SARE 1997 Highlights

Pasturing Hogs Increases Farming Opportunities

Workers lure hogs into a fresh pasture using supplemental feed that also boosts nutrition. Photo by Arnold E. Smith

Raising hogs outdoors could be a profitable sideline for beginning or limited-resource farmers. Pasture based systems provide high-quality pork products at one-twelfth to one-half the startup costs of total-confinement systems, Midwestern studies have shown. A collaborative, SARE-funded project is developing and encouraging low-capital swine production systems suitable for the Mississippi Delta. Vegetable growers and other specialty crop producers could diversify and increase year-round employment by raising hogs, project leaders note. Farmers will demonstrate two different designs for easy-to-assemble farrowing huts at three sites in Arkansas this year. Made of plywood or insulated plywood and sheet metal, the portable huts, along with inexpensive fencing, allow farmers to scale operations to meet market demand. Farmer-trainers at the demo sites will help potential pork producers learn more about breed selection, husbandry, ration-balancing with alternative feeds, record keeping, pasture and manure management and other skills. Project sponsors will help with financing. Cooperative marketing could lower processing costs while positioning the pork for health conscious consumers here and abroad. Fact sheets, field days, a video tape about building farrowing huts, public television programming and other networking will expand and promote the program. (Southern Region project IS95-67.)

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