Hi, I just want to share our experience with meishans. Let me start with...I love this breed! We have been breeding and raising meishans for a few years. This breed is soo extremely docile and interactive. We have a 400+ lb boar and contain him with step in posts and 2 strands of polycord. After getting zapped the 1st time he has never tried the fence. He does smell it sometimes to make sure its hot and tells us if it isn't lol. They don't root like most breeds. I saw 1 comment saying they laid around waiting to be feed, but that depends on how much grass they have to graze. Ours get up and graze til it gets hot, then soak in their wallow til supper time. They also love to eat hay...we use hay instead of straw in their houses so they will munch and nap in the evenings. We feed them 18% protein pellets with lysine as well for good muscle growth. Yes, sometimes you do have to wake them up to eat lol. When our sow farrows she wants my daughter to lay there with her and rub her belly til she's finished. Our boar is always so concerned when our sow is farrowing and paces until he gets to see and smell the new babies. We have never had 1 single hog show aggression which I can't say about other breeds I've dealt with. They are a lard hog and grow out slower than commercial hogs. We have tried processing at different ages trying to find the best time. At 15 months their weights have ranges from 378 to 431 with a large fat cap, at 9 months they ranged from 236 to 268 with less of a fat cap. We will be doing the next bunch at 12 months to see how that compares. Check out our Facebook farm page Black Gnat Ridge Farm or our website blackgnatridgefarm.com and feel free to ask any question you may have....I can talk about them all day!
