Rearing a pig in the city

ritabixndmilk · 25-03-2010 10:48pm #1

I am living in the city and have a large garden and shed. I am interested in rearing a piglet, fattening it and selling it. What breed of pig would grow the fastest in the shortest period of time? I only have a couple of months for this venture. I am looking for a small breed of pig. Are pigs noisy? Is there any hidden costs apart from feeding? Is it hard to sell pigs in this recession? How much does an average piglet cost?
Thanks for any advice you may have

Rented Mule · 25-03-2010 10:53pm

Zulu · 25-03-2010 10:54pm

I know some pigs. You can pick them
up in and around temple bar most weekends.

jap gt · 25-03-2010 10:55pm

to be honest buying a pig to fatten isnt going to make you much if any money, they are not very noisey but a smell is what i would worry about if its in your garden and you have near neighbours, also a pig will ruin your garden and fencing will be another big issue, are you selling live or meat

ritabixndmilk · 25-03-2010 11:00pm

Thank you for replying so fast
I have a lot of food waste and would prefer to use it to feed a pig instead of wasting it. I don't mind whether to sell it on or to kill it as long as I don't make a loss. Is there some kind of miniature pig that wouldn't take up too much space?

jap gt · 25-03-2010 11:08pm

ritabixndmilk wrote: »

Thank you for replying so fast
I have a lot of food waste and would prefer to use it to feed a pig instead of wasting it. I don't mind whether to sell it on or to kill it as long as I don't make a loss. Is there some kind of miniature pig that wouldn't take up too much space?

if you want it to just eat waste, forget fattening it to eat and get a potbelly pigs, some of these are like pets and would be slightly more suited to you, getting a pig to fatten wont be cheap, unless you have a shed or something to keep it in it is going to make your life hard, how much ground have you

johno2 · 26-03-2010 1:26am

You need to get a herd number from the Dept of Agriculture to legally own a pig. AFAIK you also need to keep at least 2 because they are intelligent creatures and need social interaction with another pig to keep them sane. It's possible that you may get around that restriction if you have a dog or something else to keep it company.

johno

blue5000 · 26-03-2010 9:46pm

Zulu wrote: »

I know some pigs. You can pick them
up in and around temple bar most weekends.

Or you could try Templemore for baby pigs

pauljordan · 20-04-2010 12:22pm

1) You need a pig herd number for traceability/movements. Do you have a method of transporting a 100Kg pig?

2) Pigs eat alot of food. Unless you have a very large family scraps will not suffice in keeping a healthy pig.

3) Pigs can be hard to confine, so you will need a secure place to keep them. They will burst through your ordinary fencing. 3 rows of good strong electric fencing is good. They will rip anything up and destroy anything that they will have access to.

4) Ave price for 8 week old Saddle back would be about €70. Aim to get your piggy to 90-100Kgs. approx 6-7 months of age. The Saddle back would be a good outdoor kind of pig to keep. But these tend to be more fatty than the indoor type of commercial pig.

5) You will need to locate a butcher that will slaughter piggy then cure some parts e.g. Cure back legs for Hams or cure one side for bacon. This would require you fnding a buyer for a finished product ready for cooking. Who wants to buy a full live pig?

6) Pigs squeel like they are being slaughtered when they are hungry.....They also smell.

However great amounts of satisfaction can be gained from keeping a thriving animal. Pigs are no exception.

CJhaughey · 20-04-2010 12:39pm

You will never fatten a pig to the required weight on scraps, pigs grow fast and need a lot of food.
From the time you get a piglet ~7-8 weeks they will need to be fed 1lb per day per month of age.
So from the start you need 2lbs per day of concentrate food, the next month will be 3lbs and so on.
Food scraps will go nowhere toward feeding and fattening a pig, trust me I have been down this road, they will last about 30 seconds and the pig will be looking for more.
I had two saddlebacks and was gathering the scraps from a vegetarian restaurant in 20l buckets and they would demolish them in a few minutes and still eat a full ration of organic pig food.
Piglets cost around 70 ea + food+ electric fence/shelter very hard to make any money at this game, you are better off growing your own pork/bacon/salami and having the knowledge that the meat is the best quality you can get.