Mr. Premise said:
Great information! If you don't mind my asking, what region do you live in? What's the terrain like? How many acres do you have? What types of structures do you use for the animals? What are the costs for fencing, structures, etc.?
We're looking at selling our house (3/4 acre) and buying a place with more acres, something in the 5-25 acre range. We already have chickens, so the idea would be to start with chickens, pigs, and tobacco. Start slow, maybe just get weaned piglets to raise for meat before doing any breeding. If we can find a place with a barn with stalls, and some pastured paddocks, we'd like to offer rough boarding for other people's horses to bring in some income.
Of course - ask away - I'm happy to talk to whatever I/we have learned. We're in mid-south Tenn. We started with 39 acres, added 12 at the back from a neighbor, then I bought 25 acres across the street so that we could run our Red Devon cattle across the street to more pasture. I carved off about 5 of these acres and designed/built an underground home. So we ended up with about 70 acres in rolling hills with about 60:40 pasture to woods.
If you plan to do pigs, I would lean to the higher acreage range if possible because you want to move them regularly to new ground. We're finding that pigs are probably a better choice for this area vs cattle. The higher rainfall rates do not support good soil for the best range grasses (for cattle). But it does support the growth of all kinds of things for the pigs (including grass). The young pigs will eat grass until their turds are green - given the chance. (I was amazed when I first saw this.)
One of the first things you want to look for in a property is water distribution and perimeter fence - and if they don't have them, then budget them in. The advantage of doing the perimeter fence yourself is that you can use high tensile wire and make 1 or 2 lines hot so if the pigs get out of their paddock, they are not likely to leave the farm (this can be a major plus!). If your entire perimeter is hot, then you can set up paddocks anywhere easily by drawing off a hot line from the perimeter fence - that way you do not have to drag around fence boxes/batteries/etc.
If the existing fencing is just barbed wire, then you can run a single hot high tensile around using the same fence posts.
Chances are that water distribution is lacking or not where you need it. You will need to design this based on your animal plan. We can pump from a well at low elevation or gravity feed from water catchment at the top of a hill where the farm house sits - all using the same water lines. I highly recommend that you use pex tubing instead of pvc for the lines.
All the while, its good to think about what you can/will do if you are without power for an extended period.
Generally you can figure double the cost of material for fencing if you use local labor (not a fence co). Sink wood posts in a bag of concrete at the corners (and cross brace) and run metal T-posts in between. You can ask around locally for folks that know fencing and need some work.
You will need farrowing huts for sows - newborns are very sensitive to cold. The other pigs will certainly take to shelter if you provide it but this can be as simple as a tarp. The huts need to be more substantial. You can buy these or design your own. I designed an 8X8 wood frame with pvc hoops and sheet metal roof draped over the pvc. It can be dragged around or lifted by 2-3 people. All this needs to be modulated by your climate. A lot of folks will bring a pregnant sow to a barn stall before birthing - at a minimum though, you need to isolate the sow from the other pigs.
A barn with the property is always useful! For example, when introducing new animals it is always nice to have a comfortable place to quarantine them before introduction to others.
To start with pigs, I would recommend getting a registered breeding pair so that you can generate both meat pigs and registered offspring. Later you can get another breeding pair and improve the genetics of your herd.
Be careful with the horse boarding idea. Taking proper care can be a royal pain.
Pigs, chickens, and tobacco sounds like an excellent combo to me!!
