Another person in zone 3! We had pigs for the first time last lear and it was a good experience. We used large rubber dishes for feed and water last year and it worked pretty well. We have dairy goats and often had excess milk/milk products that we mixed with the feed and grain that we used. The dishes worked well for that, but this year I am going to get a pig nipple to supply constant water to the critters. Our Spring starts out chilly and the little pigs need shelter and warmth until they gain a little weight, but they thrived in the environment we provided--a fairly large wooded pasture enclosed with fence panels. We started ours out in a small pen with a "house" where we could put a lamp on them on cold nights, but slowly enlarged their space until they had the entire pasture by late June.

I agree that the rubber bowls work best for feed...... we have 6 piggies.... they have an enclosed stall in our pole barn and access to pasture as well.... using a bowl, it seemed that we could never keep enough water for them ....spilling etc, I am sure added to the chore... we bought a child's wading pool for water, and yes, they do use it for bathing as well, lol..... but they love it and it lasted the whole season to spite the constant use.... good luck with your pig.....I love them, mine come to their name and rub on my legs like a cat, lol....

thanks for the info. Doninalaksa, did you have good luck with using panels? that is currently my plan unless someone talks me out of it. did you bury them or have problems with pigs digging under it? how big of a pasture? i have a trout stream just below the house and i was thinking of pumping water up into a holding tank, then putting hoses from that down to the pig waterer as well as the chicken waterers, just trying to cut down on my chores.

i have been debating between using electric fence netting and panels. i like the idea of being able to move the fence around and rotate pasture areas. has anyone tried electric fence netting with pigs? what are the pros and cons?

We also had 2 pigs and used the rubber bowls. We used one for water and two others for feed because we had an alpha sister who wouldn't allow her sibling to eat. Even at that she would eat all the choicest things from her bowl then muscle her sister out of hers to eat her treats, LOL. Lori

We had good luck using panels. I had electric fencing to use as a backup, but didn't need it. We used the panels and placed logs at the base on the inside. When they tried to dig (which wasn't often), the logs would fall on them and discourage them. It worked quite well, but we had a fairly large enclosure and moved it occasionally to give them fresh soil to root in.

A nipple is far and away the easiest choice once you get done setting it up. Is is also about the only way to insure a constant supply since pigs will destroy just about anything else that you put in the pen.
A word of caution: Don't set up your nipple with pvc pipe or you'll be replacing the plumbing every few days. Everything that can be torqued or twisted by the pig needs to be in steel pipe.

Make your own waterer with a big piece of PVC pipe (8-10) inches. Put a cap on one end and drill a whole slightly smaller than the threads of the nipple.

Screw the nipple on big pipe and you have an instant automatic water. Just fill it up and you don't have to worry. It will hold enough for a day or two.

Be careful not to break the nipple out our you will have to figure out a way to patch the whole and replace your nipple.

I have put this set up in a pen or on the outside of a pen. I cut a small hole in the panel so the pig can get to the water.

Just an Idea.

Jay

The first time I raised pigs, oh so many years ago, I didn't have a water source as close as I wished. I obtained an empty barrel from a local bread baker that had contained honey. I placed the barrel on its side on a rough wooden rack outside the pen. I plumbed a pipe long enough to reach into the pen (maybe 8 inches) with a pig nipple on the end. I filled the barrel with water and had no problem whatsoever with the pigs using it. They did love that honey flavored water!

Now we attach a sturdy garden hose to a 10 ft. long pipe with a pig nipple attached to a short pipe at the opposite end. We wire the pipe horizontally to the outside of the pig panel fence at a level where it's easy for the babies to reach for a drink. As the pigs grow, we raise the pipe up out of the way so they can drink but not wreck the entire setup. What I would like to try is the 100 gallon tank they sell with pig water access down low. Has anyone here tried one of those?

We have nearly always had a self feeder. It was an investment, but well worth it. Our current feeder is a four lid feeder that we bought new. When I lived in MT and raised pigs, I bought a great, sturdy 6 lid feeder at a farm auction. Although our pigs get all the garden leavings, we feed primarily ground barley mixed with a soy supplement. Pigs fed exclusively on barley give you meat that nearly has the texture of beef. None of that soft stuff like you find in the stores! It was a butcher at a meat processing plant who taught me to feed ground barley.

My grandmother, on the other hand, taught me to make sour mash for my pigs. Boy, do they grow quickly on that! And stay mellow, too! LOL In MT we had a nearby dairy that gave us colostrum milk free for the pickup. And, also milk that had antibiotics in it from cows that had been treated. Those were the days when we didn't worry so much about antibiotics in our food. I did make sure the pigs didn't get any of the antibiotic milk the last few weeks before they were processed. Here, we did have a cow I could steal milk from, so I made mash with that. When the cow wasn't fresh, I simply made what mash I could from milk I had in my frig that was getting too old for us to want to drink it. Simply mix milk with their dry feed in 5 gal. buckets, put a lid on them, and let them sit for a few days. You'll know by the smell when it's ready to feed.

We also use rubber tubs for supplemental liquid feed. Be forewarned they will climb in and out of the tubs and often tip them and spill the contents. I have seen pictures of tubs set inside of tires, but don't know if that helps.

Yes, pigs will sometimes dig out under their panels, but don't go far, as they know where to find food and water - that's inside the pen! I have always found that they tend to dig out less and less the older and bigger they get. It's the busy little ones we have to corral sometimes.