I may have completly lost my mind but..

[shaz]

I need to raise 3-4 pigs this year from 30lbs to 270 or so. I really don't have an ideal place to raise them and don't wanna build anything major this year.

Question:
Why not raise them on my cattle trailer? Got a slatted floor and adequate room. I can park it in the pasture under some shade and run water to it.
The only downside I see is not having my trailer for 5-6 months. I can work around this.

If you're wondering why anyone would want to raise a small number of pigs it's because we give meat off the farm to the kids. Kinda hoping they will take interest in the farm someday. In reality the kids are probably tired of hearing about the farm anyway but they won't turn down free groceries.

So, do ya'll think this would work or should I put my crack pipe down?

 

[Rafter S]

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

 

[Nesikep]

I guess that would work.. friend of mine just built a little shack for them in an electric fenced area where they can go rooting... they usually have 2 or 3.

Price of weaner pigs is pretty high around here.. somewhere around $120 each I think

 

[Bigfoot]

They stay behind an electric fence good.

 

[AllForage]

Bet it would be cheaper to buy the finished hogs at the sales barn and just deliver to the butcher

 

[shaz]

Bet it would be cheaper to buy the finished hogs at the sales barn and just deliver to the butcher

Not really. All toll I can come in around 50 cents a pound cheaper. Another problem is that there aren't any pigs sold at sale barns around here.

 

[skyhightree1]

Bet it would be cheaper to buy the finished hogs at the sales barn and just deliver to the butcher

Thats what I do.. My time is more valuable than saving $120.00 pr pig using your weights and .50 a lb. You gotta worry about moving the trailer and feeding and watering then you have to butcher or have it butcher... No thanks not for me. Saving money is great but my time is more valuable than be fooling with pigs like that. Craigslist has a fair amount of hogs here. Trappersteve raises them send him a PM he can surely give you some advise.

 

[AllForage]

Bet it would be cheaper to buy the finished hogs at the sales barn and just deliver to the butcher

Thats what I do.. My time is more valuable than saving $120.00 pr pig using your weights and .50 a lb. You gotta worry about moving the trailer and feeding and watering then you have to butcher or have it butcher... No thanks not for me. Saving money is great but my time is more valuable than be fooling with pigs like that. Craigslist has a fair amount of hogs here. Trappersteve raises them send him a PM he can surely give you some advise.

Don't forget about not having to smell pig shyt

 

[skyhightree1]

Bet it would be cheaper to buy the finished hogs at the sales barn and just deliver to the butcher

Thats what I do.. My time is more valuable than saving $120.00 pr pig using your weights and .50 a lb. You gotta worry about moving the trailer and feeding and watering then you have to butcher or have it butcher... No thanks not for me. Saving money is great but my time is more valuable than be fooling with pigs like that. Craigslist has a fair amount of hogs here. Trappersteve raises them send him a PM he can surely give you some advise.

Don't forget about not having to smell pig shyt

+1

 

[bigbull338]

that will work if you can do without your trailer.better yet find a cheap tyrailer in good shape and buy it to raise hogs in.

 

[Taurus]

Bet it would be cheaper to buy the finished hogs at the sales barn and just deliver to the butcher

Thats what I do.. My time is more valuable than saving $120.00 pr pig using your weights and .50 a lb. You gotta worry about moving the trailer and feeding and watering then you have to butcher or have it butcher... No thanks not for me. Saving money is great but my time is more valuable than be fooling with pigs like that. Craigslist has a fair amount of hogs here. Trappersteve raises them send him a PM he can surely give you some advise.

Don't forget about not having to smell pig shyt

or escapees. Its pain in azz to keep them contained.

 

[Hook]

If you raise them in a trailer, plan on redoing everything from decking to the framing and axles on up 8". The urine and feces will eat it up.
Much cheaper and easier to build a simple pen

 

[shawn_boroviak]

I currently have 8 hogs in a trailer and it is working out perfectly. They are growing well!!!

 

[kenny thomas]

If you raise them in a trailer, plan on redoing everything from decking to the framing and axles on up 8". The urine and feces will eat it up.
Much cheaper and easier to build a simple pen

I totally agree. They are easily trained to an electric fence and an hours worth of fencing will do them a long time.

 

[trappersteve]

if I could build my pens all over again I would have them on wood floors . Mine make such a freaking muddy mess it would be nice to get them off the ground I may look into putting more concrete down

 

[Taurus]

If you raise them in a trailer, plan on redoing everything from decking to the framing and axles on up 8". The urine and feces will eat it up.
Much cheaper and easier to build a simple pen

I totally agree. They are easily trained to an electric fence and an hours worth of fencing will do them a long time.

wish the pigs we had were that easy to be train to respect the electric fence but nope....75 of them doesn't respect any fence and I'm glad were done with them for good.

 

[stocky]

You can raise them in the trailer and it will mess up your trailer, or you can go buy 8 of the 16 foot wire cattle panels or hog panels, 16 steel t posts, and build a 32 by 32 foot pen with an old piece of tin across the corner for shade in about an hour. Wait until mid March to get your pigs, put rings in their noses, then after they are gone use the panels and steel posts for something else. Around here, you can buy a 40 lb pig for 80 dollars, take about 70 dollars worth of feed to get it to 250 lbs, so you have about 150 dollars in it. Or you can go buy a 250 lb pig for about 200 dollars, so you save about 50 dollars per pig for your time, labor, and aggravation, but you receive the natural perfume on you and everything else for 5 months.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I kinda like pigs. The are enjoyable to watch. And how can you even think of denying a pig a good mud bath?

 

[ostie]

I'm surprised to see so many people against raising pigs on a cattle and farming forum just because it doesn't save a ton of money and it requires work. Hmmm.

 

[skyhightree1]

I'm surprised to see so many people against raising pigs on a cattle and farming forum just because it doesn't save a ton of money and it requires work. Hmmm.

Could be cause we value our time and do not want to spend it fooling with a few pigs when there is a much simpler solution. Why would I want the hassle of raising a few pigs to save a couple dollars when I can be using that time to focus on cattle that make the most money ? Hmmmm... In case you hadn't noticed its called " Cattle Today " not " Pig Today " . However my family raised hogs on a fairly large scale for a few decades though.