How to Get Started with Raising Pigs

If you’re a beginner looking to get started with raising pigs, this post is for you! In this article, we will talk about what you’ll need to get set up in order to raise your own pigs for meat at home.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Have you been thinking about getting started with raising pigs but then stopped because you weren’t sure where to start? I’ve been there! That reason is exactly why I’ve put this post together on how to get started with raising pigs. Raising pigs is actually a pretty hands-off process once you’ve got everything set up and ready. My goal is that this post will help you get your homestead ready so that you can successfully raise pigs for meat at home.

Step One: Find a Breeder
Step Two: Set up a Pen
- Setting up the Fence
- Creating a Shelter
Step Three: Set up a Feeder
Step Four: Set up Water
Step Five: Bring the Pigs Home
Major Takeaways on How to Get Started with Raising Pigs
More on Raising Livestock
More on Processing Pigs
Save this Post

Step One: Find a Breeder

The first thing you’ll want to do when you’re getting started with raising pigs is find a breeder. Many breeders often will have their feeder pigs reserved or take reservations, so finding a breeder earlier than later is a good idea.

There are a lot of different factors you may consider with the breeder you choose, such as the cost of the piglet, age of the piglet, breeds available (some pig breeds are raised for different cuts of meat), and style of raising (organic or not). All of these things should be considered when choosing where you’ll be sourcing your piglets from.

Step Two: Set up a Pen

a pig pen getting started with fence posts and a shelter

Pigs are known for escaping fences, so setting up a fence that will keep your pigs within the area you want them is important.

You’ll want to create a pen that can give your pigs space to move around and exercise. Pigs are social animals that need room to help minimize fighting. For our five pigs, we set up a 32 feet by 32 feet pen, giving each pig about 205 square feet per pig. This set-up gave the pigs enough room to run around and play together without any issues of fighting.

Setting up the Fence

The fence design for our pigs came from our friend Ryan’s set-up for his pigs. To create our fenced in area, we used treated 4x4x8 foot fence posts that we buried 3 feet into the ground and placed 8 feet apart. We then placed eight hog panels along the inside of the fence posts, creating the barrier.

Because pigs root, which can create opportunities for escape, we also set up an electric fence about 16 inches up from ground. The pigs definitely tested this, but once they knew what the electric fence was, they stayed away from it fairly well and did not root up to the fence line. A note with the electric fence: Do not include an electric fence around the feed area, water area, or the area that you want them to walk out of (like a gate).

We also added in a swinging gate so that we’d be able to easily get a trailer in the fence to get the hogs out once that time came.

So, to recap, here are the materials we used for our pig fence:

Creating a Shelter

Pigs will need a place that they can be dry and out of the wind for shelter. You can create or build any type of shelter that has at least three sides. We were able to purchase an old cut-off mink shed to use as our pig shelter for about $200. Inside the shelter we added straw, which the pigs loved to root in, eat, and cuddle up in on the colder days.

Our pigs were comfortable in this shelter up until their butcher date at the end of December in Wisconsin. Though it was cold outside, they always seemed perfectly comfortable buried under the straw in their shelter.

Step Three: Set up a Feeder

In order for pigs to grow well, you will want to allow them to have access to food 24 hours per day. We invested in a hog feeder so that the pigs could eat whenever they were hungry. The pigs will most likely need to be trained to find where the food is located at first, but once they find it they will quickly remember and should have no trouble pushing up the lid to eat. A feeder also is low maintenance when it comes to feeding the animals. This particular hog feeder holds about 150 pounds of grain, which depending on the size of your hogs, gives you a little more freedom on how often you need to fill it.

Step Four: Set up Water

In addition to rooting, pigs are also known to wallow. Wallowing is when pigs create a mud pit in the ground so that they can cool down and avoid bugs. While this is an important thing for pigs to be able to do, it also can make providing fresh water more difficult because they like to tip their water dishes over immediately.

To combat this, many farmers and homesteaders (including us) use a nipple drinker to provide their pigs with fresh water all day long. The pigs will need to be taught or shown where the water comes from, but then they should quickly pick up on how to drink using this tool. We used two nipple drinkers connected by galvanized piping. We then hooked that up to our underground water line.

Step Five: Bring the Pigs Home

An often overlooked task when getting started with pigs is transporting the animals to your home (and eventually from your home if you are processing off of your homestead or farm). You have a few options here that you can consider for transportation.

Transport in the back of a truck: If you have a topper on your truck, or if you can build a box out of plywood, you will have a way to transport piglets to your farm. Now, when the pigs get older and are closer to harvesting age, you will not be able to transport them in the back of your truck because of their size.
Purchase a livestock trailer: Purchasing a livestock trailer is an expensive option, but it is an option! If you’re planning to do this on a regular basis and have other livestock to transport, this might be worthwhile for you.
Borrow or rent a livestock trailer from another farmer: This is what we do! My sister-in-law’s dad has a farm and is really generous to let us use his trailer. Out of gratitude, you’ll want to expect to pay in some form to use the trailer, whether it be money or meals.

Major Takeaways on How to Get Started with Raising Pigs

If you want to get started with raising pigs this year on your homestead, here are the major takeaways to remember:

Reserve your pigs early from a breeder to ensure you are able to find feeder pigs at a reasonable price.
Pigs need a secure fence that they can’t root out of. Using an electric wire along the bottom can help keep the pigs in their pen.
If you choose to use an electric wire, be sure you do not have the electric wire near the place you want them to walk out of when they leave the farm or homestead, near their food, or near their water.
A shelter to keep pigs dry and out of the wind needs to be provided.
Access to food and water should be available for the pigs 24/7.
Have a plan for transportation of the animals to and from your farm.

I hope this post leaves you with a solid game plan as to how to get started with raising pigs. We really enjoy having pigs on our homestead! They’re fun to watch, easy to care for, and provide good quality products. Share in the comments if you’re planning to get started with raising pigs this year!