Final Thoughts on Backyard Farming Raising Pigs by Kim Pezza
This is the last post in the series, and I want to end with something personal. Not my story. Kim Pezza’s.
Throughout the book, Kim weaves in bits and pieces of her own experience. But the closing section is where she really opens up about her life with pigs. And it is the best part of the whole book.
Kim’s Story
Of all the animals Kim raised on her farm, pigs gave her the most enjoyment. She says it clearly, and you can feel it in the writing.
She started with a Yorkshire mix breeding pair. Got them at four months old. From day one, she treated them as pets. She spent time with them daily, touched them everywhere, got them comfortable with human contact. She brought friends and relatives over to socialize the pigs with different people. That early investment paid off in a big way.
Here is where it gets interesting. The experts told her to keep the boar separate from the sow and piglets. The standard advice is that a boar will kill the piglets. Kim did not listen. She kept the boar and sow together the entire time.
And the boar loved the piglets. He would sleep with them piled on top of him. When a new piglet was born, he would go over and “greet” it. This was not a dangerous, aggressive animal. This was a pig that had been raised with trust and respect from the start.
She practiced natural weaning, letting the sow decide when to cut the piglets off. Self-weaning happened around six to seven weeks, and it worked every single time. No forced separations. No stress.
When it came time for piglet pickup, the process was simple. She would sit in the straw, lure a piglet into a carrier with a treat, and that was it. No chasing. No screaming. Just calm, easy transfers. That only happens when the animals trust the person handling them.
The experts also told her that chickens near pigs would get killed. Nope. Her chickens ate right alongside the pigs, no problems. One customer who bought a boar from her told her it was the first boar he had ever been able to trust. That says everything about how she raised her animals.
Her sow, Suzie, had her own way of controlling the breeding schedule. When Suzie was not interested in the boar, she would back herself into a corner and refuse him. Simple as that. Kim got about one litter per year, usually in late spring or early summer. No forced breeding schedules. The sow decided.
What I Think About This Book
I have been through this entire book over the course of this series, and I can say it is genuinely good. Here is why.
It is written by someone who actually did this. Kim is not an academic who studied pig farming from a distance. She raised pigs. She bred them, fed them, lost some, slaughtered some, and kept some as pets. That experience shows on every page.
It covers everything from start to finish. History, breeds, housing, feeding, health, breeding, slaughter, pet pigs, recipes. If you are starting from zero knowledge, this book will get you to a place where you understand what raising pigs actually involves.
The personal experience makes it real. A lot of farming books read like textbooks. This one does not. Kim shares what she did, what worked, what did not, and what the experts got wrong. That kind of honesty is hard to find.
She does not sugarcoat the hard parts. Slaughter is emotional. Losing an animal hurts. Things go wrong. Kim does not pretend otherwise. She talks about these moments with the kind of straightforward honesty that respects the reader enough to tell the truth.
It is practical and no-nonsense. You will not find philosophical debates about farming ethics or pages of unnecessary background. Kim gives you what you need to know, tells you why, and moves on.
If you are thinking about raising pigs on your backyard farm, or even just curious about what it involves, this book is worth your time. It is short, practical, and written by someone who clearly walked the walk.
That wraps up this series. Thanks for reading along.
Book: Backyard Farming: Raising Pigs Author: Kim Pezza ISBN: 978-1-57826-621-0 Publisher: Hatherleigh Press, 2016