This little piggy.............

[sewer rat]

Hi Folks
Not quite sure where I should post this thread but if it needs to be moved I'm sure either PW or Jennie will do so on my behalf. Has anyone out there ever kept pigs outdoors. I am thinking of getting half a dozen Tamworth cross weaners for fattening up aided by waste veg of course. Any advice gratefully received.

[Alice]

Hello Rat, lovely to see you there. Sorry I know nothing about pigs but good luck with the venture.

[witch-1]

I also want pigs - but will need to move house first!

I shall watch this thread with interest. My nephew did a pig-keeping course a while ago and told us you need 3 pigs to make it cost neutral. I think you sell two and keep one for the freezer. Something similar to that anyway!

Good luck with your venture...
Jan

[JennieAtkinson]

Not quite sure where this thread ought to go!! But I've moved it into Top Tips so that it may be easier to find at a later date.

Good luck with the Venture SR.

[SueA]

Good luck with the piggies Ratty, not sure it's the right time to do it just now though with foot & mouth restrictions , or are you allowed to move livestock again now? At least pigs don't get 'blue tongue' do they! Maybe you should watch 'Jimmy's Farm', he started off with rare breed pigs didn't he?

[Birdie Wife]

Hi SR, I got a half piggy from an organic farmer on the Black isle, he does Tamworth and something else, could be Middle Spot. From what I can gather,they are fairly easy as long as the fencing is sound and they have a bit of shelter. His Tamworths had a lot of fat on them but his Middle spot (or whatever they were), which we got, were superb, a good layer of fat but not too much. I could try and get his details if you want to talk to him?

[Matt.]

Have a look at the river cottage forum: http://forum.rivercottage.net/

I don't this posting a link to there should be too controversial?

On there you find lots of small holders with useful information about keeping livestock. Theres also sections about butchering and meat product production which are an interesting read!

[nick the grief]

remember the Tamworth two Rat Make sure the little buggers can't escape. you'll need somewhere for them to snuggle down Arks are expensive maybe you could use straw bales & tarps to give them a nice house.

What are the Tamworths crossed with ? if it's wild boar they may be a handfull, infact if you've never kept pigs before you are probably better with a lop eared breed as they tend to be calmer ( the ears cut out the field of vision so they don't run at everything ... honest)

PM me your address and I'll dig my notes out from when I did the rare breed corse & post them to you

[SueA]

Hi Rat, just noticed this company in G.Y.O's sister mag. 'Move To The Country'
http://www.pigparadise.com/
They run courses in pig keeping but it's probably a bit far away from you. They seem to supply pigs & equipment too though so it might be worth a look.

[OverWyreGrower]

Make sure you read up on the DEFRA regs first, as there are several complicated ones about feeding them and storing food and transporting them...

A good place to look is Musings of a Stonehead, who is a self-sufficient crofter who keeps piggies. He's done quite a few blog posts about DEFRA regs and such like!