The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: SilverFox on January 23, 2014, 06:59:10 pm
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This is new to me so I would appreciate any guidance you guys can give me. I have a small amount of land sufficient for a couple of weaners, is there a 'right time' of year to purchase weaners if I intended to rear them for meat? Does anyone know of suitable breeders in the Aberdeenshire area?
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You're best to get them in the spring with a view to sending them off in Autumn - that's the easiest time to raise them - weather wise ;)
Have you thought about which breed you'd like ?
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Second the idea of getting around spring, as starting when everything is dark and wet is likely to put you off the joys of pigs!
We are near Banff, and breed kune kunes which are nice small, friendly pigs, ideal for smallholders, but make great pork, although it takes a little longer and you get a bit less pork back, but they eat less and are a joy to have around.
If you wanted to visit to see how we do things, you're more than welcome, just drop me a pm.
We will have our next weaners for sale early july if that was any good to you.
Suz and Den
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Lop-eared pigs are easier to handle as they have limited vision. I'd recommend doing some research first - a couple of books (Richard Lutwyche's, published by the National Trust, is very good), and perhaps a pig-keeping course. You'll need to think about transport (finished pigs will be pretty big!); housing; feed; continuous water supply; fencing (pigs can dig, pigs can jump hurdles, pigs like finding the weak link in any fencing system you can think up ....); a herd number and identification .....
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Lop-eared pigs are easier to handle as they have limited vision. I'd recommend doing some research first - a couple of books (Richard Lutwyche's, published by the National Trust, is very good), and perhaps a pig-keeping course. You'll need to think about transport (finished pigs will be pretty big!); housing; feed; continuous water supply; fencing (pigs can dig, pigs can jump hurdles, pigs like finding the weak link in any fencing system you can think up ....); a herd number and identification .....