Small-Scale Pig Raising

Do you dream of raising a feeder animal but have limited land, time, and money? Dirk van Loon has a solution for you! Covering everything from buying your pig to smoking your own bacon, Small-Scale Pig Raising will show you how to produce the most meat for the smallest investment of time and money.

This volume covers the essentials, including:

• Housing & equipment
• Penning & handling
• Commercial feeds
• Alternative feeds
• Pig digestion & physiology
• Breeding & farrowing
• Management techniques
• Butchering

Small-Scale Pig Raising includes in-depth detail on home butchering with step-by-step instructions and photos that break down the entire process from slaughtering to portioning meat for the freezer. This book covers everything a beginner needs to know.

Dirk van Loon, a graduate of the College of Agriculture at Cornell, publishes Rural Delivery, a monthly magazine for small-scale farmers, and raises food for his table in Nova Scotia.

Readers interested in related titles from Dirk Van Loon will also want to see: Small-Scale Pig Raising Updated 2nd Edition (ISBN: 1626545537 ).

The other day a friend considering raising an animal for meat asked me whether he would be better off getting a calf or a piglet. Without hesitation I said pig.

From this beginning, author Dirk van Loon explains exactly why raising a feeder pig is the best bet for someone with little land who wants to produce the most meat for the smallest investment of time and money. Small-Scale Pig Raising covers everything from buying a pig to smoking your own bacon.

You'll learn about:

* Housing & equipment

* Penning & handling

* Health & nutrition

* Commercial feeds and feeding

* Alternative feeds

* Pig digestion & physiology

* Breeding & farrowing

* Management techniques

* Butchering

Small-Scale Pig Raising is extra good on home butchering, with step-by-step instructions and many photos covering the entire process from slaughtering to portioning meat for the freezer.