Wintering pigs

What added measures do you take to keep pigs over the winter?

Only thing I do is add woodchips to the pen to keep it from becoming a swamp with the winter rains and make sure to break the ice on their water if it freezes. Otherwise they seem to do just fine, however it doesn't get as cold here as it does up your way.  We have added leaves for bedding this year and the pig seems to like burrowing into them.  I see a lot of people use straw.

Hi John;
Well I choose not to over winter piggys.
I have no interest in breeding nor in having slow growing heritage pig's.

This depends somewhat on which breed you decide to grow. Some "mangalista's " come to mind.
They thrive outside all winter in deep snow. They even have babies in the snow!
If you want to try it then you'll need the basics.
A dry covered building protected from wind.
Keep clean fresh water thawed for them.
Stock up on grain for the winter months.

If you are new to piggy's I suggest a year or two of just buying wieners and raising them to slaughter in the fall.
This will give you time to get a proper setup going.

This is my first attempt to keep pigs over winter. They are Kunekune, so they should be pretty winter hardy.  I have a shelter for them ...all 3... of about 48 sq ft.  ...4 ft high.  The open side has a shower curtain with slits. Of course, there is lots of straw. In my area, below zero temps are rare. Though, every few years we see 10 below. Once. In the past 30 years, it approached 20 below.

Hi Tom,

In MN I bought feeder pigs in the early spring and butchered in the fall. The cost and other challenges of keeping them over winter wasn't worth it.  These pigs are not intended for market, thoughts off spring may be.  Regristered Kunekune begin at $500 a pop.  Why did I go this direction?  It was a combination of me having a great year and the encouragement of my loving wife.

My first year with pigs, the earliest butcher date available, booked the day the piglets were born, was mid December. (I should make a thread to rant about the fucked up government-enforced monopoly slaughterhouse regulations in BC... another day..)


I built a three sided shelter, dirt-floored shelter for the hot months, boarded up the open(long) side when it got cold, and put down a bunch of straw. The reading I had done agreed that this was OK...


It was not OK here, they got pneumonia, too close to butcher date for drugs. I was fortunate that I was spending enough time observing them to catch it early, and that a more experienced friend could promptly diagnose the symptoms.

I moved them into a cement floored barn, with a nest area floored with pallets and provided with additional draft-blocking plywood. That plus garlic, sage, and electrolytes let them recover PDQ without any drugs to screw up my meat.. but it was definitely not a fun experience!

The issue seems to be that it is cold but also damned wet here, and I needed to have them off the ground, not just well bedded with straw...


I now put down a floor in their shelter in October, to be safe. I butchered a couple weeks ago this time, so can't say whether that would have gotten me all the way through...

So, does your shelter have a floor?


I would imagine things are less soggy and more cold there, so maybe easier on the animals?

My shelter has a dirt floor....with lots of straw.  

It takes 3 fully decked pallets to make a floor in my shelter... I sure felt like a fool for not doing it as a precaution the first time round. Probly quite apparent that my vote is for flooring, better safe than sorry!