Hi..... Evan, thank you for sharing your video homestead 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🎥👍👍👍

The 2nd time I watch this is still funny. Lol. Chestene

Fruit will help when your fruit trees get going, but always take into consideration the size of the area you allow them to run around in vs what a commercial pig would get, they are getting much more exercise with you, which is good for the pigs.

Best info I can add to what's already been said, dairy cattle's bone structure is a significant percentage of their body weight. You're paying for growing bones you can't eat. Doubt the cost savings of a cheaper calf makes up for money lost on the slaughter/cutout end. As with any animal raised w/o their mother, growth is slower than normal & sometimes stunted. Here in the heart of the Texas feedyard country we look for 350-400 pound Hereford/Angus crosses (weanlings) for feeding out/butchering. By weanling size they're grazing, need a few acres of pasture, supplement with grain if grass checks out deficient of minerals and to keep them tame. Right before slaughter confine and pour the grain to 'em. Local extension agent should inform where to get grass evaluated for deficiencies, what/how much trace minerals to apply to your pasture, and when to begin confining the animal with full grain/roughage ration mix to sweeten up (prevent gamey flavor) in the beef. FYI: Recent research reveals that beef tallow (intramuscular and superficial fat) is very beneficial in maintaining a nutritious, healthy diet. We've been brainwashed for decades to buy the super lean ground beef because it's "healthier"? Go figure!?!

My wife and I are going to be Getting our 1st pigs this Spring... And I have been studying how to fatten them up without buying so much feed and what I could grow in a garden...corn and potatoes is the big ones...so the pigs better like them because that's what they are getting...lol...it has helped watching yous guys so much...thanks

1800 lbs of get ~500 lbs of live weight pigs. One thing about homesteading is imagine butchering a 300-600 lbs carcass. Reason for 'hog killing time' to be a community effort. Need a mechanical add to lift & process & to be real frugal & capture everything but the 'squeal' It helps to have folks to break down everything. Mr Zimmern on the travel channel has shown many episodes of hog killing as a community effort. Capturing the blood to make blood sausage, one gentlemen used the fresh cleaned intestines to stuff the scraps and make fresh sausage by hand without any aid. It was so cool. So I guess the take away is find a local homesteading/permies group and help each other harvest the bounty. thanks for sharing

I remember my dad growing rows and rows of cabbage and turnup / rutabaga to feed to the pigs

Hey Evan and Rebecca, That was fun to watch. They are beautiful. There is a nice Christmas ham in in there. Thanks for sharing.🐷🐖😁

I needed a smile and you gave it to me.

Great vlogs, keep em coming

Good video and I love bacon 🥓. I grew up with my grandparents. We had livestock like goats, cows, chickens and pigs etc !!

I used to date a swine specialist. He was a teacher ay a university. He also was a Extension agent. He had clients who called to find out what was the cheapest feed to use that week. I remember a couple of times he suggested pea shells plus pumpkins. He would tell the farmers exactly what to buy. It might be worth while to talk to your extension agent. They might be able to help you cheaply supplement.

Find a friend who drives a bread truck and see if you can buy on the cheap all his day old and molded bread he picks back up from the store shelves also maybe a local grocery store that will let you have the spoiled milk or a milk truck driver who can let you have all the spoiled milk he picks up from the stores feed your pigs out on that :)

Looks like they are doing a good job of clearing the area around that tank !

They sure have done a good job of cleaning up around the fuel tank.

If you wet/ferment the feed 3 days before feeding to the pigs it will have a much higher sugar content thus fattening them for less money.

Plant that old garden spot to beets and turnips , then run your fence to it

Hi there Corn Cobb Have a good day 👍👍👍 Cake

Get out dated milk from gro. Store, it is also something they will like. No onions.

Can you ask friends and neighbours to keep kitchen scraps?you could collect them and boil them up for swill. Or go the Irish way and see if potatoes are cheaper. One thing you learn when you start raising animals is how much it all costs. Food is subsidised in most countries, it's hard to produce cheap food and make a profit, cheap food has an other cost, it makes it possible to over eat cheaply. Lots of vegetables and a little meat is the way to go. I must say, one of my fears of visiting the US is the size of the meal portions served in restaurants. I feel as though I'd be so full, I wouldn't be able to move.

