Growth

We have had the young pigs now for 5 days. They have come a long way in that time. Upon their arrival they were frightened and skittish. They now have gotten used to be called out 2 times a day. They come running to greet us and happily accept the warm morning meal of apx 2 cups of warmed whole unpasteurized milk. I mix this with a small amount of their feed in a large bowl, and once finished I fill the bowl with water. They still have NOT figured out the water barrel. I put peanut butter on it being told by many that that was a fail proof way to get them to drink. NOT so in my case. Of course they MAY be getting enough water from the bowl during the day and not in NEED of figuring out the water. The small female is definitely the adventurist one of the two and the male the protector. LOL
They seems very interested in the sheep and alpaca in the next pasture. Alpaca and llama typically DO not like to even be in the same zip code as a pig so their response is nearly as humorous as the pigs chasing them around the safe confines of their pen.
The food consumption has increased as well as their activity level. I picked up the LITTLE one yesterday and it was amazing the weight she has gained in just 5 days.
They are too small to operate the automatic feeder, but we have successfully gotten them TO the feeder and are eating out of the base. The barrel is too heavy still for them to move, but with their current rate of growth, it Will not be much more than a week or two until they graduate to the full ability of the feeder.
With talking to my dad today, he recommended that we consider processing the pigs our selves. He worked as a butcher YEARS ago and is still very adept at butchering nearly anything that walks, flies, swims or crawls. I am going to call the butcher Monday am and see if they STILL allow this. What he said to do is take Live pig to them. the charge to uumm dispatch the animal is between $20-$40 each. then have them hang for 3-5 days in their coolers. IMO sure there will be some sort of a fee for this service as well. then at end of hanging time, pick up carcass and return it to home where we would make into the cuts we want, vacuum seal the cuts and begin any smoking/brining/curing of the meats. We have opted to AVOID the salt peter and other cures that are artificial and in my eyes dangerous. No sense in raising healthy animals on clean antibiotic/steroid free feeds only to taint the meat with chemicals. Kinda a NO Brainier there.
When I find out the details of the above proposal I will add the information on to the site. Until next time.

A productive weekend

Saturday was a busy day with the building of the pig feeder. Sunday proved to be just as busy with the building of the waterer and the A frame shelter.

We picked up the piglets at 3 pm today. The farmer picked us a nice chunky fella for one.

and the other he gave us which was a runt. Didnt really want 2 to start with but was told that they will grow much faster with 2. So the price was right I guess. But she is a tiny little thing being maybe 15# tops.

We brought them home and introduced them to the pasture. OMG.. Grass What is THAT~ too funny.. But they have settled in well. we are having to make some adjustments in feeding for a few weeks until they are big nuff to make it work.

Here are out pigs the day they were brought home.

July 3, 2009 Building a pig feeder

Well today we built a pig feeder. Im sure we could have found a cheeper and easier way to build this but it looked like such a great design we had to try.
Of course feed is a major part of the cost of raising pigs to finish weight. if the food is bad, cannot be accessed or runs out, well then the growth of the pigs is also affected.
This particular feeder I found plans for online. I will post the site. I took photos as we progressed. Nothing difficult, but tedious. The cost was MUCH more than we had planned, and we had some of the stuff laying around. But we also purchased the items for the waterer as well as a box of ice pops. LOL Robert out 7 yo went with us to menards.
We did make a minor change to the plans.
The roof was too small. this is going to be a feeder for outside. if not I guess they wouldnt have designed it with a roof. However the roof was too small. if it were to rain on it, the water sold pour right into the feed on the platform below. HUMMM kinda backwards. So Mike made the roof bigger with a bigger overhang. I think this will come in handy in our attempts to keep the food dry. Now thats not saying that if the rain is coming down sideways that its NOT gonna get wet, but we did the best we could to keep it dry. The rest of the feeder is rather ingenius.
the barrel, being on a large metal rod, it adjustable. The pig hits the barrel, causing it to rock/pivot and there for droping food out to the feeding platform below. depending on how muhc you want coming out will depend on how high you set the barrel.
I will add photos ASAP.
Tomorrow... the waterer... and hopefully setting up the pen. the pigs come home sunday afternoon.

Raising hogs summer 2009

We have decide to attempt to raise 2 pigs this year. in the entries to follow I will keep you posted on progress and costs involved.
I am doing these to help with a basic education for others wishing to do the same.
Our money is tight here, but we have found a very kind farmer with pigs out our way. He is selling us the pig for $1 per #.
Tonight I phoned him to verify that we DID want a pig. He strongly recommended getting 2, but the money just was not there. so we are gonna pick a NICE one and they he said he would give us a runt. I dont really LIKE the idea of a runt. everything you read advises staying away from them. However we are going to attempt to do it.
We will pick them up this sunday. I will enter more information as I get it.

Raising chickens.

Well we tried to get in to the Amish to process our meat chickens, they had no room for us. would have been nearly 2 weeks after what we needed. spent1.5 weeks trying to reach them as well. SOOOO we took a chance on Fowlerville Processing plant. I have to say we were VERY happy with the results! chickens came back clean and tagged with OUR color. They do charge for keeping necks and giblets so we didnt do that, and they charge for cutting them.So we had them left whole and cut when we got home. The insides were clean, in most cases even the kidneys were gone. found an occasional tracha peice, and maybe a pin feather or two. We did find one that looked like they popped the gizard or stomach, just a little discoloration so we rinsed it. Otherwise very nicely done. Just thought I would share with every one .Also to those that may be interested, Most of our birds went 1/2-1 ounce under 7# (dressed)we got them as day olds on April 15. Put them in a brooder for 1.5 weeks then in a large pen in barn until 4 weeks old. at 4 weeks we put them on pasture along with all the food they could eat for 12 hrs. and a 7 gallon waterer.We initially purchased 3 bags of 24% which lasted about 4 weeks. We then went down to 20%.we started out with 4 bags of the 20% and had to purchase 2 more bags. toward the end we were going thru a 50# bag every 4 days, and close to 7 gallons of water a day. they ate alot of grass, bugs and such in the pasture too and walked around quite a bit. we placed the food and water in different SHADYplaces daily so that they had clean area to sit.We butchered on June 11th, we lost one 3 days previous I think probably to flip.HE WAS HUGE. so they were 4 days shy of 8 weeks.so a total of 450# of feed.the out come with feed, purchase of chicks (Vantress Whites)and processing came $1.91 per pound of PROCESSED chicken.we threw one right in oven when we got home, as we were splitting with parents and had 21 birds so when they came to help cut birds we had the 21st one roasting. The flavor was UNBELIEVABLE! Juicy and fresh tasting. they are a bit tougher than the PEN raised birds that are full of CRAP, plus they did walk around alot. But the difference is not that noteable. We are all gonna do it again next year and likely do a few more. we started with 25 and 21 made it to the processor. NOT too bad. Oh and we used kalambach feeds, which I strongly recommend for any of your livestock needs. We are considering doing hogs next year too, has anyone got a break down of cost like the chickens?hope this post is helpful to someone.
Tiffany