Thank you, a wonderful compliment! If you're ever in VA stop on by and we'll let the piglets nibble your boots again!

I’ve observed that pigs like to eat yo much filling their bellies with green grass will not make them grow but fill the m up

+gary toles thank you!

Thanks, come on by the farm anytime!

+Richard Smith appreciate the support!

Richard Smith . I

+Yvette Charron thank you!

Noelle Ferguson, You are a moron, vegan babies are not all growing up healthy.Tell me what we do with the billions and billions of farm animals? Do we keep them as pets or do we eradicate them all? The world will never go 100% vegan so get educated.The best we can do is donate and educate on fair humane farming .give me a nice juicy mouth watering rare steak any day yum mmmm my I do not like pork , sorry hog farmers lol

Cause cancer lmao! I think you need to go take your meds and go get a double big mac and enjoy, Cause a few of you 2 face vegans are eating meat on the sly Meataholics !! We have been eating meat since the beginning of time.Answer my question what do we do with the billions and billions of farm animals? And what about the wildlife do we kill all wildlife? How will people survive without farms Jobs?

My apologies for the troll. She is in the ban box now.

Noelle, If you're not a fan of meat thats fine. However, the VAST majority of the global population eats meat. Period. I don't care that you're a vegan, so why do you care that we are meat eaters? This guy is trying to raise animals as humanely as possible (didn't you hear him talk about reducing the stress on the animals?) Fact is: mother nature is not kind, and decent, she is cold and ruthless. Just consider how animals die in the wild... Disease, starvation, cold exposure, heat exposure, automobile impacts (where they lay dying in a ditch for hours to days), predation (where they are literally torn apart alive), etc. I myself would take a bullet in the head over all these alternatives, (and yes I know you like to be the one to pull the trigger). If you think otherwise, name one "nice" way to die at mother natures hand. In the natural world animals don't live long enough (except in captivity) to die in their sleep. Now go find somebody else to mess with.

+ronald stout thanks!

Thank you!

absolutely, would be glad to share what has worked for us.

+noelle ferguson pork is quite delicious and far more pigs GET to live a life as part of our farm then if we didn't raise pigs at all. Life eats life and a vegan lifestyle is responsible for far more animal deaths than a meat eater is. theconversation.com/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-theres-more-animal-blood-on-your-hands-4659

+noelle ferguson you're quite a character. Lol perhaps if you educated yourself on regenerative agriculture I would give you a little bit more standing in this discussion. Unless your children are eating grass my cows aren't competing for one ounce of their food. Know what you're talking about before you make a fool of yourself.

+noelle ferguson LOL.

www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Myth-Food-Justice-Sustainability/dp/1604860804

thank you!

Thanks!

Indeed.

+Richard O'Reilly well the interns got fired and the staff is likely to be quite drunk..we'll see how it goes! ;)

+SirGenius1723 yes, pigs will forage extensively if given the opportunity. I think it's a good thing!

+Aaron Knodel I never have but I'm sure it can be a problem for some. You could try having a secured area they go at night and out on pasture just during the day.

Thanks! We haven't used iron ever. Everything I've heard confirms it's fine to go without when farrowing with available dirt.

FarmBuilder thank you

I'm pretty sure they would and the sows would probably reject them,due to the fact that they have no milk and are possibly bred again.

+patrick cahalan sounds like you have a neat thing going on! Certainly use the design for your own. There will be plans for construction on the future website......(coming soon!)

No. We train to electric fence within a few weeks.

Yes, you probably can do that. There are trailers built with 2 decks.

I've found better results with a later weaning, plus we wean the whole group of piglets at the same time so some are 10 weeks and some are 7. Keeping everything on the same schedule with our sow sets keeps it simple.

Both Laura and I are 100% employed on our farm and have been doing it full time since 2009. A whole farm overview sounds great and I'll try to get something up soon! Thanks for the comments!

Check out the video here that should answer your questions. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qMulmLGFv96cenk.html

+Marvin McNeil that's cold!!!

No issues with pigs but we do have a GP with our broiler chickens to protect them.

+Bj Kane empty. pockets farming boars.

We collect the male piglets up in a bucket or box while mom is eating breakfast and take them outside the paddock a bit away. Once the deed is done we return them to the nest and there is minimal fuss.

They have a free feeder.

