One day not so long ago, a husband and wife bought some land in southwestern Washington. They worked hard to not be lazy. As such, they planted vegetables and fruits, some of which grew far too slowly, and started herding birds and eating lots of eggs. Then they decided to add swine to the mix. Less than a month ago, that idea came into being. Voila!— three little pigs.
As with all our endeavors, Bryon conducted lots of research first. He read books and watched YouTube videos, talked to neighbors, and weighed the benefits of various breeds. He opted for Idaho Pasture Pigs, a new breed comprised of Kune Kune, Duroc, and Old Berkshire. These animals are known for being friendly, compact, and adaptable. But the main appeal was their ability to live mostly on grass grazing, since we have tons of grass around these parts.
Last October we got on the waiting list for Peaceful Pastures, a farm in Shelton. Finally in early July, we headed north to pick up three barrows (castrated males) at seven weeks old. These pigs take about nine months to reach maturity at around 250 pounds. The timing isn’t ideal, since we will have to care for them through the winter, when most of our grass will be under water and/or snow. However, we’re getting used to dodging the curveballs that keep heading our way.
Bryon built a nice shade structure and small house for the pigs to sleep in, and they’re protected by electric fencing. So far, we can report that pigs love to eat, scratch themselves on anything— immobile or not— wallow in mud, and sleep. It’s a close competition as to who takes more naps, Buster (our blind dog) or the pigs. When we brought the threesome home, they were about the same size as Buster, but they’ve already put on 15-20 pounds. We can also share that the pig’s reputation for being smelly is not unfounded. But they are actually pretty tidy in that they like to do their business in a couple corners of their pen, rather than all over. Plus, we started collecting their poop to be incorporated into compost, which will hopefully reduce that issue.
To date, the pigs don’t have names. We call them Piggles, Piggers, Piggy, etc. We are raising them for meat, and I’m trying not to get attached. However, they are now comfortable enough to nose up to us, rubbing their snouts on our legs when they want food and let us pet them while eating. So we’ll see how successful I am at keeping my distance.
