Homesteading - Best Hogs on the Homestead?

Do you have hogs on your homestead? What is your favorite breed?

There is a lot of misunderstand of hogs. Lots of people things hogs are dirty animals when they actually are one of the cleanest animals on the homestead. They even prefer to use the same areas for the restroom over and over and where most livestock like goats and cows will mess all over their padlocks including their houses hogs will not. The only thing dirty about hogs is they don't sweat so they need mud to keep cool and to help keep the bugs away. If they are in a small pen hogs can get pretty nasty since the area is not large enough for them to separate their mud holes and where they defecate so they do end up rolling in their own waste and also develop a smell but this is more the farmers fault then the hogs.

One of the biggest things about hogs that I enjoy and many people don't understand is hogs are one of the more intelligent animals on the planet, are the closest to human anatomy and also share many emotions that humans have. Hogs can get depressed, jealous, angry, happy and many more emotions people have. They also develop their own personalities which makes each one an individual and different from the rest.

We raise mainly heritage breed hogs since we prefer not to raise ours like a commercial feed lot. At this time my favorite breeds have been Old Spots, Large Blacks, Red Wattles and we do toss in a mix here and there when I find a good looking one which is usually a duroc / half wild, like one of my breeding males, or several mixes like my largest female that pushes close to 1,000 lbs. I have found the commercial breeds that do get to weight faster do not do so well on pasture and a more natural diet like fodder, hay and corn. They seem to only produce on grain and more of the commercial grain. We feed organic grain so the hogs will grow slower and take longer to put on weight. There are lots of tricks to produce quality meat on a hog though.

It does take us longer to fatten up a butcher hog on pasture then in a pen but the meat is always better quality since it is not from a fat overweight lazy hog that can barely turn around in a stall. The meat is also much darker in color and some breeds like our red wattle hogs produce a very dark red meat that almost looks like beef in color and is not pale and white like what you buy in the store. I prefer the old spots for the better ham hogs with the marbling that is wonderful and we like the large blacks for their longer bodies that produce a nice belly for bacon. The red wattles is my favorite for dark red meat that makes really good pork steaks. Our hybrids are only kept due to the fantastic growth and size that they put on compared to our pure breeds. Sometimes to get the best of both worlds you just got to have both.

I have noticed that the hog breeds with the large floppy ears like old spots are a lot less attentive and aggressive in their surroundings then the breeds with upright and erect ears. These breeds seem to be more attentive and very up front in your face and sometimes it can be like staring down a chest high 800 lb wolf and because our hogs are leaner they are very strong and fast. One of my large hogs can easily not only run as fast as my pit bull but can also stop and turn on a dime just the same which when it is a large strong animal like that can easily be a handful if you are not careful always making sure they understand who is in charge.

What types of hogs do you prefer to raise?