Raising Pigs on a Small Scale

Learn how to break even by raising pigs and supply your family with farm-fresh pork all year long.

By Jim Curley
Published on February 8, 2017
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by Emmanuel Keller/AKM Images
Let’s say you would like to raise four pigs a year for your family’s freezer. How much will it cost to keep a breeding pair to produce these four pigs?

Learn how to break even by raising pigs and supply your family with farm-fresh pork all year long.

Conventional wisdom says that it is not cost-effective to keep a boar unless you have five or six sows. Based on our experience, however, I propose that this really depends on the availability and price of piglets, the availability of a boar (if you already have a sow), how much food you can produce on the homestead to feed the boar or breeding pair, and how much space you have to keep them in.

In my part of the country, the Midlands of South Carolina, weaned piglets from quality sources are getting scarce. When I started raising pigs for my family a few years ago, 70 dollars could buy a pair of high-quality 8-week-old piglets. Now you are lucky if 70 dollars can buy you one.

Editor’s note: The costs listed in this article reflect 2017 prices.

If you want to keep a sow and get her bred by a local boar, first make sure you can find a quality farm to partner with. Several people have approached me about using my boar for a stud. I occasionally agree, but only if I know the person and their farm. I am leery about bringing disease from another farm onto my homestead. Most people who have a quality boar don’t want to risk injury or disease by loaning their boar out for breeding or bringing sows in.

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