Blog – Northern Homesteading

Breed Origin The Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig refers mainly to a North American selection of landrace Asian Heritage Hogs imported from Vietnam between the 1960s and 1980s. There are two primary imports and roughly five lesser-common, though not rare, imported herd genetics. In Vietnam, there are five primary identifiable breeds of this landrace, dwarf, domestic Asian hog. The imports came out of various crosses of these, and the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig we know today is any mix of those imported genetics. Once rare, exotic, and expensive, the breed has now become fairly commonplace in the US and is often the cheapest breed of pig to acquire. Breed Basics The Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig is a random selection out of the Dwarf pig group now being known as Asian Heritage Hogs. They are quite similar to the common Kunekune pigs in size, color, and appearance as they share some common breed genetics. The Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig is small, usually maxing out between 150 and 200 pounds as adults at the age of 6. They have a characteristic squatty, round appearance. The breed has short-for-the-body legs, a round sagging belly, a relatively short and flat snout, and sows often develop a pronounced swayback. They are often more muscular toward the front, with the neck being one of their strongest and largest muscles. Boars develop a c very pronounced bristle ridgeline down the top of their back and grow formidable tusks which are visible at around 3 years of age. Purebred Pot-Bellied Pigs will never have a curly tail. They are most commonly solid black. The second most common color variation is mostly black with white patches. Solid white and mostly white isn’t rare but t less common. Upon rare occasion, brown and reddish-brown can show up in purebreds but it’s more likely when crossed with Kunekune pigs and often taken as a sign of such crossing in the genetics. Potbellies grow to around 55 pounds by 6 months and yield 50 percent of live weight as table-fare. They are a lard breed and naturally have 25 percent or so body fat when mature. Butcher Age It’s recommended that Potbellies have a butcher age of 6-months and a butcher weight of 50-60 pounds. For the breed, that’s a good balance between muscle development, fat percentage, and feed efficiency. Older pigs have a greatly reduced growth rate and significantly increased feed intake and quickly become uneconomical to raise for meat. Never try to get a Potbelly near a ‘commercial butcher weight’. They are not commercial pigs. They are roughly 1/5 the size of the commercial hogs that can crest past 1,000 pounds as adults. These are small pigs that are desirable for their ease of raising, keeping, and processing. Breed Feeding Potbellied pigs have a very adaptable gut and digestive system that can handle a wider variety of feedstuffs than any other heritage breed I’ve worked with. They do best with a high amount of roughage. Fresh greens are the best form of roughage as they provide essential nutrients that dry roughage will not. They can be fed large amounts of leafy greens, grass clippings, tree leaves, and other vegetative fodders. Some of my favorites are Bocking 4 Comfrey, Alfalfa, Chicory, and White Mulberry Leaves. Potbellies can handle a diet of nuts like acorns and pecans, or root crops like potato and Jerusalem artichoke better than most heritage breeds. Thery do well with a minimum 12 percent protein (14 percent for growers) in their diet. The diet should contain a minimum of 0.5 percent lysine amino acid. I like between 14 and 16 percent protein and between 0.5 and 0.75 percent lysine for our growers. That’s ¼ to ½ the lysine needs of commercial market hogs. Since lysine is the most expensive amino acid to source, it’s one of the reasons why I like these Asian Heritage Hog breeds. Younger potbellies need easier-to-digest energy because their gut isn’t developed enough to extract energy from roughage as well as mature potbellies. Mature potbellies can handle a diet of primarily roughage with little added energy with the exception of breeding sows. Be wary of over-feeding. They should never be free-fed any grain, starch, or protein, or any pre-mixed feed. They’ll get too fat, and quickly. Breed Behavior Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pigs are an active breed that likes to joust with each other and root around in the soil. They are incredibly domestic in familiar settings but can get grumpy when moved to a new place. They are a bit more hormonal than commercial farm pigs, but are not known to cause issues nearly as much. Stress may cause them to act out and that should be taken as a sign that something is wrong. Boars will display dominance behavior which is heightened when a nearby female is in heat. Still, they are not known to be aggressive to humans unless they are heavily stressed and even then they aren’t too bold because people are much taller and thereby quite intimidating to a boar. My larger boar was what I’d call quite aggressive for the first few months after coming to our farm. He was very unhealthy, had fat blindness, and was living in absolutely filthy conditions before coming here and it took him a while to become de-stressed and get comfortable. Before, only I was allowed into hie pen. Now, my kids rub his belly and he lays down and rolls over for them. We removed his stress by feeding him complete nutrition, keeping the pen clean, and getting him to shed a ton of extra weight. After that, he started acting nice. Also see: Raising Potbellied Pigs for Meat (with video) How to Raise a Lard Pig 22 Recipes for Pig Feed (and tips for feeding) How to Build a Pig Pen