Runtlets

[Lil Chickie Mama]

I have zero experience with pigs, but I am always on the lookout for a new critter to take home. We farm rice but I am slowly converting the hubbs to animals, tee hee hee. Anyway, another rice farmer friend of ours raises pigs for the fair and for meat. I don't know if he breeds them or just buys new ones each year but I'm sure I could find someone around here who does have piglets. ANYWAY....so if I find a breeder, what are the chances that I could buy runts for cheaper? Are runts likely to survive if spoiled (inevitable here)? What approx do piglets usually go for? How long from birth to butcher? I'll have more questions later, but I figured I shouldn't irritate you experts too soon. TIA for replies!

 

[username taken]

we always raise the runts on bottles ... they do just as well, and a lot of the time better, than their bigger at birth littermates

 

[rittert3]

I had a freind that kept a runt boar that never put on any weight he just got tall and slender. He may have been a fluke I don't know. He never tryed to breed their 6 sows when the 600lb breeding boar would knock down the fence. I also don't know a whole lot about hogs but the two boars lived to gather when the breeding boar was off the sows and they also lived with an old, grouchy, fat pot bellied boar. I would think that they would fight but again I don't know a whole lot about hogs.

 

[lupinfarm]

Really depends on cost, out here you can get a Berkshire cross weanling for $50 to $75