Is It worth keeping pigs?

The next step for a smallholding after a decent-sized chicken coup would be raising pigs for meat. They are one of the best meat-yielding animals and have a higher percentage of edible produce than any other animal you could raise on a farm. But meat isn’t the only advantage to keeping pigs, one thing they are great at is clearing areas of ground and turning it into bare soil, and they produce a good amount of high-quality fertilizer.

Keeping pigs isn’t for everyone because they do come with their challenges, and you need the right things to keep them happy and healthy. Pigs are the most intelligent animals you will find on a farm after a dog, and they can act out if there are problems with how they’re kept.

If you were thinking of getting a few pigs, ask yourself some of the following questions?

Do I have enough space?

The recommended amount of space to keep a pig is 6 x 6 meters, or 36m² if you prefer. They also need to be kept in at least a pair, or they become depressed and bored and this can cause them to act out, which can be dangerous because of their size and sharp teeth. Foraging areas will keep them busy and stop them from getting bored, which could include part of a woodland or a small orchard, anywhere they can dig around and look for things to eat or just to keep busy. Finally, a muddy area with water will be needed so they can wallow around and keep cool, even if it’s just a huge muddy puddle.

Can I feed them?

One thing that pigs are known for is being greedy, with the saying greedy as a pig being very common in earlier years. They will eat almost anything you give them and in any amount, and when it’s not feeding time they will be walking around looking for something in the ground they can eat. Pigs won’t eat themselves to death and if there’s more food than they can eat in a single sitting, they will take a short nap and wait until they are hungry again, which doesn’t take long.

An average adult-sized pig of 100kg will need around 2kg of concentrated feed a day, plus another 6kg of slop or some other kind of filler. If you have to buy all the food yourself then pigs are not a good choice when it comes to providing your own meat, because the cost of raising them to a decent butchering size would be more than if you just went to the supermarket and bought the meat yourself.

Do I have time?

As with all animals, pigs have requirements and these need to be met so they don’t become unhappy. They are more prone to getting bored and becoming depressed due to their intelligence, but as long as they have everything they need, they will happily sit in their pens and you shouldn’t get any problems. They need to be let out in the morning and fed and watered, then another two feeding sessions during the day plus a daily cleanout of the pigsty, and then shut back up again when it gets dark. There is also the added work of maintaining their pen and collecting the piles of waste they leave in it, plus the added time it takes to acquire and prepare their food.

Am I ok with the mess and what happens at the end?

Pigs themselves are quite clean when it comes to farm animals. They normally go to the toilet in the same area and don’t like to make a mess of where they sleep and wash when they get too dirty, but it’s a different story when it comes to the rest of their pen. Pigs will make a serious mess of the ground and turn anywhere you put them into a muddy wasteland, void of small plants and grass unless they have a huge amount of land to roam on that has the chance to regrow on its own.

There will be a large amount of waste that needs to be collected regularly and disposed of, which is also an advantage if you want a load of quality fertilizer for your crops. If you’re ok with the mess and the smell, the other problem for some people is what happens at the end. There are those who see pigs they’ve raised as nothing more than food animals with a purpose, but some people get attached and have problems with eating the pigs they’ve raised themselves.

Here in the UK, if you have a few animals on your smallholding that are above the size of poultry, then when it’s time to butcher them, they are usually sent off to a butcher who will do it for you and send you the butchered meat back. Getting a huge parcel of meat was the whole point of raising pigs in the first place, but just remember that when you open the parcel you get back from the butchers that it is the pig you raised, and you have to be comfortable with that.

How much meat will I get from a pig?

If you are keeping a standard breed like the Berkshire, then they will yield 50% of their carcass weight in commercial cuts, and a further 10% to 20% of further edible produce. As an example, it will take 10 to 12 months on average to raise a pig to 250 lbs, and this will yield about 145 lbs of commercial cuts, and a further 20 to 40 lbs of lesser cuts, skin, fat, and edible organs like the liver. There is very little on a pig that you can’t eat, and many people even cook up the head or trotters, which are a favorite in Ireland and can be found in almost every butcher’s shop.

How much does it cost to raise a pig?
Let’s assume that you already have the land and just need to create a pen. It doesn’t matter what kind of fence you surround a pig pen with as long as it’s strong enough for them not to be able to break through or push over if they lean against it. The cost of the fence itself and the shack they live in would mostly depend on where you got it from, and prices will vary greatly for this.

As for the pigs themselves, a baby pig, known as a weaner, will have an average cost of between £40 and £50 but you can’t keep a single pig without getting problems, so that’s £100 for two animals. After this, their food is going to be the single biggest expense but there are ways to make it much cheaper. A 20kg bag of pig feed will cost between £10 and £15 on average and will last two adult pigs for about 10 days, which is £30 a month on the cheaper end, but they also need extra filler will their meals like vegetable tops, leftovers, and slop. To raise two pigs from weaners by buying all their feed, you’re looking at around £400 after you’ve built their pen and have all the equipment they need like water and food holders.

So is it worth raising pigs for meat?

Raising pigs for meat is worth it if you have room for them and a way of feeding them that doesn’t involve buying the bulk of their food. Leftovers are a good choice but unless you have a huge family then this isn’t going to do much. During the Second World War in Britain, the government introduced something called pig clubs as a way to help feed the population, which involved several households or businesses all chipping in their leftovers as the sole source of food for 2 or 3 pigs. When they were butchered the meat was shared amongst everyone who contributed, but it would take a dozen households to provide enough to feed a couple of pigs, so in reality, all the leftovers a family would produce in a day would be nothing more than a light snack to a pig.

If you have the food, time, space, and mind for it, then raising a couple of pigs would provide you with enough meat to feed a family for most of the year, and the bonus of several carrier bags worth of pork scratchings and a block of lard big enough to fry everything you eat right up until your first heart attack.