American Guinea Hogs: what they are, pros and cons, and why we love them

American Guinea Hogs: what they are, pros and cons, and why we love them.

American guinea hogs are some of our favorite animals on our homestead. If you are new to farming, I highly recommend giving American guinea hogs a try.

Raising American guinea hogs fell into our laps. We live in a unique place that is surrounded by the Navajo reservation and the high desert of Cibola National Forest. Besides the forest and the plains, there is little else. It’s not really farm country, but some people raise sheep or pigs on the reservation, and some ranchers lease the National Forest land to raise their beef cattle. There are slim pickings on what sort of farm animals you can buy in any direction. So, when Ben found American Guinea hogs for sale on facebook marketplace for $80 each, we jumped on it.

We didn’t have a place to put them, but we had a dog crate. The nights are cold almost year-round on top of our mountain. So we carry the dog crate into the house at night, and pull it out in the morning. This first batch of piglets was one of many batches of animals we have kept in the house since.

The most memorable part of having animals in the house is how heavy they get over time. We don’t want to keep the animals inside 24/7 because it’s unsanitary and smelly. So, they only get to be inside for the hours that are too cold outside. This makes for a lot of hauling the crate back and forth. As they grow, something that wasn’t really a chore becomes a real pain in the neck. Also, pigs are not the ideal house animal, inspiring us to get them out of our house as soon as possible.

How we learned the virtues of American guinea hogs

As they grew, I avoided getting into the pigpen. I was nervous near the pigs, and wasn’t sure what they would do to me if I walked among them, not to mention I’m always wearing a baby or toddler on my back, and it wasn’t worth the risk.

Over time, we decided to try rotational grazing the pigs, thanks to inspiration from our friends the Dougherty’s. Ben bought the fence materials but was in the middle of a hectic work season. So we decided I should try to figure it out. I went out while the baby was napping and to my surprise, they were so tame around me. I set up the fence quite easily inside their existing pen to train them to the hot wire, and they learned immediately.

The next day, I set up a fence right outside their pen, and the day after that I tried a little further. Soon, they had learned the routine. A new fence meant food, and they happily complied.

This was like night and day compared to when I was a kid and a pig would get out. It would become a disaster, everyone chasing large, 300-pound loose cannons. They could trample or attack children or people who fell over, making them dangerous and difficult.

It was so exciting to realize that our hogs were so tame, and soon I had enough confidence in the pigs to let the kids come out and help me move them. I would even take down the fence and let the pigs run loose around the children while I set it up in the next spot. They would scamper around for a bit, enjoying their freedom and not bothering anyone, and then come right back when I had finished the fence and called them.

We have had extremely positive experiences with our American guinea hogs, selling us on them as our go-to breed.

We have a sort of unique situation with our hogs. We have been able to get free food from a local school, which feeds the pigs throughout the school year. Our milk cow also gives us an abundance of milk. All the whey from cheese making and old milk becomes pig food. We try to buy the piglets in the late spring when the demand for food is very small. Then we butcher whenever we run out of food, or when the pigs seem big enough. All in all, everything about them has been surprisingly easy, from castration to everyday maintenance to butchering.

What are American guinea hogs?

American guinea hogs are an endangered heritage breed of pig that were derived from the extinct English Essex pig. They were bred into existence by Appalachian farmers, making them an authentic American breed.

American guinea hogs are known for their friendliness and lack of aggression with people and animals. For instance, most pigs will kill a chicken if it gets into their pen, but American guinea hogs can be raised with chickens.

Pros to raising American guinea hogs:

They are small and tame.

This is really what gives them the gold star in my book. If I were to get full-sized pigs, I would worry about the kids. I would worry about the number of pounds of meat we would lose if we lost one of them. I would also worry about how much more I would need to feed them. My goal is to avoid dependence on Tractor Supply Company as much as possible.

Another reason their size is a pro is that they are incredibly easy for us to castrate ourselves. I’ll have to do a separate post about that.

They are an authentic heritage breed.

There is a trend right now that people have really embraced to value A2 cow’s milk over standard cow’s milk. It can be sold for more just by being certified A2A2. I actually think this trend is a good thing, because it raises awareness in people’s minds to authentic and heritage forms of animal husbandry.

Lots of people who can’t digest milk from cows that are not A2A2 are able to digest milk from those particular cows. This is probably because the cows were bred for higher production rates. Something about this process to make cows more productive messed with the protein in their milk. One of my favorite authors and doctors, the creator of the GAPS protocol, Natasha Campbell McBride, calls these cows monster cows. She blames them for people’s very recent and widespread intolerances to dairy.

I don’t know much about pig breeds, but I like that our American guinea hogs are a heritage breed because that means that they haven’t been messed with. They are the original form of pig, and that’s got to be better for you.

They are lard pigs.

This could be a pro for some and a con for others. Heritage breed pigs have more fat on their bodies. American guinea hogs fall under the category of lard pig. This means their fat is ideal for making delicious lard, and the meat tastes exceptionally good. If you want to know more about lard, or what lard pigs are, check out my post on lard.

