My grandfather had pigs similar to yours, 500-600 pound range but also kept a few Tamworth hogs for bacon and BBQ pigs. The young ones he sold for whole hog BBQ, but kept a couple to grow out for bacon. His pigs were pasture pigs with the run of a farm in the Great Smokey Mountains. On close to 300 acres his farm was a series of level areas when he sold timber in the 1940s connected by grass-covered old log roads. By the time I came along and was there a lot in the 70's he was semi-retired and ran livestock, put in gardens mostly to feed the family and keep busy. The big hogs helped but the Tamworths were his gardeners. We walked the pastures with the hogs following us and he'd use a walking stick to dig around the roots of the saplings that always were trying to take back the pasture. Then dropping in a couple hand fulls of dent corn he'd poke it in and the hogs would root it up, eating the roots and killing the trees. Then we'd go back later with the truck and pull the dead trees and put them in the one end of the stocked pond for fish to use for cover. The pond was stream-fed and muddy where the water overflowed the trough and went into the pond. The pigs favored the outflow end where there was a sandy stream, clean and not muddy. He also used leaves for bedding for the cattle and hogs, loaded up the manure pile after harvest and dumped it in the garden area throwing out corn with it. (actually, that was my job, shelling dry dent corn is a skill, LOL) Then he'd turn the hogs loose in the garden and they worked for the corn, churning everything up and fertilizing it. He also rotated and planted soybeans in sections then turned the hogs loose in that section to plow it up. The Tamworths made the best bacon ever.
Great answers for farming for profit which will bring people back to the land. Looks like if one wants to raise family on the most nutritious natural meat, then one should strive for a well maintained and managed personal hunting reserve. With boar, deer, ducks, pheasants,turkeys and fish. Maybe by using cattle in a multi ground cover plant species silvo pastures with fruit and nut trees. Providing the best for wild animals.
You mentioned castration of larger shoats. Mummy dad would turn them UPSIDE DOWN in a small 15 gallon empty grease barrel. They never made a single squeal. Love the channel keep it coming
We use the center nose rings in our sows. We graze permanent pastuess( alfalfa and perennial grass). Alfalfa is excellent sow feed and is very expensive to establish. The quality of life spent on pasture with a nose ring is better than the quality of life spent in a mud lot without a nose ring. If we want soil disturbance we use the larger feeder/finishing pigs.
Good informative video. I like how you explain the context. If people don’t raise their own food, they have to accept that someone else has to do it in a profitable way and there are aspects that are not ideal but unavoidable.
As I have told you before I really like what you are doing with your pig operation. I raised hogs for 20 years and and a few of those years raised them on dirt, just as you are. I went to confined concrete feeding floors" (room enough to feed 600 head at a time)" due to waste and sanitary and efficient conversion of my feed. The hogs ran in and out of the barns at their desecration. I would never go confinement again knowing what I know now. I agree with what you have to say on this matter except for one thing. It does matter about breeding. The Poland China pig is unsurpassed by any breed for feed conversion. The Duroc pig is very close behind. As for mothering ability the Yorkshire or Landrace beat them all, they are both called the mother breed. A balance between fast growth, mothering ability, and prolific sows are very important for feed conversion and/or profits made. Poland China and Yorkshire cross make a very prolific sow. Bred to a Duroc Boar this is a money making mix. Red Wattles, Tamworth, Mule Foot, Hereford, American Guinea, and many other breeds are all a slow growing pig and will only impede growth or money loss at the scales. Berkshire would be my fourth pick for cross breeding in order to get good results for an outdoor pig. Keep up the good work.
Regulations in Australia are really strict with pigs. Most regions won't let us keep pigs let alone free range them. We have a massive problem with feral pigs. Great video and very informative. Best of luck with it all.
I am confused as to why pigs would need to cost more if you didn't feed them grains (correct me if I am wrong), stats in Australia suggest about 65% of the value of a meat pig when sold would disappear in the cost of the feed so anything you could do to reduce how much feed then need would be pushed back into profit. I understand they would take a significant amount more time to grow but what about that time makes them cost more? is it man hours at your scale perhaps? and extra water and hardware maintenance I suppose. Perhaps at a scale that is a one man/woman operation this cost would be not as high?
Saw you on farmer Justin vid, thanks for your service sir! Can you use old fruits and veggies from local farmers in your feed, this way you help them and they help you with cost?
You can add fruits and veggies to the ration but don't take away the balanced ration and expect the same growouts. Fruit and veggies don't have the protein the pigs need to grow. We feed fruit on top of their nutritional needs for a full belly, happy sow.
