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RE: Homesteading - Best Hogs on the Homestead?
We don't raise hogs yet. We were looking at Kunekunes, but I'm not sure. I am going to want something that roots, and I think they are more of a grazing hog. This is a great post as I haven't heard of these breeds before and they look pretty rugged.
Thanks.
Kune Kunes are good for not tearing up the pastures as bad and also for being smaller so you can butcher them yourself. They are also easy on the fences but take longer to get up to size for butcher. What people don't realize though is the smaller the hog the harder they can be to keep penned. They are still very strong even at a smaller size and will not run over the fence but can find smaller holes or weak spots to exploit that a large hog would not even consider trying to squeeze threw. Old spots are a good medium breed that will get around 400 to 600 lbs on average and large blacks will be a little larger depending on feed stock. Very docile hogs though and we have fenced and penned most of ours with pallets with no problems at all.
That's good to know. I am thinking to start we will be clearing a bit of land, so I'm thinking rooters will be good for helping with that. I was going to do that and goats to clean out scrub and work the ground a bit before we do anything with it. We haven't got the property yet though, so who knows what we will need in the end?
Make sure to run your goats before your hogs. Running the hogs first or with can give things like Salmonella to your goats. Also watch any trees you want to keep. If you leave your goats in to long and they eat everything they will start to ring the trees eating the bark and killing the trees. You can fence around the base of the tree to stop this but the hogs will root up the roots eventually also if left in to long killing them. The key is to keep them rotated so they don't destroy it all unless you are wanting perfectly clear pastures ready to plant and then they will do that no problems.
This is my hardest hog to handle and if you notice he is very small but very very strong and lots of attitude.
Hahaha, he looks like a bad ass.