First, let me state that this may offend some of you. I don’t really care. Not that I’m trying to be antagonistic, I just don’t lose sleep if something I say as a statement of what I believe is possible offensive. This is all theory and conjecture at this point, and even if I am correct, I still may never be able to get this one past the wife. She’s a sport for most of my schemes, but even she has her limits.
Now let me sway everyone into my corner for a moment. Other than those that are prohibited by religion, who doesn’t like bacon? Those two people that don’t can stop reading now, and go read something else. The rest of us will wallow in our consumption of a “filthy animal”.
Let’s start with that. “Pigs are dirty animals”. Only when not given a choice. Since pigs do not have many sweat glands, they wallow in whatever water they can in order to cool their bodies. In confined spaces, this tends to be mud they’ve created from their waste. In a free-range environment, they will immerse themselves in a stream or pond, if given the chance. This does not cover a pig being “unclean”, a religious term I’m not touching.
So let’s leave it at “I like pork, and consider it a valid food source”. You don’t have to agree, see above for my feelings.
If you recall my post on things that have fallen to the wayside, my back yard needs some SERIOUS work, mowing just isn’t enough. Grass is scarce, and being replaced by a field of wireweed (sida acuta). At this point, I’m thinking I’ll have to pull eat plant by hand (UGH!), get a goat…or a pig.
Goats have worming issues I prefer to not have to deal with. Pigs are too large to have in a back yard.
Unless they are a small breed….like Mini Pot Belly or teacup pigs. MUHAHAHAHAAA! They grow to about 50 pounds, are omnivores, so will do well on rooting in the yard, and a decent feed, as well as helping the chickens convert kitchen scraps. Small-space friendly, these may be a viable option for me. I wonder if they like eating wireweed?
I got this idea from a Craigslist post I saw last night.
Still have pink female, black female with one blue eye and a spotted male. MUST place within 4 days….REDUCED down to 50 each!!! First come…. SALE, im moving and they need homes asap!!!! I have 3 piglets available. 2 young females,(one pink, 1 black, with a blue eye) and 1- 6 month young male.(under 10lb males spotted) Will mature to around 50lbs.and only 13 inches tall.
$50 per, reduced. Hmmm.. Four days to sell? Those are all key indicators to a flexible seller! I’m guessing I can get all of them for $100! And look at this:
I don’t know if I can find an apple small enough for a whole roasted pig…or just use the brined rabbit technique to smoke the entire animal! If I thought brined, smoked rabbit tasted like bacon….how would THIS taste!
So I’m kicking around the idea. I’ve found some decent points of reference online, and most are very pragmatic about it. These are pigs. Pigs are livestock. We raise livestock for consumption. It’s that simple. Yes they are cute. Many animals are. But they are also tasty, and I prefer to enjoy them both as they grow, and as they nourish my family. It honors the animal.
The ultimate test, as I’ve said before…what will the wife say 😛
Peace,
db
Notes:
Potbellied pigs for food:
Wind Ridge Farm
For those of you that still feel they make good pets, here is an article from 1997:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/potpigs.htm
I think it’s a great idea and would consider giving it a try if I were in a different location. Most all of the early settlers kept hogs and there would have been some long hungry winters without them. Of course they mostly just let them free range which isn’t an option for most of us. If and when I settle back in KY, I will have a few hogs.
Oh my gosh, I would die to have some of these! I agree, they would be awesome to raise AND eat.
Are you wanting to raise AND slaughter them on your property? I dunno, I’m cool with the raising part, but if it were me, I would have the hubs take the piggies to a butcher and have THEM do it. Maybe your wife would be a little more receptive that idea?
Keep us updated on what you decide!
No different than the rabbits, chickens, ducks, fish, wild game, etc that gets processed here already. The size is a little larger than the animals I already process here, but my setup would handle it with some modifications. Cold storage becomes an issue though, so maybe a second fridge would be needed before I got into this 🙂
And the wife is actually mulling pigs over…scary! She hasn’t said “No!” yet, at least!
Great post. I want to get into pigs too and didnt even think about the tea-cup variety.
BTW, Pigs have a plow on there nose for a reason…haha
I wonder how hard they are to breed?
One of the things I’m worried about is how much would one root up?
As to the breeding, my grandparents had a farm in WV and I would spend every summer there. They raised pigs (among other things) and from what I saw, its as simple as any other animal breeding, only these ones are “makin’ bacon”! Keeping the boar away from the sows seems to be a bigger issue…..
Only one way to find out if they will destroy your yard…LOL Please take pics and post about it…haha
We know ppl who have done this. I have a pet teacup and her name is bacon Bitsy. The issue with raising them for meat is the price to butcher. If you can kill and butcher yourself it’s cost effective if not your gonna get 15-20 of meat and a huge butcher bill
That’s what I was thinking. Ans since I push the self-sufficiency angle, you KNOW I’d do it myself…
Thanks for the comment, Jamie!
Dude, you are awesome. Period. God, I hope you are around us when the zombie apocalypse occurs. he… he.. he.
Speaking of zombies, ever read “World War Z” ?? Pretty decent read…though more of a human interest story than a zombie story. Well written, great back story for the whole thing. Flows pretty well too. I just finished it a few days ago.
The “little” piggies are all over Craigslist here too and I’ve been wondering about their meat value. Now someone’s got Hampshire’s for sale for $35. You’re right, pigs don’t have to be a smelly mess, that’s a result of not keeping up with the normal cleaning you have to do anytime you’ve got an animal penned up. When we lived in the “city” a neighbor raised a full-grown hog up to butchering size in their back yard and none of the non-involved neighbors nor the city ever knew it. Privacy fence and regular mucking made a wonderful combination.
From what I’ve read, pigs only stink because they because people put them in too small of a pen. I’m pretty sure if they have plenty of space it’s not a problem.
I’ve raised full-sized pigs, and I reckon even the little ones would quickly rip up their pen. It’s what they’re built for!
If you can channel their efforts, you can get your vegie garden dug over every season for free :-).
We don’t have any miniature pigs here in Australia, and nobody is allowed to import them, otherwise I’d be all over them.