Thanks for the replies. I’ll try a tape measure to check but they are no where near 160#. They are healthy and run around like crazy and eat constantly. Not sure what’s up
Protein is a big factor in many species and cannibalism. More farmers should pay attention to your strategies, they apply to basic production and survival, not just pigs. It was not always called homesteading, it used to be basic farming and survival.
Would you ever do I nut finish pork Would you ever plant a field of peanuts so that your pigs could eat, Would you patmore nut bearing trees such as acorn hazelnut chestnut and/or Acorns or pig nuts or Hickory nuts or would you plant a persimmon tree
Have you had any experience with getting your products into DoD Commissaries? I know they are supposed to provide opportunities for local farmers through the bidding process and I’ve seen dudes in overallls bringing in watermelons back at Fort Stewart, but I haven’t seen any locally produced meat. Since you’re here in Virginia near so many commissaries, how can we get your products here at Fort Belvoir?
So a pasture pig in fact doesn't really eat much grass then? Or it does but doesn't get much out of it. Do you think they could thrive on corn or what we call maize in the UK? In the UK most animal feed is made from soya grown on cleared amazon rainforest land so increasingly people are put off by this, so its something I'd be interested in avoiding.
Grass is like a salad. Good for the gut and some nutrition but not for growth. Pigs were raised for centuries on corn alone. It's a decent feed but light on proteins.
there are tons of videos on castrating so no need to ask for one here so he can keep his videos clean i have seen others do it all pretty much the same lol turn out uniques hugsssssssss from Ontario Canada
You may have addressed this in another video (I'm still working my way through them), but how many sows do you keep in each group? And how big is each paddock that you are rotating?
I purchased 2 pigs in April just weened and have been feeding them cracked corn soy meal and mineral mixture. The female looks to be about 100# and the male about 85#. Shouldn’t they be much bigger than that?
I would think so. I got weaners in mid-May and using the heart-girth estimation, mine are near 180. Update: It'd been a week or two since I measured them. Checking this morning, mine are at 213.
OKSkeeter those pigs should be much bigger. Mine were weened in mid to late May & the runt is 160lbs & the others are 180-195lbs. You may be under estimating them if your going by the way they look.
Now remember hogs weight can be deceiving. They look small but it's a compact weight. If your guess is accurate your hogs are very small. An average turn around for piglet to processing is 6 months. We have milk from dairy cows that we top dress feed with and our turn over is 3 months. This isn't common with average feed. If you are only feeding corn, soy and mineral it may be a nutrient deficiency & that could have stunted the piglets so much they will never grow to full size. I've seen it in many family hogs(people trying to grow pigs cheap), the head it too big for the body, very noticeable.
@@ka6148 You can't starve a profit from anything. You must feed appropriately. Grass fed pigs are being starved of necessary vitamins and minerals. They need some kind of balanced diet and all they want to eat if they are raised on pasture. They will not over eat.
I live in South Twxas and we have a lot of wild hogs in our woods. How would I deal with wild hogs trying to mix in or take my herd? Would electric fencing keep them out? How would you deal with that situation?
In one of your videos you mentioned you used to have sheep. Why have you quit raising sheep? Do you have any advice for someone getting started raising sheep?
Definitely stay away from wooled breeds. The haired breeds( katahdin, st croix) tend to be parasite resistant. We had good luck with katahdins. Definitely stay away from show stock breeders.
So far so good with the parasites. I got katahdin/dorper/blackbelly crosses from a few different small hobby flocks, some came from pretty unclean situations, and they have thrived on nothing but grass, kelp, and water. Do you know any good guardian dog training information sources? I know it's mostly instinct, but we are getting some pups in a couple days, and they are going to be the biggest investment in sheep we have made so I really don't want to ruin them.
@@swamp-yankee having more than 1 pup at a time can be challenging without an adult to set the example. Some things to keep in mind; at first keep them in a tight pen with a place to escape from the sheep. But they should be able to mingle and get used to the sheep(and the sheep to them). 2nd, they need to be tame but Not pets. That can be a fine line. 3rd, we only teach to commands. No. And Sheep. First is self explanatory, second is what we tell them when they are too far from the sheep and we want them to get back with the sheep. If they are in trouble it it best to yell at them.(only the command word) That's what their mother does. It works well. I don't advise physical reprimand or treats. They should great you for a quick pet on the head then go back to work.