We started with Duroc, Hampshire and Yorkshire. 7 years down the trail of a closed herd. My Name is Jordan BTW. :)

$10-$20

I'm sure a sow will eventually wean the pigs but I don't see an advantage. Domestic hogs are bred to have larger litters and supporting a litter for an extended period of time could nutritionally sap the sow. I'd wean by 8-9 weeks max.

+Stephanie Carrico we sell both piglets and finish out hogs for retail cuts.

+Stephanie Carrico we do both. Farm is located in Edinburg, up above Harrisonburg.

Our own. Closed herd that started with duroc, hamps & yorks.

Pigs will eat hay. Give them all the forage they want to eat.

killing pigs is not doing a great job we feed them treat them right give them freedom to roam,we play with them ,then the ugly start ,castration,teeth clipping i even hate going to the dentist imagine how that pig feels ,tail docking,ear cutting ,the rape if female pigs,if a women was raped it will be a big thing.Kidnapping baby pig away from the mother away from good milk to bad milk ,no anesthesia for the baby pigs .All in the name for MONEY or GREED .If a human male was castrated the person will be in jail .an animal life might not mean much to so people ,but they don't deserve the terrible Slaughter that is being done to them,they may not be more important then humans ,but Really .

While many farmers do choose to use some or all of the methods you have listed (particularly in a CAFO), not all do. It is very possible to raise livestock without a single one of those outcomes. There are farmers who choose to raise a herd of pigs including a boar, sows, and naturally bred litters. The piglets can remain with their mothers who wean them as she sees fit. Those young pigs can remain with the mothers for the remainder of their days. The entire herd can be fed on pasture and supplemented with food, water, and shelter. While no living creature "deserves" slaughter, in order for others to survive, some will die. Vegetable and grain crops such as corn, beans, and wheat require the slaughter of millions of wildlife who happened to be in the way as the conventional farmer drives his tractor through his fields when planting, spraying, and harvesting. Given the fact that animals will die, it is best to provide them a safe, healthy life and a respectful, humane death.

Too hot

@@antoinecappelleri185 to hot? He's wearing winter clothes lol

Don't deceive yourself into thinking eating vegan doesn't also result in animal death. There's studies showing it may in fact cause more. Death is as much a part of existence as life. Our aim is to provide the best life we can and grow both crops and animals in ways regenerating the landscape instead of depleting it.

For Jordan: You are saying that not killing results in more killing? I want you to rethink this please. I am not into hating at all nor political siding nor spreading agendas of any kind. My personal mission in life as one individual and as Nicki is to bring awareness about true love to the world we live in and true love means Never killing any animal. True love is when people such as the guys in Canada rescue a piglet from the slaughter house and nurse her back to health and happiness so that she can live her life free from fear and free from horrors. I recommend to you and everybody to take a look at Esther the Wonder Pig from Canada and see for yourselves how amazing it is when we live in peace and harmony with all beings.

I'm saying killing is a part of life on this planet and unavoidable. You speak of never killing an animal and while you may have personally been able to avoid doing so, the very fact that you exist and eat on a daily basis necessitates the killing of animals. I think with some research you actually would find the most animal friendly diet is one of mostly herbivorous animals, fed on pasture without grain or wild harvested. Here's why. Eating an herbivore causes 1 death. The deer, cow or bison. Studies have been done showing that cultivating 1 acre of soil to raise crops (foundation of vegan diet) causes the deaths of up to 300 mammals PER ACRE as their habitat is plowed up, sprayed on and repeatedly driven over. I appreciate your concern for animals. I care greatly for them and the environment as well, thus the methods we use on our farm. But, even Esther the pig's owners are responsible for other animals deaths to provide the feed she consumes. The decision we make is where to embrace death as part of the cycle of life but it shall happen whether we want it to or not. Shifting personal awareness of it to others does not lessen the fact that it happens.

For Jordan: If we all became Herbivores then Nobody would have to be slaughtered anymore. The most animal friendly way of living is veganism because it avoids killing and it avoids the separation of mother and baby cows. If someone did to humans what humans do to animals there would be a riot to the point of civil war.

Also in regards to global warming and eco balance. Tremendous amounts of water are used for each farm animal. Methane gases are released into the atmosphere building up among other gases the greenhouse gas layer that causes the heating effect. A vegan way of living avoids this additional burden on the environment.

+4mbrad Shenandoah County.