Where do pigs come from?

It needs the smallest amount of investment, it's not a long term commitment and it's a relatively straightforward thing to do. Mind you, you've still got to find your pigs and prepare a place on your holding for them. We'll look at accommodation next month but for now the question is "where are your pigs going to come from?"

As I've already said, buying weaners of the rare breeds is an excellent way to support these breeds by creating a market for weaners and so a demand for breeding sows. But by definition these pigs are rare, so how to find them ? The Rare Breeds Survival Trust or The British Pig Association or the appropriate Breed Society of your chosen breed will probably be able to provide you with the contacts details of some breeders. If you're really lucky you may already have a friend or neighbour with rare breed weaners for sale. If you belong to a Smallholders Association, ask around, someone will generally help you. Along the same lines, the Smallholding press may carry advertisements for just what you want. The other place where you may be able to find stock is from the city farms or farm parks. These places frequently carry rare breed pigs and like to have piglets to show their visitors but they often have too many weaners and are happy to sell them on. In any event I would always advise buying from registered stock. That way you can be sure you're helping the breed to keep going.

The one source I've not mentioned is the local livestock market. This is simply because I personally prefer not to buy weaners this way. You're not going to be seeing them at their best and it's very hard to get an indication of their state of health in what is inevitably a stressful situation for them - even in the best run venue. For a similar reason, if I have a choice of exactly what I want 100 miles away or nearly what I want, just around the corner, I would compromise and go for the local ones every time, avoiding the stress of a long drive home. Of course if I was buying breeding stock then the decision would be the other way around, as the rule here is to buy the best animals you can find for your herd. The drive home would have to be managed carefully to keep stress as low as possible.

So once you've located a potential source, how should you proceed ? Simply ring up the seller, explain what you want and go and have a look. Most breeders will be only too happy to show off their stock and you'll be able to see the pigs at their ease in a normal environment. If you're in any doubt about doing this, try and find a friendly pig keeper to go with you. I once went to help a lady choose her first pair of weaners. Her instructions were very simple - she just wanted two with curly tails ! We managed to find a pair that fitted her bill and that met what I was looking for as well, so everybody went home happy. There is a theory that pigs with dimples above their tails finish better than others. I'm not sure about that. Personally I prefer to buy weaners from within a litter that are as evenly sized as possible. I find that keeps bullying at feeding time to a minimum and helps them all to get away to a good start at home. In any case you should be looking for alert weaners with shiny coats and bright eyes. They need to be alert, move nice and easily without limping or hobbling and should come and investigate you. You don't want any with red or flaking skin, nor do you want any that are scouring already (scour = diarrhoea) so look out for mucky tails or loose dung in the pen. It's largely a matter of common sense and having confidence in your judgement. After all, this is buying pigs, not rocket science.

Once you've made you choice the next job is to get them home. To move pigs you really need a trailer in which they can ride safely, without sliding around or falling over and which you can keep clean and hygienic. I use a 10 foot livestock trailer with a movable internal division that allows me to adjust the size of the animals' compartment depending on how many I'm moving, so that they can move about enough to be comfortable without actually rattling around at risk of injury. The floor is of ridged aluminium that cleans easily and I put some straw on top of that for additional comfort and grip. At this age I find that the easiest way to load and unload weaners is simply to pick them up and carry them. They're too young to understand being herded around and it's unlikely that either you or the seller will be able to set up a system of pens and races such as you would find at a livestock market to enable them to be moved safely. Mind you, if you can arrange a secure loading and unloading system, use it. A thriving weaner at 8 weeks old can be a fair weight, so don't plan to carry them for further than you absolutely have to; and if they do escape they will move like lightening and be incredibly difficult to catch. This is all stress that neither you nor the pigs need. You should expect a fair amount of vocal complaint when you first pick them up though. Don't do this near the sow (any sow) as she may come racing over intent on defending the little ones and you'll have an unpleasant situation on your hands until things quieten down. But pigs aren't stupid and once the weaners realise that a) they can't get away and b) that you aren't going to hurt them they generally settle until you put them down. At which point they trundle off, grunting amiably, to investigate their new surroundings, leaving you wondering what all the fuss was about.

Of course, you'll have had everything ready for the new arrivals, and next month I'll be looking at what that means and just what those new surroundings