@@BJSmith-ll3uw So far so good with our pups. They are trained to electric fence, and integrated with the flock. The have access to a calf hut with a gravity feeder, and some utility panel on the front so the sheep don't shimmy under. We have had a lot of people walk up from the road to see the pups which I wasn't expecting. They're getting pretty good with No, but how did you train them to the command Sheep?
Do you know of anyone that has had anaphylaxis to eating pork that has been fed nuts ? Something new to me i have 6 of us with nut allergy. Something ive never even thought about is our meat eating nuts lol
I accidently gave my 8 week old pig 1 cc of ivermectin it was injectable but i put it in the food! Will it live? Thank you Jordan!! any help is much appreciated!!
My grandfather had pigs similar to yours, 500-600 pound range but also kept a few Tamworth hogs for bacon and BBQ pigs. The young ones he sold for whole hog BBQ, but kept a couple to grow out for bacon. His pigs were pasture pigs with the run of a farm in the Great Smokey Mountains. On close to 300 acres his farm was a series of level areas when he sold timber in the 1940s connected by grass-covered old log roads. By the time I came along and was there a lot in the 70's he was semi-retired and ran livestock, put in gardens mostly to feed the family and keep busy.
The big hogs helped but the Tamworths were his gardeners. We walked the pastures with the hogs following us and he'd use a walking stick to dig around the roots of the saplings that always were trying to take back the pasture. Then dropping in a couple hand fulls of dent corn he'd poke it in and the hogs would root it up, eating the roots and killing the trees. Then we'd go back later with the truck and pull the dead trees and put them in the one end of the stocked pond for fish to use for cover. The pond was stream-fed and muddy where the water overflowed the trough and went into the pond. The pigs favored the outflow end where there was a sandy stream, clean and not muddy.
He also used leaves for bedding for the cattle and hogs, loaded up the manure pile after harvest and dumped it in the garden area throwing out corn with it. (actually, that was my job, shelling dry dent corn is a skill, LOL) Then he'd turn the hogs loose in the garden and they worked for the corn, churning everything up and fertilizing it. He also rotated and planted soybeans in sections then turned the hogs loose in that section to plow it up. The Tamworths made the best bacon ever.
Wealth of knowledge. Thank you Sir.
Love your videos. Who said farmers aren’t intelligent and articulate as well as hard working. Not me!
Your are awesome man.....I want to have a farm one day. You inspire lot of guys.
Great answers for farming for profit which will bring people back to the land. Looks like if one wants to raise family on the most nutritious natural meat, then one should strive for a well maintained and managed personal hunting reserve. With boar, deer, ducks, pheasants,turkeys and fish. Maybe by using cattle in a multi ground cover plant species silvo pastures with fruit and nut trees. Providing the best for wild animals.
Great video, I learned more about pigs in this video than I ever thought possible!
Thanks
Love your tagline: "Get after it!!!"
Just look at all the views! Congrats on the huge channel growth!
Really good vid - particularly liked your explanation of incorporating modern aspects into the production cycle to keep consumers prices affordable.
You mentioned castration of larger shoats. Mummy dad would turn them UPSIDE DOWN in a small 15 gallon empty grease barrel. They never made a single squeal. Love the channel keep it coming
We use the center nose rings in our sows. We graze permanent pastuess( alfalfa and perennial grass). Alfalfa is excellent sow feed and is very expensive to establish. The quality of life spent on pasture with a nose ring is better than the quality of life spent in a mud lot without a nose ring. If we want soil disturbance we use the larger feeder/finishing pigs.
Cool.
Good informative video. I like how you explain the context. If people don’t raise their own food, they have to accept that someone else has to do it in a profitable way and there are aspects that are not ideal but unavoidable.
new subscriber here, thanks for sharing the information with the public. Pasture Perfect Pigs at Scale (400+) Justin Rhodes.
Awesome video, great info, super operation, and your style of communication is so authentic. Thank you very much!
As I have told you before I really like what you are doing with your pig operation. I raised hogs for 20 years and and a few of those years raised them on dirt, just as you are. I went to confined concrete feeding floors" (room enough to feed 600 head at a time)" due to waste and sanitary and efficient conversion of my feed. The hogs ran in and out of the barns at their desecration.
I would never go confinement again knowing what I know now.
I agree with what you have to say on this matter except for one thing. It does matter about breeding. The Poland China pig is unsurpassed by any breed for feed conversion. The Duroc pig is very close behind.
As for mothering ability the Yorkshire or Landrace beat them all, they are both called the mother breed.
