Smell ?

[Mike Fronczak]

I have been thinking of raising a couple pigs next year. Then i was over at my wifes uncles last week, he has two small pigs I would guess on is 40 lbs, one is 75 or so'they aren't large by any means. The smell was horrible, immean I'm used to "farm smells", but they smell worse than all 8 of our cows combined. I have heard from other that I've smell really bad too, but that was way worse than I was expecting. Do all pigs smell that bad, does it have to do with breed & feed ?

 

[minipig]

Have they been neutered/spayed? If not, I believe they carry a very strong smell. I'm sure others on here can better advise you, though, since I have only had a pig for a few weeks (and he doesn't smell at all).

 

[Hillsvale]

I breed pigs and I find them less stinky than the goats and sheep....

Our boar is 750 pounds and obviously intact, our sow is 650 and male weaners are all castrated... we have tamworth and has berks but I doubt there is a difference in the big breeds smell wise.

 

[Teeah3612]

I don't have pigs yet, but I believe it has a lot to do with how much room you give them. If they are in a small space they are going to stink. A larger area may cost a little more to fence, but it should help with the smell. I still wouldn't put them too close to my house though

 

[manybirds]

how big was the pen? if they where confined in a small area with there own feces and urine then anythings bound to smell

 

[Hillsvale]

I don't have pigs yet, but I believe it has a lot to do with how much room you give them. If they are in a small space they are going to stink. A larger area may cost a little more to fence, but it should help with the smell. I still wouldn't put them too close to my house though

Our pens for the pigs are approximately 80 feet from the house (or were) but yes the appropriate amount of space is paramount.... not very often we can smell the tasty beings.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Our pigs don't smell, but their manure and urine sure do! We have 4. When they were younger and smaller, not so much. Now that they are all approaching 200 pounds each. Well that's a different story. Not to sound disgusting...but they eat A LOT. And what goes in must come out. A LOT! Pen placement is key. We have our pigs down wind of our house. But we made the mistake of cleaning out their pen and the waste went into the cow manure pile which is in direct wind. Yep, cow manure fine. Pig manure, nasty! We still love them, they are so easy and we will definately do it again.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Contrary to popular belief pigs are in fact very clean animals. They only smell if you confine them in too small a space & expect them to walk & live in their poop. You would smell too if you had to live in those kind of conditions.

You could visit our farm tomorrow & you would not know that we had pigs here. Well smell wise anyways! You would see them & hear them! We have 30+ mature Large Blacks here plus numerous piglets! They are all out on pasture but you can walk through our pastures & not smell them. NOW should you pick up a piglet & it poop & pee on you then you would stink! SO yes their poop & pee does smell but when raised on a large enough area then nature takes care of it & it is all recycled into the ground. Our pigs also do not eat huge amounts of commercial feed as they are grazers so eating grass.

Male pigs (boars) do have taint & do smell but that is normally only when a sow is in heat. They have pheremones in their saliva glands & so they chomp & go creating this "lovely" (not) froth! I doubt that is why your uncle's were smelling though as most feeder pigs have been castrated if boars & gilts do not have taint.

And no we do not ever go out picking up/cleaning up pig poop! Absolutely no need to!

Hope this helps,

Liz

 

[Mike Fronczak]

Thank you for all the responses. They are in a small area, no grazing there, neither is spayed or castrated, but it defiantly is a manure smell over anything else. To expand on the subject how much area (pasture/pen) do you have for your mature pigs, per pig ? I definilty don't want the smell they have, but don't want to be broke fencing off acres for 2 pigs either.

 

[Hillsvale]

we haave three pens, the smallest is about 80 x 100 feet which is currently recovering from piggy distruction (ie: they completely uprooted everything) our sow and the remaining weaners are in a 1 year old pen which is about 100 x 130 feet... they are about half way through distroying that one and our boar is in his newest pen which is about 4 months old... his pen is about 100 x 120 feet. A boar left alone will cause more distruction than one with his sow so at the moment he is felling trees but we will be turning him back in with the sow in October and he will be much better behaved!