Thanks for letting me join. Looking forward to learning a lot here. This is me and my girls.

[Smoke House]

 

[Baymule]

Welcome from East Texas Smokehouse! Two fine looking young ladies ya got there! Glad you joined us, tell us a little about yourself and what animals you have.

 

[canesisters]

Welcome to the group from south-central VA

 

[Smoke House]

Thank you!! I live in Perdido, AL located in SouthWest Alabama about an hour North of the Beaches. Currently don’t have any critters, as we are waiting on our house being built to be finished on our property. Soon as we get settled I’m gonna start out with a couple pigs for butchering. I’m currently working on clearing my pasture/feed pen for finishing out a steer or two a year. I have a big family that likes to eat meat. I joined to hopefully have questions answered and professional guidance, as I’m gonna be new raising the animals my self.

 

[canesisters]

How close is that to Alexander City? My Dad grew up there & there is still a good bit of family nearby.

 

[Smoke House]

We are about 4 hours from there. My little girl has played ball in Alexander City when they hold the Allstar state championships there.

 

[Baymule]

This is your lucky day! My late husband and I retired to northeast Texas on 8 acres. I got busy raising feeder pigs and chronicled my adventures with a new thread each year.

After he died, I sold that farm, moved further south to Trinity county and bought 25 acres. I raise Katahdin hair sheep and have Anatolian Shepherds for livestock guard dogs. So far, I’ve gotten 2 fields out of 3, fenced in sheep and goat wire, which I heartily recommend. It has 4” “holes” and will hold small livestock. Most people will run electric hot wire on the inside to keep their animals off the fence, for greater security.

I’ve been here 2 years, but have not built a pig pen. This place needs tons of work and I don’t want to add new animals until I have this whole place under fence and a couple of barns built. Lately, my neighbor has put up a hog trap and I take every one I can get. He passes the “wealth” around, there are people glad to get the free meat. Today I’m processing a feral 200 pound young boar. I thought about posting a tutorial and I think I’ll do that. I’ve been sending pictures to a friend that just did his first slaughter yesterday and has no idea how to cut it up for meat.

I’ll go find my feeder pig threads and post them for you. I finally got it right and built a Pig Palace.

 

[Baymule]

Here ya go, in chronological order.

Hawg Hut or Goat or Sheep or DH's New Digs

We are getting 3 feeder pigs. One for us, one for our neighbor, Robert that helps us so much around here and one for @Devonviolet and her husband. They don't have a place for a pig, we do, so we built a MUCH better fence around the garden to double duty as a pig pen this winter. The guy we are...

www.backyardherds.com

Feeder Pigs

The title says it all. If you are offended by raising pigs for slaughter and consumption, stop reading here. This thread is going to be about raising pigs to slaughter weight and will end with pictures of supper. :drool Thought we were going to get blue-butts, but when we got there, there was a...

www.backyardherds.com

Feeder Pigs 2017

Monday, February 20th, we bought 3 Red Wattle pigs, 4 months old for $75 each. I found them on Craigslist and we jumped on them quick. Just weaned piglets were listed for $65 to $100! We plan on keeping them probably 3 months and taking them to slaughter. We offered 2 to neighbors and they...

www.backyardherds.com

Baymule's Pigs 2017-2018

First off, let me clarify-- we ain't got a lick of sense. I repeat, we ain't got a lick of sense. Last night I was looking at Craigslist and at 10:37 I found an ad for 2 pigs. A 1 year old boar and 2 year old sow, take both for $75. I had to read it a few times to make sure it really said both...

www.backyardherds.com

Baymule’s Pigs 2018 HEREFORDS!

I found 2 Hereford boars 4 1/2 months old on Craigslist. We went and got them today. I have long admired Hereford Hogs and am delighted to find these! As usual, I have no hog pen ready and won’t be putting them in the pasture we sprigged with Bermuda and Bahia. So I guess we better get busy...

www.backyardherds.com

Baymule's 500 Pound Boar!

I found a deal on a huge boar. His name is Wilbur and he is a Red Wattle. He got too big to breed their sows, so he went up for sale. The lady who owned him couldn’t put him in the freezer, he was her first pig and a pet. He is very calm and gentle. But she became afraid of Wilbur because he...

www.backyardherds.com

Baymule’s 2021 Feeder Pigs!

We got 3 pigs today. Like last year, feeder pigs are scarce and high priced. 8 week old weaned piglets are going from $100 to $200 each. Tons of little miniature pigs, what am I going to do with that? Make a pig nugget and French fries? Anyway, we went to go buy 3 approximately 100 pounders for...

www.backyardherds.com

Now you can read until you are crossed eyed! LOL
I did find that raising pigs in the garden spot did a good job of enriching the sandy soil we had. Likewise on pasture, except they rooted up and ate a lot of the grass. But all in all, I liked my Pig Palace best.

 

[Mini Horses]

Pigs eating grass & root in a garden is great!! Horse pasture, not so much . I've been converting a patch of pasture to garden for 3 yrs -- almost successful. This winter I'm strongly thinking pig to dig the root base for me oh, yeah, freezer fill, too.

 

[peteyfoozer]

You’ll find a ton of collective ideas, solid friends and helpful advice here. It’s the best community on the internet