A balance between fast growth, mothering ability, and prolific sows are very important for feed conversion and/or profits made.
Poland China and Yorkshire cross make a very prolific sow. Bred to a Duroc Boar this is a money making mix.
Red Wattles, Tamworth, Mule Foot, Hereford, American Guinea, and many other breeds are all a slow growing pig and will only impede growth or money loss at the scales.
Berkshire would be my fourth pick for cross breeding in order to get good results for an outdoor pig.
Keep up the good work.
Regulations in Australia are really strict with pigs. Most regions won't let us keep pigs let alone free range them. We have a massive problem with feral pigs.
Great video and very informative.
Best of luck with it all.
Im new to the channel, but I love the info. Thank you.
Thank you so much for answering my questions. I really enjoyed the video. I have a few more questions if you ever have another Q and A.
Shoot me an email. farmbuilders@gmail.com
Great video.
Came from Justin Rhodes channel. Thanks for putting out all this info!!!
I came over from Rhodes channel too, real glad you're doing these awesome videos!
Enjoying your videos from Harare Zimbabwe very inspirational
Thank you
Thank you for giving us this information.
Great video
Great video brother 👍👍
I am confused as to why pigs would need to cost more if you didn't feed them grains (correct me if I am wrong), stats in Australia suggest about 65% of the value of a meat pig when sold would disappear in the cost of the feed so anything you could do to reduce how much feed then need would be pushed back into profit. I understand they would take a significant amount more time to grow but what about that time makes them cost more? is it man hours at your scale perhaps? and extra water and hardware maintenance I suppose. Perhaps at a scale that is a one man/woman operation this cost would be not as high?
Saw you on farmer Justin vid, thanks for your service sir! Can you use old fruits and veggies from local farmers in your feed, this way you help them and they help you with cost?
You can add fruits and veggies to the ration but don't take away the balanced ration and expect the same growouts. Fruit and veggies don't have the protein the pigs need to grow. We feed fruit on top of their nutritional needs for a full belly, happy sow.
Thanks for the replies. I’ll try a tape measure to check but they are no where near 160#. They are healthy and run around like crazy and eat constantly. Not sure what’s up
They are being pigs.
👍👍
👍
Protein is a big factor in many species and cannibalism. More farmers should pay attention to your strategies, they apply to basic production and survival, not just pigs. It was not always called homesteading, it used to be basic farming and survival.
How do you catch the male pigs in the pasture to castrate them without getting attacked by mama?
Would you ever do I nut finish pork
Would you ever plant a field of peanuts so that your pigs could eat,
Would you patmore nut bearing trees such as acorn hazelnut chestnut and/or Acorns or pig nuts or Hickory nuts or would you plant a persimmon tree
Have you had any experience with getting your products into DoD Commissaries? I know they are supposed to provide opportunities for local farmers through the bidding process and I’ve seen dudes in overallls bringing in watermelons back at Fort Stewart, but I haven’t seen any locally produced meat. Since you’re here in Virginia near so many commissaries, how can we get your products here at Fort Belvoir?
Sounds interesting. Shoot me an email. farmbuilders@gmail.com
So a pasture pig in fact doesn't really eat much grass then? Or it does but doesn't get much out of it. Do you think they could thrive on corn or what we call maize in the UK? In the UK most animal feed is made from soya grown on cleared amazon rainforest land so increasingly people are put off by this, so its something I'd be interested in avoiding.
Grass is like a salad. Good for the gut and some nutrition but not for growth. Pigs were raised for centuries on corn alone. It's a decent feed but light on proteins.
there are tons of videos on castrating so no need to ask for one here so he can keep his videos clean i have seen others do it all pretty much the same lol turn out uniques hugsssssssss from Ontario Canada
Up in Ohio but went to school at UVA. Very interested in your farrow to finish program. Any time I could come down?
You may have addressed this in another video (I'm still working my way through them), but how many sows do you keep in each group? And how big is each paddock that you are rotating?
excellent
What a reasonable price for pigs going for that are raising out on pasture going for ??
Nice video
I purchased 2 pigs in April just weened and have been feeding them cracked corn soy meal and mineral mixture. The female looks to be about 100# and the male about 85#. Shouldn’t they be much bigger than that?
I would think so. I got weaners in mid-May and using the heart-girth estimation, mine are near 180.
Update: It'd been a week or two since I measured them. Checking this morning, mine are at 213.
OKSkeeter those pigs should be much bigger. Mine were weened in mid to late May & the runt is 160lbs & the others are 180-195lbs. You may be under estimating them if your going by the way they look.
