Family farm hog pen

The family hog pen was a small-scale system of pig farming which is vastly different from the modern American hog farmIntensive pig farming

Intensive piggeries are a type of factory farm specialized for the raising of domestic pigs up to slaughter weight. In this system of pig production, grower pigs are housed indoors in group-housing or straw-lined sheds, whilst pregnant sows are confined in sow stalls and give birth in farrowing crates....

. Modern intensive hog farms in the United States have an average of about 2,000 hogs, and large farms raise tens of thousands of hogs. Hog pens were found on family farmFamily farm

A family farm is a farm owned and operated by a family, and passed down from generation to generation. It is the basic unit of the mostly agricultural Economic system of much of human history and continues to be so in Developing country....

s of the early 1900’s, although backyard pig farming may still occur. In this article the words “hogs” and “pigsPIGS

PIGS is a four letter acronym that can stand for:* PIGS : Phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class S, a human gene.* PIGS : Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, an informal grouping of sluggish economies....

” are used interchangeably.



Family hog pens enclosed just a few hogs to provide year-round meat for the table. Prior to refrigeration, some family farms depended on pigs as a primary source of meat and shortening (lardLard

Lard is Domestic pig fat in both its Rendering and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a Spread similar to butter....

) for year-round food. Farms which had tenant families might have several hog pens.