Pigs

Establishing pigs

When setting up your pig herd, decide whether you want to buy in piglets to raise or breed them as well. You should then consider how you want to rear them — indoors, on pasture, or bred outdoors only. Read more about pig rearing systems on RSPCA.

Site selection 

When selecting a site for keeping pigs, consider how many pigs you want to keep and whether you will provide them an outdoor pasture. 

Organic pigs must have access to outdoor pasture at all reasonable times – so not when the weather is truly awful or the soil is going to be seriously damaged.  This means you have to design your fencing, mobile housing and management to allow this – including for example keeping young gilts and boars separate despite their desire to be together.

You should also think about logistics such as proximity to an abattoir.

You are legally required to ensure that your pigs have a suitable environment, meaning that it must be your herd must have:

• Enough space for all pigs to lay down, turn around, and see each other
• Adequate shelter with a comfortable temperature (see ’Housing & fencing’).
• A sufficient diet (see ’Feeding & watering pigs’).

There are legal requirements for the minimum amount of space pigs must have. The space needed increases as pigs gain weight, and is more for pregnant sows and those with unweaned piglets. You should plan the space needed according to how many pigs you plan to raise to what weight, including whether you will breed piglets. 

Find the minimum space requirements in the pig welfare guide.

Restrictions on keeping pigs

Before committing to a site, consider whether it is large enough to keep pigs without disturbing neighbours. Due to their size and welfare needs, pigs are not suitable to keep in most urban environments. 

• Your property: Check the deeds of your property for any restrictive covenants that may prohibit the keeping of livestock.
• Rented property: Check if your contract allows keeping livestock.

Land for pigs

Consider whether the land you have is suitable for rearing pigs outdoors. Pigs cause quite a bit of disturbance to the land they are on: they will forage for food, digging up the ground and upturning plants. They also create wallows with water to cool down. 

Suitable land for keeping pigs will have:

• Ideally, a well-draining soil
• Enough space to rotate pasture or allow for areas to be fenced off and rested 
• Shade, pigs are naturally woodland animals and trees are an ideal shade for them
• Good access to water for pigs to drink and create wallows. 

Guidance for stocking rates — how many animals you should keep on a hectare —  can be found in the Soil Association guide for small-scale pig keeping. For reference, the RSPCA standard is max. 30 adult pigs per hectare.

Keeping pigs outdoors requires robust fencing to prevent them from escaping, and you should check it daily for any repairs. You should also make a pasture-management plan for how to prevent soil compaction, poaching, and manure build-up from your pigs. 

Resources:

• ’Good Soil Management Practice’ for pig keeping, AHDB
• Improving Soil Stability and Sustainability Under Pigs, Cranswick 
• Outdoor Pig Unit Sustainable Management, Water Sensitive Farming Initiative
• ’Land and fencing for pigs’, Accidental Smallholder
• ’Raising pigs on pasture’, Small-scale pig farmer (Canadian site)

Housing for pigs 

Whether you plan to rear pigs indoors or outdoors, you must provide your pigs shelter.

For outdoors, there are many options for pig arks but building a new barn for pigs may require planning permission (see ’Permissions’). You may find it easier to look for a site that has a structure that can be converted to house pigs. 

Key requirements for pig housing include:

• Easy access to inspect the pigs and clean the space at any time.
• Materials are safe to come in contact with pigs, have no sharp edges that can cause injury and can be thoroughly cleaned.
• Protection from draughts and heat and cold stress.
• Good ventilation and sufficient light. 
• Excludes vermin and predators, and prevents parasite infestations.
• A comfortable nesting area, straw is typically used as a bedding. 
• Smooth but not slippery floors.

You must provide pigs continuous access to some sort of material that they can investigate and play with. It must be edible, chewable, investigable and pigs need to be able to manipulate it. 

This requirement is automatically fulfilled for outdoor pigs, but pigs indoors will need to be given sufficient amounts of straw, hay etc. Lack of this significantly increases the risk of your pigs developing behavioural issues like tail biting (see ’Tail biting’). 

Read more:

• ’Pig housing’, Accidental Smallholder
• ’Housing and shelter’, Small-scale pig farming (Canadian site)

Permissions

Setting up infrastructure for pigs may require different permissions, depending on the size of your herd and how they are housed. 

Planning permissions

You do not need a planning permission if the pig housing or fence complies with the permitted development rights for the property, which are regulated by your local planning authority. 

• Pig housing less than 465m² in size and under 12 meters in height is usually allowed within permitted development rights, unless your holding is less than 0.4 hectares.
• Fencing higher than 2 metres, or higher than 1 metre within 20 metres of a road, will need a planning permission.
• If your land has any semi-natural areas or uncultivated land, you cannot modify these without first asking your local planning authority whether an Environmental Impact Assessment is needed.

Check permitted development rights for private dwellings and agricultural operations in Schedule 1 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992. Additional restrictions may apply near listed buildings and in areas of conservation designation. 

Before building housing or fencing, it is advisable to confirm permissions with your local planning authority.

Find out more: 

• ’Farm Buildings and Infrastructure: How to Comply with Current Legislation’, Farm Advisory Service

Water

If you take water for your pigs from natural sources, such as a river or groundwater, you might need to register or get a permission from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). 

• For taking 10m³-50m³ water per day, you need to register with SEPA which is free.
• For taking above 50m³ water per day, you need a Controlled Activities Regulations (CAR) licence which has a fee. 

You can register or apply for a water licence on SEPA’s website, which also has guidance available.

Helpful resources for understanding and planning your farm/croft water requirements:

• DIY full water audit pack, AHDB
• ‘Water supply problems? A guide for livestock farms’, AHDB
• Table of water needed for livestock, Environment Agency

Pig herd

When planning your pig herd, think about whether you want to breed piglets or not, and how much space you have. 

Many pig producers buy in weaners (piglets weaned from the sow, usually 8 days to 10 weeks old) in the spring to raise to slaughter weight during the summer. If you want to keep pigs throughout the year and breed piglets, you may also need to purchase a boar (see ’Breeding pigs’). 

Pigs are social animals, and you should buy at least two so they can keep each other company. If you have more than one group of pigs, you must not mix them after establishing the herds. 

Breed selection

When choosing your pig breeds, you should consider their differences in character, hardiness, meat quality as well as behaviour. For example, pig breeds that are eager diggers can be used to also manage land. To safeguard animal welfare, you must consider what kind of pigs can do well at your farm/croft.

There are currently 11 surviving pig breeds native to the United Kingdom.

The British Pig Association keeps pedigree registers for many pig breeds and there are individual societies maintaining registers for other breeds.

Find out more about breed selection:

• ’Choosing your pigs’, the Accidental Smallholder
• ’Pig breeds’, Small-scale pig farming (Canadian site)

Purchasing pigs

You can purchase pigs directly from an established breeder or at an auction market (a mart).  The Farm Advisory Service has a guide to buying livestock at the mart. 

When buying pigs, you need to keep receipt of the sale and fill in a pig movement record (see ‘Moving pigs’). You should also ask for health documentation, such as vaccination records.

You should always do a health check and quarantine any new pigs for approximately four weeks before mixing them with your existing herd to prevent spreading disease (see ‘Maintaining herd health’). See also ’Pig movement restrictions’. 

Read more:

• ’Buying pigs’, Accidental Smallholder
• ’Buyers guides’, British Pig Association