Now remember hogs weight can be deceiving. They look small but it's a compact weight.
If your guess is accurate your hogs are very small. An average turn around for piglet to processing is 6 months. We have milk from dairy cows that we top dress feed with and our turn over is 3 months. This isn't common with average feed.
If you are only feeding corn, soy and mineral it may be a nutrient deficiency & that could have stunted the piglets so much they will never grow to full size. I've seen it in many family hogs(people trying to grow pigs cheap), the head it too big for the body, very noticeable.
Christy Blodgett Thanks for the reply. I’m going to switch over to a commercial feed and see how it goes
@@ka6148 You can't starve a profit from anything. You must feed appropriately. Grass fed pigs are being starved of necessary vitamins and minerals. They need some kind of balanced diet and all they want to eat if they are raised on pasture. They will not over eat.
I live in South Twxas and we have a lot of wild hogs in our woods. How would I deal with wild hogs trying to mix in or take my herd? Would electric fencing keep them out? How would you deal with that situation?
When you say "if you do have a problem definitely have your vet involved" do you mean yourself?
I call my vet when something is out of my range for sure.
In one of your videos you mentioned you used to have sheep. Why have you quit raising sheep? Do you have any advice for someone getting started raising sheep?
Couldn't control a parasite issue. Start with resistant stock would be my advice!
Definitely stay away from wooled breeds. The haired breeds( katahdin, st croix) tend to be parasite resistant. We had good luck with katahdins. Definitely stay away from show stock breeders.
So far so good with the parasites. I got katahdin/dorper/blackbelly crosses from a few different small hobby flocks, some came from pretty unclean situations, and they have thrived on nothing but grass, kelp, and water. Do you know any good guardian dog training information sources? I know it's mostly instinct, but we are getting some pups in a couple days, and they are going to be the biggest investment in sheep we have made so I really don't want to ruin them.
@@swamp-yankee having more than 1 pup at a time can be challenging without an adult to set the example. Some things to keep in mind; at first keep them in a tight pen with a place to escape from the sheep. But they should be able to mingle and get used to the sheep(and the sheep to them). 2nd, they need to be tame but Not pets. That can be a fine line. 3rd, we only teach to commands. No. And Sheep. First is self explanatory, second is what we tell them when they are too far from the sheep and we want them to get back with the sheep. If they are in trouble it it best to yell at them.(only the command word) That's what their mother does. It works well. I don't advise physical reprimand or treats. They should great you for a quick pet on the head then go back to work.
@@BJSmith-ll3uw So far so good with our pups. They are trained to electric fence, and integrated with the flock. The have access to a calf hut with a gravity feeder, and some utility panel on the front so the sheep don't shimmy under. We have had a lot of people walk up from the road to see the pups which I wasn't expecting. They're getting pretty good with No, but how did you train them to the command Sheep?
Do you know of anyone that has had anaphylaxis to eating pork that has been fed nuts ? Something new to me i have 6 of us with nut allergy. Something ive never even thought about is our meat eating nuts lol
Never heard of it being an issue.
Ever thought of sprouting your grain?
He feeds what 6 tons of feed a week... Is sprouting realistic?
@@ka6148 why not? He would get 6 times the amount of feed out of it. Seems silly not to. Fresh greens all year, less money, more feed. Its a win win.
No. 50% of our feed is waste peanuts and apples. They don't sprout well. ;)
@@FarmBuilder what about the other 50%?
Do you eat anything but Pork, if so what meats do you eat.
are you concerned about african swine fever at all?
It is devastating the Asian swine herds and the statistical probability of it coming to the U.S. is 100%. So, yeah.
Hey love your videos I have a question, I have a pig that is very aggressive and idk what to do with her. Thanks 😄
Eat her.
Do you ever sell piglet gilts that you would consider to be breeding stock, or do you just sell what you would consider as feeder piglets?
We sell some as breeding stock.
FarmBuilder would I just call during your store hours on Saturday to find out more info or email?
Do you get Dippity Pig often?
We are organic farm and are having a hard time making money the way we want to be. At what point do you loose organic reality
Organic doesn't seem to make dollars and cents for meat production.
I accidently gave my 8 week old pig 1 cc of ivermectin it was injectable but i put it in the food! Will it live? Thank you Jordan!! any help is much appreciated!!
Should be fine.
@@FarmBuilder Thank you she is good today!!
Can a bore be in with sow and pigles
I have boars with the kids. Never had a problem