Small-Scale Pig Raising

Back when I had my pet pig, Charlotte, I read through this book cover to cover, and found it immensely helpful. Van Loon doesn't treat pigs as merely something you raise for meat, although he covers the aspects of commercial use. He looks at them as social special animals in their own right. He discusses the wild pigs, the history of the pig, their behavior, and how to raise them with care. There are great pictures of Chinese Pigs and innovative ways to feed and house them. The one drawback is his regrettable refusal to believe in the high intelligence of pigs. We raise them for food, but they are the most intelligent domesticated animals, and generally considered the 3rd most intelligent group of animals (after Primata and Cetacea). But what other book is out there that teaches the language of pigs and the words they use, including how to accurately use the pig mating call, which sounds like the French "Song of Love"- "chant de coeur"? This is a book to make one fall in love with the pig, expressing to them, as I often did to Charlotte, "Chant de coeur".

Today most children and some adults believe pork comes from the grocery store. Van Loon starts with the history of swine to give the reader an understanding of the animal from the ground up. I wasn't sure if I could or wanted to raise pigs, so I bought the book. By the time I finished it I couldn't wait to go get some. Nutrition is so important to raising your own meat, and Van Loon spends a lot of time describing what the impact of certain foods are on the end-product. This helped me make the descisions on what our own pigs would eat. When we took our first pig to the processing plant, they were very impressed by the quality of the meat and we were impressed by the flavor. When we took the second one, it somehow,(150 lbs of pork),was 'mis-placed'- I never got it, hmmm....I think the book was mostly to blame.

This book has a lot of helpful information and illustrations. We had our first litter with the help of this book! I'm sure glad I had it to reference when I needed it. A great investment for anyone starting to raise pigs.