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Eastern NE KS | I raised pigs while in junior and high school. It was a different time in the '70's. I sold boars to neighbors and feeders to 4-H kids. I raised Chester Whites.
Hit 2 licks with my operation. One spring, I quickly sold out my breeding boars at an average over $300. That's very good when fats were less than $40/cwt, live.
The second was with the 4-H kids. Sold a healthy number of feeders to others, maybe 8-10 head. My county changed their hog classes to be split by weight, not breed. The champion drive was made up of 6 classes with the top 2 pigs from each weight. I counted my pigs and had 6 of the 12 in the drive.
The best part was the pig I was showing failed to win Champion but a gilt I sold as a feeder, did win. Her ear notches were 8-11. At the auction, I bought her back to become a sow. I happily paid the sale premium, registered the gilt and added her to my operation. She became a productive addition.
In those days I made many mistakes, ran about 12 sows which is small but enough to be serious and learned many lessons with the quick turn of pigs that I later applied to cattle.
I think you should go forward with your plans. You may find a niche that is very workable.
Edited by Doug61 3/29/2026 15:45
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Talk me out of raising a few litters of pigs for 4-H/FFA kids