Thoughts on Hogs

Bacon and Chorizo enjoying pancakes.

I love bacon, but besides that, raising hogs has been one of the more straight forward endeavors here on the homestead. They've been healthy, thrived in the heat, rain, and even managed to turn up hard black clay soil for me. They don't attack live chickens, but have turned the snake victims and Cornish Cross chickens that succumb to growing too fast into sausage and pork chops. If that ain't magic I don't know what is .

It has been awesome having 0 food waste go out in the trash, and the lack of guilt over throwing food away or not seeing some left overs in the back of the fridge is pretty sweet as well. Interestingly enough the hogs don't find every morsel and crumb that we throw to them, but the little 236 layers come through their pen a couple times a day and make sure nothing is going to waste.

The Red Wattle Duroc cross is showing typical hybrid vigor and is probably 30 pounds heavier than his litter mate that arrived on the farm on the same day. Both have been castrated, but the bigger one is using his bulk to bully the other out of the food trough. I've bought another trough and think this will take care of that problem.

I'll do the pigs again in a heartbeat, whereas I'm really questioning doing more Cornish Cross as they seem so un-chickenlike. My next step is to find a place to dumpster dive or a ongoing source of cheap higher quality food than the hog pellets, supplemented by table scraps, that this pair have had. Cheaper food would make the hogs a very viable income stream for the homestead since pork is so popular here in Texas.