Our pig farmer friend called to say the feeder piglets would be weaned within 3 – 4 weeks.
For those of you unfamiliar with feeder pigs - they are piglets raised for home use, market, or as a 4-H or FFA project for summer fairs.
Our pig farmer friend has school age children who raise pigs for 4-H. The extra piglets not used by the children are sold to folks like us who raise their own farm food allowing the kids to make a bit of cash to fund their project.
Why We Buy the Piglets
1. Buying a whole pig is buying in bulk. That saves money.
2. We grow the pigs without hormones or antibiotics. We know we have healthy, safe meat without chemicals.
3. The meat tastes better than store bought and is much healthier which is the most important point in our opinion.
We offer our family and close friends the same opportunity. We house and care for the animal; they pay the cost of their piglet, it's feed and processing for their animal.
Normally we don’t have too many takers (maybe 3) who participate each year. This year everyone surprised me (though I suppose I shouldn’t be with todays economy). We reserved 10 piglets to raise for 8 families.
6 comments:
Yummy! We don't eat much pork here though.
This is what we did for 30 years. Our pig requests grew up to 20 butcher hogs, and I had to stop.
It just became too much. The cost of weiners was over-whelming, and hauling all of them from here to there was too much.
Good for you. It is a wise and smart way to feed your family.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
I love ham. I've never raised a pig but just know that I would get so attached to it. But yeah, I would love to have fresh, homemade ham, must taste great.
Good for you :) We do this as well and raise 8 pigs each year, one for us and 7 for other folks. I figure if I'm gonna feed one a few moe won't make any difference :)
Piglets in our area are about $80.00 for 8 week olds this year. Pricey!
Wow - Speaking of times changing. I think folks are realizing that this whole thing could be turning into something serious this time. Congrats on the pig sponsors!
Sure wish I lived closer to you. I'd probably have you raise me one too. I think in today's market and with the economy the way it is, everyone wants to know where their food comes from and buy locally.
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