the pasture saving?
- How frequently do the animals need to be moved?
- What is the stocking rate (number of animals a pasture can support for a period of time) for pigs on pasture? and
- How can we minimize land degradation?
Our current research is analyzing:
- Manure and pasture management to reduce swine parasites in organic pastured pork production
- The nutritional composition of the crops in our pastures, both pre- and post-grazing
- Hog weights relative to the type of pasture and size of paddock grazed
- The ideal stocking rate and feed conversion ratio
Our goal is to help current and future hog farmers determine the best type of pasture for raising hogs, the best paddock size, and best practices for maximizing the regrowth of forage crops.
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Profitable Pork: Raising Pigs on Pasture
Farrowing on pasture. In recent years, hog farmers thought sows needed to farrow in confinement to ensure piglet survival. However, some criticize the system as promoting ulcers, sores and behaviors such as bar biting. Instead, producers are raising sows outdoors to allow them more space and access to fresh air and sunshine. Researchers and farmers have found that, with small portable huts and good pasture, they can drastically reduce the cost of production.
Outdoor pig production on a large scale is gaining a hoof-hold in the southern High Plains because of the moderate climate, relatively flat land and sparse population. In fact, the traditional cattle country of the Texas panhandle is beginning to diversify into hogs. Texas Tech University’s Sustainable Pork Program began studying intensive outdoor pig production in 1993 and, in 1998, built a research farm dedicated to exploring profitable, environmentally sound systems they call ‘animal-, environment-, worker-, and community-friendly.’
The prototype, larger than the indoor-based models, operates within a paddock system that requires about 100 acres for every 300 sows or three sows per acre. The 12-acre paddocks radiate out from a central circular area, used for handling and observation, and are demarcated by electric fence. The separate paddocks isolate breeding, gestation, farrowing and pasture growth.
Texas Tech researchers are evaluating production costs, behavior and environmental impacts, dust and microbe levels, and pork quality. Thus far, they have found improved pig health, a better work environment, less odor, less microbial activity, fewer regulatory problems and lower start-up and operating costs. More specifically, they found it costs $23.20 to raise a pig in ‘intensive outdoor’ production versus $31 in a typical confinement system. In that 1995 study, they found a net profit of $10.39 per pig in the outdoor system.
The institute’s director, John McGlone, is sure sustainable pastured pork systems will take off once more producers learn of their environmental benefits, lower start-up costs and marketing opportunities. ‘Pigs are going to be bigger than cattle on the southern Plains, and it could happen within the next 10 to 20 years,’ said McGlone, who has received lots of ink in newspapers and magazines in Texas and beyond for his new production model.
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