Because pigs seem to produce more edible meat per pound of feed than do other four-footed animals, we’ve found that the critters represent a relatively secure and profitable homestead investment. As an added advantage, the porkers — if the need arises — can be butchered at any age, without regard to their stage of growth and meat preparedness.
We became concerned, however, that our swine were able to wallow idly during a good part of the year, while the grain they consumed was costing us more by the month. In fact, our frustration over rising feed costs inspired us to start thumbing through back issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS and scanning the feed grain sections of seed catalogs in search of some money-saving alternatives.

How to Save Money While Raising Pigs

Our solution was developed (after a good bit of head scratching) from ideas we found in Gary Nelson’s article “Pigs Plow My Garden,” which suggests putting the animals’ snouts to work as rototillers and in an R.H. Shumway Seeds catalog, which listed an “Annual Hog Pasture Mixture” containing 11 different seed varieties (field peas, soybeans, hairy vetch, clover, rape, sorghum, millet, turnips, barley, oats, and rutabagas) that are ready for grazing in six weeks.
We concluded, therefore, that if we set aside some pasture for pork, our pigs’ grain consumption would be less for at least six months of the year. Also, as they ate, the animals would automatically “till” the fields for subsequent plantings. The idea became even more appealing when we realized that pasturing pigs, whether young stock or pregnant sows, makes excellent nutritional sense. It seems that most green foods — especially grasses — provide carotene, which is converted to vitamin A and stored in the liver. Shortages of this vitamin may cause piglets to be stillborn or to die shortly afterbirth. (Furthermore, if pigs receive only the bare minimum requirement of vitamin A, they may still suffer a retardation of growth: In a short time the pig’s head becomes too large in proportion to its body.)