Getting ready to purchase some Large Blacks

[phswrestler125]

Hello Everyone,

I am sorry if this is in the wrong section of the forum. Moderators feel free to move it to the appropriate section, if necessary.

A little Introduction: My name is Marcus and I live in Winston Salem, NC. I currently attend Duke University, and have grown a sincere penchant for having my own farm one day,. from which I can live off of and support my family. I am majoring in electrical computer engineering and plan to go into this field upon my graduation. This however will be temporary and I will be merely using this degree to save up money to start and maintain my farm. I currently have around 25 chickens (2 rooster) that provide my family with eggs everyday and companionship for my little sister. I originally got the hens for eggs and to give my little sister (6yrs old) some cute feathering friends to be responsible for.
I started with chickens, and now after reading and being a lurker of this forum, I am starting to implement plans to buy some pigs. I have contacted and visited a local breeder of Large Black Hogs. I will purchase this hog because of their docile nature and their grazing ability. (When I visited the breeder, I literally walked up to a huge boar that came to my hips and scratched his back and patted him down...He was super friendly. What a joy !)

Back to the reason Why I am posting this topic: I am in the process of fencing off a piece of my land. I have roughly 3/4 of an acre to fence. Around 30,000 sq ft or so. My first question is what type of fencing should I do? I was thinking putting T post (or homemade wooden post from chopped trees) around the perimeter and install maybe 3-4 strands of electric steel wire or electric poly-wire. Should this be okay ? I know that there isn't a fool proof system, but maybe if I can contain the weaned pigs in a 100sq foot section with the electric wire first, they will respect the fenced perimeter.

Second question : I am getting the Large Blacks for them to feed on my grass ( i will probably have to supplement their food) but should I let them have that entire area ? Should I split my area in sections? If so, how big should the sections be? I dont want to contain in the a small section where they cant run around and excercise. Also, my area of land is full of tall grass and weeds and alot of wild bushes and trees. How will they do in that area? Should I wack down the tree and clear the area? I will try to get a picture of the area posted up soon.

Third: Since I am limited on space. I am going to purchase two gilts (one of which is of breeding quality) from the breeder. I was thinking that I could try out these two, and raise one for slaughter and meat for my family. If the Large Blacks turn out to be what I am looking for (taste wise, personality wise, raising ease ) Then I would use my other gilt to have a littler of piglets, so I can start the process over again. I believe this is the best option for me instead of buying a gilt and boar to begin with. My concern is that Once the once pig has been slaughter (10-14months later) I will have to buy and raise a boar and then wait for him to mature to mate with my other gilt ( and keep him separate so I wont have more pigs than I can handle) Or I could buy a mature boar, or see if I could take my gilt somewhere for a boar to mate (this will be high unlikely, since I dont believe the breeder I will buy the pigs from will allow me to come back and borrow his boar). Also another concern is once the litter is born, I now will have 8-10 piglets in my area. How likely will I be able to sell some (I would probably sell cheap because I would try to get rid of them) -- Unless of course, my land is able to hold that many pigs. Do you believe my logic here is okay? Will be area of land be able to hold that many pigs once my breeding gilt has birthed a littler?

I believe this is all the questions that I have so far. Sorry for it being so lengthy. I hope you all can help me with my future endeavors.

Thanks.

 

[marlowmanor]

Can't answer pig questions but I wanted to say from a fellow NCer!

 

[phswrestler125]

Thanks for the welcome. Linwood isn't far from my house in Winston. Live near the border of Davidson/Forsyth.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

- From The Great State of North Carolina!!

 

[marlowmanor]

Thanks for the welcome. Linwood isn't far from my house in Winston. Live near the border of Davidson/Forsyth.

I'm near the Davidson/Rowan border. Winston is about a 45 minute to an hour drive for us depending on where in Winston we are going. Hope you get your pig answers. Sorry I'm no help there. No experience with pigs.

