Holy Moly! We got pigs!

Do you ever look back at a decision you made and think – wow, what was I thinking?! BUT this is SO COOL!  Well that is what has happened with our adventure of farming with pigs! I am still in shock we have them but hey now we are learning how to raise pigs (just two of them to be exact) and we have started our adventure of farming with pigs!

Farming with Pigs

I like to think this has some history in the making. My parents raised pigs for several year before I was born and they even thought about being full time contracted hog farmers. For one reason or another they didn’t make that leap. I grew up on a cattle farm with two hog barns that we stored equipment in and lots of really cool stories. My younger sister and I always wondered what it would be like to raise pigs or even be farming with pigs. We both stayed in agriculture but didn’t do much more with raising pigs. Now we are both back to different aspects of it! She runs The Farm Table, a meat business that sells different cuts of pork, and we just got into farming with pigs as a 4-H project for the kids!

 

Why Raising Pigs?

Farming with pigs and raising pigs has always been a fascinating topic for me.  As an agriculture teacher, most people assume you know everything about A LOT of topics! But teaching about pigs and even writing fun stories about them in class is VERY DIFFERENT than actually making sure those “little suckers” as my children refer to them, actually survive and thrive.

Our oldest has wanted pigs for literally the past two years. He wants to be a pig and carrot farmer. We have an area in our barn lot that had an old tree stump and we thought it would be perfect. We made the front of the pen curve so it would be easier for working cattle and the pigs could have the corner area! Win for everyone! So we set out on a search for pigs with a very excited four and two year old.

 

The Good Stuff of Farming with Pigs

We got our pigs at 8 weeks of age. We wanted them to be little enough the kids would love them and think they weren’t scary. OMG let me tell you! Lesson learned- get them bigger!! Did you know that they can slip through cattle panels at that age and your neighbors might just assume you are out walking your pigs down the driveway when in reality they are very much NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!

After TWO nights of them slipping through different holes in their pen and my husband and I getting VERY good at the catching the pig contest, we think we finally solved the problem! So we are now into day four of our farming with pigs journey. If you are thinking about getting pigs for your kids or just to butcher (these will be shown in the Pee Wee show at the fair and then butchered in November) DO IT!!! It has been the coolest and neatest thing to watch. It has also been quite the learning curve for the parents, aka, my husband and I.

Would we do it again? YEP! And in fact according to my oldest, he is already talking about when we will get them next year already. If you are just getting into this, don’t get afraid to try new things. Take that leap and see what happens! It will either go wonderfully OR you will be chasing loose 8 week old piglets down your driveway at 8:30 at night bonding with your husband. I am sure the pig adventures will continue to happen and we will look back and laugh at these moments. For now, we will keep checking our pigs to make sure they are still there!