This is both a pro and con for us. It’s so great to have a good, healthy source for cooking fat, but I make my own butter as well, so it’s not as priceless as it was in our pre-cow days. In some ways it would be nicer to have more meat. However, in reality, it’s all food. It’s all a resource, and we are grateful for anything we can grow ourselves.

They are very smart and easy to train.

Recently, we took a long break from rotational grazing our pigs. The snow was too deep last winter for the electric fencing to work properly. Come spring, we had our doubts as to whether rotational grazing pigs had any benefit to the land at all. I’ll do a separate post about that.

In mid July, after we had our friends the Dougherty’s come to visit, we decided it was worthwhile after all. So now we are back at it. When I went to put them into their electric pen the first time, they remembered the routine perfectly. They knew what the fence was and avoided it, and when I called them, they came running happily to the pen for their food. They had been in the permanent (non-electric) pen for 8 months, and yet remembered the entire routine! I was amazed.

A quick note on fencing supplies:

I will make a separate post about what we have learned rotational grazing, but for now I want to mention that we always buy our fencing supplies from Premier 1. They are the best quality and the Dougherty’s recommended them. The fence charger pictured above was the first one we got, and we have since learned that this charger is much better suited to our rocky terrain.

A quick note on feeding pigs:

Check out my post on chicken feed for some quick tips on how to source scraps.

Cons of raising American guinea hogs

I think all of the things we consider to be pros could also be considered cons. Depending on your situation and individual farm setup, a conventional pig may make more sense.

American guinea hogs are very small.

We don’t mind this, but it can become frustrating sometimes when you put months of blood, sweat, and tears into growing some amazing high-quality meat, only to realize it doesn’t last that long, and the cuts are too small to make much use out of for various things.

For instance, we realized that it’s just not worth the work to make bacon, or to cure the ham. They are just too small and fatty. I recently divided up the pork belly to make lard and to cover a roast with fat. It was so sad to see how little meat was between the layers of lard.

The best thing to do with most of the pork is to grind it into sausage. However, that is really labor intensive, and last time we butchered, I never got around to it. I have been baking our sausage meat into pulled pork because it’s just easier. But man, is it great to have a freezer full of sausage that is ready to be fried up instantly!

Guinea hogs are slow to grow.

Most conventional breeds of pigs are fast to grow and easy to feed. In fact, I know people who will make a mathematical calculation out of growing pigs. They will know how long it will take to feed their pigs X pounds of food for X weeks, yielding X pounds of meat. It’s very simple. Also, most conventional pigs can get to butcher weight in six months, while American guinea hogs take 18 months to 2 years.

This is not a con for our family. For one thing, Ben and I don’t operate like that. Our goal is to create a zero-inputs farm. That means that we hope to be as self-sufficient as possible. Making any of our animals into a mathematical equation of input-to-profit would go against our goal. We want our animals to act in a symbiotic relationship with one another, that creates as little input as possible.

Another reason this is not a con for us is that we have free food to give them most of the year. We also think of pigs the old-fashioned way, namely, excess food storage containers. (Read more about the old-fashioned farmer’s view on pigs in my lard post.)

However, if you are trying to grow a pig for meat, and have no way to feed them other than buying feed yourself, then I think conventional pigs may be the way to go. I think in the long run, they would cost much less per pound of meat to feed and raise to butcher weight.

It’s easy to get too much lard and too little meat.

This is really annoying. This is the same problem that people who raise meat chickens have. They have to regulate food consumption of their chickens so that they don’t get so obese their organs fail before they get to butcher weight. (This is one of many reasons why I think meat chickens are the grossest creatures genetically modified for meat).

The first time we raised American guinea hogs, we had an abundance of food from the local school, and we didn’t really know how much to feed them. They would squeal for food no matter how much we fed them. So we ended up feeding five half-grown mini pigs a full trashcan of scraps each day.

We thought this was fine, because the majority of the food scraps were vegetables, and everything that the school makes is organic. However, when it came time to butcher them, there was so much fat! I think it was about 30% of the weight of the pigs.

Why we love them in spite of the cons:

American guinea hogs fit into our goals.

We want to raise animals that add value to the land. But with our crazy lives with lots of little kids and no help, animals that fit seamlessly and easily into our lives are the priority. For instance, the type of forage that we have on our property would be great for a ruminant like a sheep or a goat, and probably less ideal for a cow. But our cow is easy to move, easy to milk, and tame enough to worry less about than we would goats.

For us, the cons aren’t really cons.

For us, it’s not a problem that they are small. Our family isn’t huge, and while it’s a little more complicated to prepare meat that isn’t traditionally sized, it’s still very worthwhile to us to raise our own animals for almost free that add value to our land.

The same goes for how long it takes for them to get to butcher weight. We have found a way to create as little inputs as possible for the pigs, which lowers the burden of the food costs exponentially. So, it doesn’t really matter to us how long it takes to raise the pigs. Especially because we think of them as our excess food storage containers.

Why mess with what’s working?

American guinea hogs fit so well into our family life and general goals. If a problem with them arises, then that will be the time to consider a different breed or animal. But for now, they are great, and we are grateful.