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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >Do they like raw onions?

They are very individual in their tastes.  Some pigs will crash through the 
fecnce to get at an onion and some will not touch them.  

We have the image of pigs wantonly and indiscriminately scarfing down all and 
sundry, but they don't.  They are acutally very picky eaters, the just have a 
very wide range of things they will eat (including you, if they got the 
chance).  One we raised did not like fava beans.  When I had a five gallon 
bucket 
of scraps, grain, etc. all soaked in milk, the pig flew into it and in the 
end 
the trough had every single fava bean still intact but nothing else.

Now here's my addition to the pig discussion:   If you have enough feed and 
rich enough feed, a pig will get enormous.  Pig feed is among the pricier 
things at the feed'n'seed.  BUT you don't necessarily have to end up with a 
gigantonormous pig.  Feed the pig what you have or can get cheaply or free.  
Instead 
of the pig dressing out at 400 lbs, suppose you "only" get 250 lbs of pork, 
or 
100??  

The agribusiness model says:  400 lbs of pork for $500 in feed and expenses, 
$1.25 a pound!  Not bad.

The pastoral model says:  100 lbs of pork for no money at all.  Even better!

If the plan is to sell some of the pork (and this is easy and legal to do), 
then shuffling some money around might make some sense.

But if the only goal is homestead pork, the pastoral model, says I, fits best.


Let me emphasize what has already been covered, pigs need LOTS of water.  In 
hot weather they will die without it.  If a pig shows aggression, kill it and 
eat it right then and get another pig.  Life's too short to deal with 
aggressive farm animals when you don't really have to.  Pigs are indeed like 
600 lb 
puppy dogs.

You can keep a pig in with an electric fence ... right until he doesn't want 
to be kept in badly enough.  That is, when he's mad or frightened.

Pigs are intelligent, but 98% of that intelligence is geared toward getting 
food.  In other matters they are often as dumb as dirt.   If food is 
involved, 
give it up, the pig knows many more tricks than you can even imagine.  In all 
other matters, expect instinct rather than reason to prevail.


Pigs will eat grass and hay, they will chew twigs and branches.  If you are 
where you can gather acorns, you can add lots of pounds to a pig.

Pork from a milk fed pig looks, smells, and tastes very different from a chop 
fed pig.  The milk can be in the form of buttermilk from butter making or 
whey from cheese making or any other form.   If you are using simple 
detergent to 
do your dishes, feed the dishwater to the pig.  Pigs love to eat coffee 
grounds and tea bags.  Spent brewing grains are also great so long as they 
have not 
overly soured.  If they do sour, the pigs won't eat them.  Assume anything in 
the kitchen that still has even a little nutritional value left is fodder for 
the pig.