 

[ourflockof4]

Well, I am far from an expert, but I will chime in with my thoughts. We are in a similar position as you are, execpt we already have a pair of LB gilts. Our LB's don't root as much as the other cross breed pigs that we have, but they do root some. It would make me nervous to rely on just a 4 strand fence, even with a hot charger. I have a bunch of 6' chain link fencing so that's what I am going to use, 3' high with the other 3 feet laying ontop the ground to make an L. I know it's a little overkill, but I would rather be safe then sorry, plus I already have it. I would make the fence very stout. If something get's in with them and chases them you could have issues.

How many pigs/hogs per acre will really vary too much from region to region. I thought that I read somewhere to figure 1,500-2,000 s.f. per hog for pasture space. I would leave all the trees, whatever they don't destroy they will like for shade. Hogs are very good at clearing land.

Right now in my area heritage feeder pigs are selling for a good price, commercial feeders at auction not so much. Between selling feeders and or finished hogs I wouldn't think you would have a pgoblem getting rid of them if you market it right. You could either breed to another LB boar (registard if your is) and sell the feeders in the breeding market, or breed them to more of a commercial boar for a better rate of gain on the piglets. If you can get one of the breeder's "undesirable" gilts for closer to a feeder pig price then I think your idea would work out just fine. As long as you have a good pen, and handeling area don't be worried about getting a proven/service age boar. You could also go the AI route and forget about a boar if you wanted to.

 

[Shelly May]

Welcome, and hang in there as more pig breeders will soon be in to help answer your questions.

 

[phswrestler125]

Thanks so much for your replies. I appreciate your willingness to help. @ourflockof4 : I'll keep your idea in mind. thanks! I am looking forward to everyone's input.

 

[phswrestler125]

As promised, here are some pictures of the area I am going to fence. As you can seen, it is very bushy. There is alot of brown, but in the spring time, its green as ever.

So for the fencing this is what I have decided : Going to use 6-8inch diamter wood post with bracing for my corner post, and t-post for my inline post. I am going to run 4-5 strands of high tensile smooth wire on this fence perimeter.

I plan on splitting up the perimeter in a tic-tac-toe manner, in which I split the perimeter in 9 square sections. Each square should be 50ft x 35ft.

Would these squares be enough for two black jogs to rotationally graze on ? If not I can split up the perimeter in bigger squares by reducing the amount of squares.

Now, here is my big question: For the inside squares, I am thinking of running t-post, maybe the plastic kind (leaning more toward the steel), and running more strands of high tensile smooth wire (5-6). The inside square fencing however will be electrified. It is only feasible to get a battery powered electric fence charge, I Wont be able to run an extension cable. Would this fence charge be enough power for two large blacks hogs (will be getting and raising them from weaned to butcher weight, keeping one for breeding)?

http://www.amazon.com/Zareba-B50LI-Battery-Operated-Impedance/dp/B003SRNPA4

Also can I only run electric wires on the inside fencing ? I do not want to buy two electric chargers to run on both the perimeter and inside fence, but if I have to - I will. (unless this charger is powerful for me to connect a jumper cable from the perimeter fence to inside square fencing.

Another Question: With the land being split into 9 squares, Where am I supposed to put their pen? Should I move their pen every time I move them into a different square. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I am just not sure how to do (or setup) rotational grazing.

Last Question: When I bring home the newly weaned pigs. How do I go about training them ? Can I use one of my square plots to train them ? The square plots will have 5 -6 high tensile smooth wire, that will be electrified. As long as the wires are low (nose height) should I be okay training them on that inside square fencing? If not, how exactly should I train them?

Thanks

 

[ourflockof4]

I think they would do just fine in that area. Plenty of stuff for them to dig up and trees to rub on, and more important shade.

Interms of the pen, think wagon wheel. Make your paddocks pie shaped with the housing/pen in the center.

As I mentioned already, I would highly recommend a woven wire or welded wire perimeter fence. I personally wont trust just a hot wire to keep hogs in. If the charger stops working they will get out, and eventually something will happen to make the charger stop working. If you haven't been around hogs much they are very strong animals, and contrary to popular thinking they actually can "climb" Last night one of our LB's has climbing a 50" gate and had her nose above the top waiting for her dinner.

I would also suggest looking into making your own solar charger. I have heard a lot of people have trouble, or are not happy with the manufactured ones (even the expensive ones.) Get a cheep solar panel from Harbor Frieght, an inverter, a car battery, and a charger.