Ep146: How many pigs should you have per acre? 

I actually grew up on my dad's farm before I moved to the city to pursue my music career and as far as pasture raising pigs. How much land you actually need per pig depends on your setup and how well your soil health is and how much grass you have in pounds per inch per acre. But if you use the system my dad used which is where you divide up the pasture into different paddocks and rotate them in a intensive rotational grazing system. You can typically get away with 400 square feet per pig in a paddock but that's if you do intensive rotational grazing. Which is where you have at least 4 paddocks side by side and you rotate them once every 7 days to The paddock next to it. And then once you get to the 4th paddock on the 4th week you rotate them back to the first paddock and then that grass has already regrown for 3 weeks which is optimal for pigs.

You are a wonderful educator who unselfishly provides a wealth of practical information. Bless you and your family.

I like the way you call them jerks!

It takes 6 months for 6 pigs (two sows, four almost-grown juveniles) to take down approximately 1/2 acre of brushy forest, but that's just the undergrowth, not all the trees. Part of this was a super-thick stand of evergreen saplings that I had hoped they would rip out, but I guess they didn't feel like doing that 🤷‍♀️ These 6 months were over winter, so oct-may, in zone 5 and pigs also got their kibbles twice a day.

A+ for rotational grazing

It has been 4 years here now that we have had pastured hogs and every day they are still teaching me. I don't have them figured out yet, but learned that they will teach me in time. Some observations I have had is that they will root within say 20 feet of any fence if left in long enough. So if you want good rooting to work up areas of an old neglected homestead like ours, it is best to keep their paddocks about 30 feet wide as then the whole breadth will get rooted well and that soil will get enhanced. Hogs are also expert Hydrologists. We have a sloping side hill that use to be a corn field and with this hard clay the rain just ran off of it and never soaked in giving us dry pack clay that would not grow pasture mid Summer and Fall. After they rooted it up, they created swales and water catchment systems that now hold any drop of rain that falls on that land and it grows great pasture now. So rather than evening out all their hard work, I left the hills and valleys and now I am rewarded with very productive land, but murder to drive over. However, I would rather have production than a comfy joy ride over erosion drought stricken land any day. The only other thing I would add is that hogs root when the soil is moist enough to let them. So seasons and soil moisture play huge roles. I have also noticed that after they have rooted an area up, it takes them a few years to let the weeds grow those tasty roots before they will tear it up again. So fodder that was first available for them on a piece of land takes some time to regenerate itself both above and below the soil. Chop and drop is a good strategy to build up your pastures when you don't have enough to keep it harvested. Replanting pasture has allowed us to have over 30 head on an acre but over Winter the pasture was reduced to bare turned soil. Which was great for reseeding, but it took a while to get our pasture back. Any mistake you make, you can fix it with capital and time. Two things we really don't like to let go though.

Lolol great video. Nearly spat out my sweet tea @ "Quit chewin' on my side-by-side, ya jerks!"

Pigs are my next venture i’m looking into...binging some of your vids lately!

Ive had people ask me this and i laugh because it's not an easy answer. In my experience I tend to have no more then 20 pigs on an acre of pasture for no longer then 2 weeks. But sometimes they're hungrier and got through forage faster. Its something you have to start small with and work your way up to understand your situation.

you are a good book o knowledge, thank you

Very good video, where my Brother lives in South Arkansas they have a feral pig problem. He will kill as many as 10 a year. He will usually render and smoke me 2 a year. I will give him Beef from my cattle in return.

I live in the city,but, it is good to know information.

Love your channel. Very informative. Do you need a manure management plan or do you have sufficient space to not have to worry about collecting the manure? From my experience, pigs produce an incredible amount of manure. Thanks for all the great information.

Great info. my wife and I want to get some pigs in the next year or to.

Interesting information.

Chard TV Livestock Farming. Watching here Philippines.

👍👍👍 I'm seriously considering to do this next March I've got about 10 -11 acres of hillside I'd like to turn them loose on. I'll probably only start with 2 or 3 and put them in different lots using an electric fence and move them from time to time. Growing up on a farm my dad had .milk cows that gave about 2 and half gallons of milk twice a day that was more than we could possibly use so we gave the hogs the excess milk mixed with Red Dog hog mix along with table scraps and anything we couldn't use out of the garden. One thing about hogs they'll consume just about anything you put in they're feed trough. LOL thanks RTH

Extremely helpful.

Great video buddy!

I enjoy your channel, very informative

Love your channel

great video!

1:04 HAHAHAHAHAH Awesome "Ya jerks!"

Do you supplement your pig feed with jumper cables and ratchet straps? haha

One lady gives her pig a beer or two when farrowing. Claims it keeps them mellow.

I googled 25-35 pigs per acre. I do not know because as a child on the farm we had 20 hogs /pigs in the Spring on a 10 acre lot. They stayed there until we sold or process them. We feed them grain & table scraps , wild fruit & nuts, garden waste.On garden waste you can grow extra garden plants, 5 zucchini plants, 5 large tomatoes plants, 6 cucmber plants, will give you all the fruit you can eat & can. Then feed all extra fruit to the hogs.