Hi from Germany, I like your videos and I think you are doing a good job. I have run one more time the numbers and I get 3,47. I think it is not bad at all. And one more thing, pigs need an dry place to retreat when it is cold and wet, kind of shelter with dry floor.

Check out the South Poll Cattle breed; very good foraging breed. Tim @ Cliffside Acres

Could you sell one finished pig as meat to pay for some of the feed costs? That would bring your price per pound down and then it would make more sense to raise them every year, since they need to be in pairs at least.

You might look into getting an older calf this fall when lots of farmers start selling them so they dont have to feed them thru winter.

Yup.. Every time I want to put on a few pounds I alway eat raw zucchini...lol

20" slabs of BACON!

Do you have any restaurant near you? You should check and see if they would save scraps you can have.

My daughter raises grass fed beef and lamb. She gives away a lot of her lambs to someone who can feed them.

From what I have read cucumbers require more calories to digest then they contain. I dont know if that also pertains to pigs but would be worth looking into.

You should find a bread store and get their old bread and any snacks they may be throwing away might help some but they are looking good so you should have some good pork on the table in the end 👍👍🐖🐖

That feed to meat ratio is a bit high. You should soak your feed in water (or milk preferably) to ferment it and cause some sprouting. It makes it easier for the pig to digest and adds bulk to the feed. As for other pig food try growing pumpkin, potatoes and carrots. You may need to cook that in slop before you feed but it should reduce the feed bill.

If those bottle calves did not get enough colostrum just after birth by mother or bottle they will die period and they usually need it for 3 to 5 weeks be careful also your best beat is to buy from now till Oct steer calfs and feed them out price will usually be cheaper on a 300 to 400 pound steer calf in the fall raise them till next fall and either sell or slaughter just my opinion. I would stay away from heifers and breed cows unless you don't mind having to pull a calf from time to time. Just my opinion

You need to handle them more... my hogs always used to run up to me wanting to be scratched and rubbed...

Dont remember if pigs eat dry bread but i think they do so I would maybe ask collegues if they can collect some bread and other scraps for pigs they clean up their kitchen you have a feed for pigs and foods not wasted win win

4 to 7 pds a is day is about right i have 3.200 i care for.

If I was to bet. I'd say ,They would weigh closer to what you do !

So girth (or circumference of chest) ^2 x length / 400 = weight? X^2 x Y /400 = W.

40% of the meat is bones and stuff.

Rake up grass cuttings that is what others do.

400 lbs

Estimated weight...a whole lotta bacon

Do pigs like potatoes?

Why not a cow n one pig for next year?

you are far better off buying another 1 ton tote bag of feed, it is 25 to 30% cheaper then buying 50Lb bags as you are paying all that bagging labor, that is how i buy my feed until i built a triler with a hopper on it to hold 2 tons at a time, it stays dry in there out side and i fill pails from the bottom slide door. you have all the area behind you that looks like tail weed, grass and brush, open them up to all that, it is cheap to do, you only need one eletric wire 18 inchs off the ground, all them extra wires you have are a waste, i buy many cross bread dairy calves every year, they are very little work, if you watch my videos i show how to feed them with no bottle and get them drinking 100% on there own, in 1 to 3 days out of a pail. new born calves traval well, just add eletro lights to there milk for a few days, as they will get the shits even on a short move, dariy cross make geat beef, in fact 80% of store bought beef is dariy bulls or bugger from old cul cows all ground up, you can not compare store bought crap to home grown at all, just keep in mind dariy cross take a lot of feed to get them to full out, and kill time is 18 months old,, i do grass feed and one coffee can of crain eacha day, then the last 90 days o pour the grain to them, cant beat it

I wonder if you only raised one pig at a time, could you get the pig, at a higher weight? It would only be a years worth of meat,but you wouldn't have to store so much. You could devote all of your scraps and eggs, to feeding one pig, instead of two,thus a higher weight. Just wondering,as I nothing about pigs,but enjoy learning about homesteading and self sufficiency .

I have tried to raise cows both ways and have found that the bottle calf is a bad idea. They grow slowly and are very fragile ( ie.die easy). The best way to do it is go to auction and buy a weaned angus/ or Hereford calf ..about 300lbs and raise it from there. You won’t save money. On bottle calves in the long run. Like stated in other posts...if u buy a dairy breed , they are more bones than meat.

What ? You dont like veal ?

Your wife works in a hospital ? Can you not Ask for the food scraps from the hospital’s kitchen ?