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heritage ranch
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new lil piggies
my girl "biscuits" farrowed this afternoon. 9 lil piggies running around. a few fotos for your viewing pleasure
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8/18/2009, 3:07 am
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Firlefanz
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Re: new lil piggies
So cute!
Thanks for sharing the pics. 
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8/18/2009, 5:58 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: new lil piggies
Eeeee! Are those tamworths? They looks a little big for that, but the right color...
I want pigs so bad. But not eating meat, they don't seem to have enough other purposes to warrant getting them. They are great tillers but I'm not sure it's worth it! We are already leaning a little too heavy on "hobby farm" and not enough on "working farm"!
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8/18/2009, 3:55 pm
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heritage ranch
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Re: new lil piggies
TexasMadness wrote:
Eeeee! Are those tamworths? They looks a little big for that, but the right color...
I want pigs so bad. But not eating meat, they don't seem to have enough other purposes to warrant getting them. They are great tillers but I'm not sure it's worth it! We are already leaning a little too heavy on "hobby farm" and not enough on "working farm"!
yes they are tams, i am impressed you knew that. some of the reasons they are bigger then you might expect. i did not breed the guilt till she was about 14 months and they have been fed the best of the best. soaked/sprouted grains (no corn, soy, or any other gmo grain) free choice organic kelp meal, organic fishmeal organic diatomacious earth, cultured raw milk, raw organic apple cider vinegar in the water. and plenty of hay and alfalfa along with lots of sunshine and fresh air. not to mention all the goodies they root up in the pasture. they really liked the pinion nuts last fall.
tex if you lived closer i would hook you up with one of my boars so you could have the benifits of the original power composter. i dont like to keep a boar on the property since they will go thru just about anything to get to the guilts when they are in heat. i know a few non pork eaters that try to keep pigs to eat the kitchen scraps but unless you have lots of kitchen scraps and garden waste then you would need to supplement their diet. even the tams that do so well on pasture do need a fair amount of grain. one way you coul dmake it afordable, if you were ok with it. would be to raise one up and then sell it for meat and then start with another. if you went this route you might consider the berkshire breed. they comand and even higher price per pound and even selling it as a whole hog you should be able to get more than enough to off set the feed costs for the year. if you did not want to send the animal to slaughter i would suggest trying to find a breed that would do better with out grain. check into the ossabaw island hogs http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/Ossabaw.html they would probly do very well on scraps and pasture. or the mangalitsa hog http://www.woolypigs.com/_introduction.html i know you can get these here in the states but they are pricey and they wont sell breeding stock only barrows a few hundred dollars for an 8week old. if you find a place to get the ossabaw island hogs let me know, i have been wanting to get some to see how they would do up here.
just curious, why dont you eat meat?
peace out
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8/18/2009, 7:19 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: new lil piggies
Cool! I've always thought the tamworth was the coolest pig! I've seen the ossabow but not the other, thanks for the info!
I was raised vegetarian. Seems to run a lot in my family with people that made the decision separately. About half of my family has become vegetarian over the last 30 years. I think it must be genetic. For me, I don't like the taste of meat and I couldn't kill anything myself (unless in a survival situation!) so I also don't feel "right" about it...though I don't pass judgment on others that can't/don't kill their own meat but still eat it. I taste any of the meat my husband says is particularly good but I usually don't like it. Occasionally, it will be pretty good, but not enough for me to get over being squeamish about it!
By the way, hubby just saw the thread and said "ah...they look delicious!"  To each his own!
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8/19/2009, 3:13 am
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heritage ranch
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Re: new lil piggies
well not sure if i read you right, but i will suggest one possible approach to having hogs around without it costing, and maybe even making a buck or 2.
if you were willing to sell them as meat animals. you would have no problem selling them as whole hogs. you or hubby would just take them to the butcher and the customer would pick up the processed meat. when doing it in this fashion you dont even need to go thru a USDA facility. a custom cutter would be the best. someone like they shops that process deer and other game for hunters. you might need to shop around to find a good one, i know i did. it would take a bit of advertizing but with a few posts on some forums and a profile on sites like slowfoods, local harvest, eat wild and such. i would bet you could be sold out and have a waiting list before the first lil ones were market ready. premium quality hogs raised on pasture no chemicals or gmo feeds sell close to $3 a pound hanging wieght. down in your neck of the woods you could realisticaly get the to a 300# butcher wieght (around 200# hanging) in a 6-8 month span. at least for the tams. the others might not get as large so soon. this would be a pretty easy way to have the hogs around for tillage and "power composting" and maybe make a buck as well. with out much hassel from selling at markets and storing frozen meat and all those other things. if it is something your might be considering check out the book "dirt hog" i have yet to find it in a library but you can get it from "acres USA"
if you went with the ossabaw or the mangalitsa you might even be able to sell the whole hogs direct to a high end resturant down there. give the guy at wooly pigs a call, i have spooken with him on several occasion and he is a very nice person and willing to share a lot of info. you might have to email him a couple times first. i think i eamiled him 2 or 3 times before calling. i was real serious about raising his mangalitsa pigs but he would not sell breeding stock only barrows (castrated males) so i am working towards getting a few of the ossabaw island pigs. the guy at wooly pigs feels you could get better than $2000 per animal by selling to the resturants. it is all a mater of finding the right market. i had offers from the aspen/vail area but i choose to deal more localy and direct to the consumer.
if you have any other ? dont hesitate to ask.
peace out
kenny
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8/19/2009, 7:25 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: new lil piggies
heritage ranch wrote:
the guy at wooly pigs feels you could get better than $2000 per animal by selling to the resturants.
Holy moly!
Hubby and I have talked a lot about raising meat. I was actually ok with selling the roosters for meat and the male goats too. I even suggested we find somebody to do the processing and hubby can eat the meat. But hubby doesn't want to eat anything he's met. He's a big wuss.
And now that about half the community involved with our farm (through the CSA and the people that live there) are vegetarian, I doubt we would even go down the path of raising meat for others! The first caretakers we had were going to do it but the folks we have now are also vegetarian...we didn't even know it when we hired them!
But $2000....wow....might have to think about that one! 
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8/19/2009, 8:01 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf
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Re: new lil piggies
What cute lil babies!!!!! How old were they in these pics?? Just born, or a day or so old........
Thanks for sharing your lil piggies with us 
--- Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~
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8/23/2009, 6:51 pm
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heritage ranch
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Re: new lil piggies
in these pix they were no more than 4 hours old.
i have some video i need to get uploaded, it is amazing how agile and active they are when so young. prior to this year my only experience with lil ones has been humans and dogs n cats. big difference
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8/24/2009, 2:43 am
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Saijen SilverWolf
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Re: new lil piggies
WOW!!! Only 4 hours old?? That's just too cool. It's been eons since I've seen lil piggies like that!! They're just too adorable!! Thing is, like all adorable babies...they grow up! LOL
--- Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~
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8/28/2009, 9:34 pm
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