Love it

Awesome coverage, Troy! I'm specifically thinking of wooded land in Washington state. Wild blackberry is a real problem and I'm tossed up between getting goats or pigs for mowing it down/tilling the land to clear it of plant growth. Blackberry is pretty common at the edges of trees and under the canopy. Do you know if goats and pigs can be contained within the same area to work together?

Can you suggest any books or other reference materials about pigs? Do you have predator issues whether domesticated or wild?(dogs, coyotes, etc)? the videos have been very helpful. thank you.

I am curious if you have had any issues with coyote and your pigs. About what age would it be ok to keep pigs pastured with electric fence so that a coyote would tend to leave them alone. I have coyote that pass through my 15 acres and have found a couple of dead fawns the past two years. But they habe never done any damage to my chickens. They don't seem to even get near them. What are your thoughts?

First and foremost question........did you ring the pigs with at least 3 rings ???????

Hey Troy, I am looking for property now with my family up around eastern TN. Pigs are something I would like to have for personal purposes. People are telling me they stink and you can always smell the bad odors. Is this true considering I will probably have 3-5 pigs on 2-3 acres of decent pasture. Obviously I would have a feeding area with bagged feed for them. Is the feeding trough area smelly or what is your thoughts or "smells" there. Thanks Josh

Why can you not raise pigs solely on pasture? Specially if it’s great pasture?

Hello I would like to ask you how long should 10 pigs on one acre stay on that one acre before I move to the next acre?

"Poompkins." 🤣

Pigs were photo-bombing. Walked off-camera after the line “about harvesting in the fall.” 🐷

Someone needs to go do a documentary on Walter Jeffries farm. He’s one of the original natural pig farmers and few know about him bc he’s not on RU-vid.

Hello Troy my name is JoEllen and Mike and I am having a problem and my problem is my husband and I had 4 pigs 2 female an 2 males we had to put one of our females down so now we have 2 bore hogs that we don't need and I will say they are a handful.. So what can we do with one of the boys for we only need and want one of them. I have tried to sell one but with absolutely NO luck at all !! Tory we really need some help so any advice would be great... P.S I absolutely love seeing your video's... Thank you for your time your friends from ohio JoEllen and Mike.

So how many pigs can you feed with a single side by side ... ?

So lets say the acre is well established grass, and I only run 3 pigs on it, because that is so far below the recommended 10 pigs, would it be safe to not rotate? Also considering a breed like AGH, which tends to be "light" on a pasture.....and the bigger question, what if I ran say 5 AGH, 3 Dexter Cows, 3-5 Dorper Sheep, and a flock of laying hens, on say 5 acres, would the lower animal to land ratio make so that it would be safe not to rotate them, but rather to just give them full access to the full 5 acres as they desire?

Sir plzzz tell me make a video on how to keep snakes away from the pigs

Pigs raiding your side-by-side makes me think of mine - gets into all sorts of stuff he knows he's not allowed to just to get my attention!

I literally want a couple pigs for pets and also to keep the property from overgrowing-Ihave 9 acres. I have not much time to keep it up, so Ithought they might help.MOstly pasture grass but some areas ( where they might be) has fully taken over by poison hemlock, pokeweed, and nightshade. Will they not eat the poison stuff if we feed them well?

Do you have issues with pig predators in your area?

I was considering getting into raising hogs but I don't have much property. I have a 2 acre empty lot that is all regular grass. Is this something I could make work?

I wood use 6 per acre

How do you farrow your sows or gilts

I'm not much on hogs other than bacon and hams. I never sold any when I did it but I did trade hog for beef and chicken. I raised beef to eat and we had a bunch of kids who if I could of grazed them I would of needed twice the land. I had some white face for milk and guernsey for meat. Not much fat buch tasty. I didn't know about the highland cows or I would of gone that way. I let my pisgs destroy the grounds I kept them on. They got all the wire grass out by the roots and that is what I went for. I would never raise pigs again... maybe two as they are social animals but that is it

How much feed do you use when your pigs are on pasture or do they do good without feeding hog feed

they are not stupid, on the contrast they are real smart. if you have pigs and have paid attention to them you would know the are way smarter than most animals, even dogs.

How do you keep raccoons pig feeders

How many times a year do you breed each sow?

C

Pigs that are just on pasture are hungry pigs. They need more than forage.

"Like having children" Yup...

99i of

Do you have an issue with bears preying on yoour pigs?

M.

biden 178 dayz in DE 0 at BORDER

Lmao.........stop eating my side by side you jerks........lol..... Pig problems oh ya.......lol Reminds me of last year our boar ate a whole handle off my wheel barrow while i went to answer the phone..........had to finish cleaning the stall with a one handled wheel barrow...... Now........wonder what your pigs were gonna do with booster cables lmao

Camera hogs.

STOP EATING MY SIDE BY SIDE YOU JERKS! .....I love pigs 🐖...

Hogs ??? Hire a democrat like nusom hes bound to raise yor taxes.

ZERO If I had a farm I would only have Sheep or Goats.

You should have ZERO pigs, pigs are not food for God's children, your not even allowed to touch their carcasses.