Wanting t get a breeding pair of pigs for a few purposes ....

[Hoover67]

Hi.
I do not own any pigs as of now. I want to raise pigs for our family of nine. I do not want to be a "breeder" as such, but I do want to be able to sell the extra piglets to help pay for the feed. I do not know if this is possible! I have read that crosses are more hardy. Would it be better to buy a pair that are the same registered breed ..... or registered animals from two different breeds ..... or just buy two mixed breeds and go from there. Again, I want to be able to sell some of the piglets so give me your advice!!!!! I just plan on keeping the pair year-round and processing the babies.
Thanks

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

For just back yard pigs that are all going to be terminal crosses I say go for hybrid vigor all the way. Go pig shopping and pick out a male and female with the best body structure and muscling and temperament that you can. Also if you are only keeping one female it may make more sense to not pay to feed a boar all year to only use him twice. An adult eats the cost of a breeding fee in about 2-3 weeks. So unless you have a source of free food, totally not worth it.

Just my .02

 

[dwbonfire]

hoover67, just wondering what you decided on? i am also looking into getting pigs for the same reason, maybe more so to sell the piglets and just keep one or two for my small family needs.

 

[Hoover67]

We have not done anything. I am wanting to find someone who has pigs and go see how stinky they are!
Michele

 

[theawesomefowl]

Pigs stink , but they are actually clean animals if they have fresh bedding. Unlike goats, sheep or cows they only soil a specific corner of it, so I wouldn't think they would be difficult to keep clean.

 

[Royd Wood]

May I suggest you get a couple of weaned feeder piglets in early spring and rear them up for next fall and while this is happening you can look out for some breeders. At least that way you will have some pork and an idea if you want to go down the breeding side. Weaned piglets are quite cheap to purchase $50 - $100 I think.

 

[CESpeed]

At the Berkshire farm I just visited, he was selling them for for less. The younger they are, the cheaper. Newly weaned were $25. But most are in the $50 range.

 

[CollieFlowerWV]

Hoover67, where abouts are you located? If you purchase now you will have to provide winter feeding and that might be difficult you being new to pigs. I would do research this winter and then purchase in the spring. Of course, this is a good time to get a good deal. But you don't want to jump into this too soon.

 

[kjoiner]

Here is my 2 cents worth! I have 2 sows they are pure yorkshire! We just got them this summer and are one year old. We borrowed a boar from a friend of ours to breed them. One is now bred and we are waiting for the other to come back in. Anyway, it cost me about $10 a week to feed them (excluding boar) that is straight feed when we have scrapes, bread, or garden vegies (they LOVE tomatoes with bad spots on them).
Anyway, You can order semen online and have it shipped to your door and is a WHOLE lot cheaper than keeping a boar. AI is easy, but even if you had to get a vet to do it, It is still cheaper than keeping a boar all year. ALSO, when the sows have little ones you have to seperate them from your boar meaning 2 seperate fencind in areas, boars will eat the babies. Boars are also more destructive and woman can not go in the pen with a boar at THAT time of the month (boars can smell it). NEVER get a duroc boar, they are extremely mean.
My next suggestion is find pigs that have been handled some. The pigs we got were actually showed by our 4-H group and FFA and the girls are like pet dogs, they roll over for you to rub their belly. The boar is gentle too, but I still know that at 18 months old and 600 lbs, he is very dangerous, He actually broke my ankle when we were loading him in trailer to bring him home. My fault, I thought I could push him around like I do the 300 lbs girls and 600 lbs don't push easily - I take that back you can NOT make a 600 lb boar do anything that he does not want to do.
My opinion is buy 2 sows at about 80lbs should cost you about $75 each and about 4-6 months later borrow a boar or AI.

 

[shawn MN]

I agree with kjoiner!