This year we are raising five pigs for ourselves and friends. It is very fun to raise pigs they are entertaining and easy to raise. The biggest thing is that you have to have a good fence to keep them in. As you can see by the picture our pigs are trained to an electric fence. We have the fence running down into the woods so the pigs can get out of the heat in the shade.
Pigs love to root things so having a larger pen gives them more room to have fun and pigs do love to have fun. They run around the pen and kind of wrestle with each other like our two dogs do. It is fun to watch them.
We are very happy to raise pork for our friends who do not have a place to raise their own. I count a privilege to be able to improve what our friends are eating and letting them know how their meat was raised. It is so important that if you can buy your meat and produce from local sources. The closer you are to your food the more healthy it will be for you. Raising our own meat is one way that we ensure that what we are eating is good for us.
I'm working on a few different ideas to raise our own food for our meat animals. As I talked about we have put our meat birds on pasture which cuts down on the commercial feed that we have to give them. When the pigs can root around they find all kinds of things that they like to eat. We also give them our kitchen scraps, corn cobs, watermelon rinds etc. Further on in the summer we will get dead fall apples from a friend that they will also enjoy. These extra treats really add to the quality of the pork.
So, visit a local farmers market or grocery store that sells from local farmers and see how much better fresh food tastes.