seasonal pigs

 The market for weaner pigs (pigs that are mature and eating solid food, but just off the sow) is seasonal.  I get the best prices for pigs in the spring and early summer, and the price gradually declines until december, and then starts going up again.

That's the market price, that is.  When the price drops below my cost of production I just keep the pigs born, and raise them out.  So these pictures are of my winter pig crop.  Some of them I'll choose as replacement gilts, one I'll choose as a replacement boar, the other hundred or so will become the finished hogs i'll sell in the spring and early summer.

I'm still able to sell everything I produce, so I don't have to worry too  much about having spare hogs that I can't sell; pigs are a popular table fare, and one of these days I might produce enough extra to make it to a farmers market, but not so far.

I keep the pigs in a smaller area for the winter; I want to save the grass and sod for next year; so the ground where they're kept is pretty bare, but we give them a good ration of fruits and veges as part of their normal diet; they're pretty happy to eat their fill and then go burrow into the sawdust to dream of their next meal.