Baymule’s Journal

[Baymule]

@Hideaway Pines if you are going to add more pigs, do it soon, before your pigs get too territorial. It's best if they are close to the same size, if they are much smaller, they can get beat up and kept away from the feed.
Also, bringing in new pigs from another source, could bring in sickness or disease.
I would recommend that if you raise pigs for neighbors and friends, get them all at the same time from the same place.

If your pigs are ready for slaughter before the friend's pigs are, then you will still be caring for pigs after yours are in the freezer.

 

[Baymule]

Hope you are feeling better. Being sick and not able to do stuff is really depressing.

Today for entertainment I changed addresses on various bills and such. Found some chatty people in the Philippines that were very helpful.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

As long as it is a cool burn, so didn't kill roots or seeds, it is a huge improvement.

Burning is fantastic for pasture management.. as long as it doesn't get away from you.

sorry to go back a bit, but here is what my pasture looks like as of Mar 13, both the burned (greener) area and the unburned area

Note the large beams, they are cut on our sawmill from the trees we had to remove to put this up. We love using our own wood for projects.

I watch a couple of YouTube channels where the creators own their own portable sawmills. I have considered getting one for myself. Have you gotten much use out of yours?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Alaskan]

Here are some pictures, note they are only in a small temporary set up right now, I found two red wattle/Brookshire mix cut males for $80 each, had to jump at them even though our area was not quite finished. They are three months old, which while I would love little ones for cuteness these two are big enough, I do not worry about them being picked off by our bobcats or coyotes. They frequent our property every night. They get locked up in their Hog Heaven House each night just as a precaution until they are a bit bigger. The temp yard is 16x8, not huge but good for a week or so while we finish the grow out area, then we will finish fencing the 2 acres of pasture/wooded area they will have to forage in. So, lots of more work a head, but at least we got our pigs. I am so excited. I love watching them, and they are very good with our dogs. I have not let them in with them, won't do that, but Jojo (our LGD) thinks they are very cool to observe. We named them Bubba and Bruno. So much personality in them. We may end up keeping some other pigs for neighbors too, once we get our set up complete. We will also give them a large wallow that will catch rainwater off the roof. they will have a sweet set up once complete. And with them being a bit older we may get to butcher sooner than we first planed, keeping out feeding time down some which would be great too. We already have a butcher date sate, and they said as long as we are on the schedule then we can move it up or back as we need to. Note the large beams, they are cut on our sawmill from the trees we had to remove to put this up. We love using our own wood for projects. View attachment 89867View attachment 89868

That is a great sized pen.. even for a month. They don't grow that fast.

Looks great!

 

[farmerjan]

That size pen is as big as some ever get. No, I am not suggesting that you keep them in it, but it is plenty for a bit until you get the rest finished off. Don't feel pressured to do it yesterday.....
Agree with @Baymule totally on the territorial nature and that they will pick on smaller pigs if "added" to "their space".....If you need to add some, and they are near the same size, then confine them to this nice pen with the others able to come up against the fence for a day or 2....the others locked out in the "big field"... then let them together and feed them in a couple separate pans shortly after putting them together. There is no guarantee they will get along; but it might work. I had all sizes that ran together, but the small ones were born there and they just started getting out of the momma's pen and the bigger ones didn't bother them much because it was a multi-generational thing....They would get after the littler ones in the feed troughs, but I provided several pans to eat out of so if the smaller ones got run out of one pan, they would go to another. I kept more than enough feed available, so that they never ran out and then the older ones were not frenetic about the feed and didn't bother the small ones as much. I also did not keep them much past 8-12 weeks... selling feeders was what I did. I had about a dozen sows for several years raising and selling feeder pigs...
I miss my pigs... much as my son thinks it is not profitable, I want to have a couple more again.... maybe in a year or so once I get some fencing done here...

 

[Hideaway Pines]

@Hideaway Pines if you are going to add more pigs, do it soon, before your pigs get too territorial. It's best if they are close to the same size, if they are much smaller, they can get beat up and kept away from the feed.
Also, bringing in new pigs from another source, could bring in sickness or disease.
I would recommend that if you raise pigs for neighbors and friends, get them all at the same time from the same place.

If your pigs are ready for slaughter before the friend's pigs are, then you will still be caring for pigs after yours are in the freezer.

I agree, your insight on this is very helpful. I will wait till next year or until after we take these two to the butcher.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

I watch a couple of YouTube channels where the creators own their own portable sawmills. I have considered getting one for myself. Have you gotten much use out of yours?

Senile Texas Aggie

We use a lot, we are on a heavily wooded land, and have used it to make several things on our property. It is not a mobile one, but it is extra-long, my husband added to its original size so we can mill 29 feet long trees, which makes great beams for large building/projects. It has been a very useful tool for our homestead. If need be we could build a home from our own trees without any issue. Building with green wood is a bit different, but it is doable if you do not make the lumber too thin. The large beams do not twist or shrink as bad as the smaller cuts would.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

That size pen is as big as some ever get. No, I am not suggesting that you keep them in it, but it is plenty for a bit until you get the rest finished off. Don't feel pressured to do it yesterday.....
Agree with @Baymule totally on the territorial nature and that they will pick on smaller pigs if "added" to "their space".....If you need to add some, and they are near the same size, then confine them to this nice pen with the others able to come up against the fence for a day or 2....the others locked out in the "big field"... then let them together and feed them in a couple separate pens shortly after putting them together. There is no guarantee they will get along; but it might work. I had all sizes that ran together, but the small ones were born there and they just started getting out of the momma's pen and the bigger ones didn't bother them much because it was a multi-generational thing....They would get after the littler ones in the feed troughs, but I provided several pans to eat out of so if the smaller ones got run out of one pan, they would go to another. I kept more than enough feed available, so that they never ran out and then the older ones were not frenetic about the feed and didn't bother the small ones as much. I also did not keep them much past 8-12 weeks... selling feeders was what I did. I had about a dozen sows for several years raising and selling feeder pigs...
I miss my pigs... much as my son thinks it is not profitable, I want to have a couple more again.... maybe in a year or so once I get some fencing done here...

Great tips as well. And I told my DH the same thing on the temporary size pen, some commercial pigs don't get but tiny concrete areas, at least they have some area to root around. None the less, I am anxious to get them on pasture in hopes it will reduce our feed cost. I wondered about using part of our 2–3-acre pasture for some of the pigs, separating them with electric fence. I will see, so far, my friend has not mentioned it again, if she does, I guess we will make a decision on it then. We do hope to rase pigs in the future but need to have a round of feeders first to get my feet wet. I would love to raise feeders to sell and then some to grow out as well.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

Today for entertainment I changed addresses on various bills and such. Found some chatty people in the Philippines that were very helpful.

I hope you are feeling better and a better choice of entertainment today! Did you get that hail last night? We had dime size hail for about 10 min, but it did not do much damage thankfully. hoping all your babies did okay in the storm.

 

[Baymule]

I hope you are feeling better and a better choice of entertainment today! Did you get that hail last night? We had dime size hail for about 10 min, but it did not do much damage thankfully. hoping all your babies did okay in the storm.

Yes, it stormed here like crazy. Standing puddles of water, ought to make the grass grow! For live feed on bad weather during storms, use your cell phone on KETK it’s a Tyler station and they trace storms, especially rotation that suggests tornadoes. Also the TV station KLTV another Tyler station.