Pigs or Sheep?

The question running through my mind lately is this ... Pigs or Sheep? What should the next addition be to Stoneyfield Farm. Even though we are not on the farm yet and have no definitive plans of when that will happen (if ever), I would like to see us, and the us in this case means myself and my dad, take steps in the direction that I would eventually like to end up. Maybe it just means I help with the research, marketing, and ideas or maybe it means I'm there working on the farm everyday. Either way, I'm beginning to think about what to add to the farm, if anything, in the spring.

On one hand, we have talked quite a few times about bringing some sheep to the place. Either ewes or wool wethers or market lambs. We don't really have a clue as to what we would do when it comes to the sheep. In fact, between the two of us our knowledge of sheep is practically nil. The one thing we have going for us is that my uncle (dad's brother) has quite a bit of experience with sheep so there would be some help close by. One of the positives of sheep is their browsing ability and the help they would give in cleaning up old fence rows that criss-cross the property. We would like to clean out a lot of these areas that are over grown in order to replace fence or put up more effective fencing. In this case, we would be using the sheep as a labor force. The other reason we are considering sheep is because they are a great animal to follow cattle on pastures because they are a dead end host for the parasites (and cattle the same for sheep). It would be nice to have this tool in our arsenal. We just need to continue to research this idea. We are planning on going to a few sales in the area to see what the market is like right now, and I would like to find some cattle people who are also raising sheep, or vice versa.

Pigs ... can't live with them, can't live without them! Pigs are kind of a sore subject in my family. In the late 80's, when the hog market was high, we had a lot of pigs on the Book family farms, and they all smelled really bad. Once the market dropped we got out, but it was never a really enjoyable thing having that hog lot on the place. Obviously we would be doing things quite a bit differently this time, but the stigma still exists. On the plus side, we have personal experience with raising hogs from farrow to finish. Of course, this knowledge is in the more conventional setting, but it still would apply. I like the idea of adding pigs because there are some areas that I would like to reclaim to pasture or savannah as I have previously mentioned, and because I really like to eat pork. I figure if I'm going to raise food I better be passionate about eating that food also! Again, there is still much research to be done, but maybe we would feel a bit more comfortable going into this animal than any other ... if we can get past the stigma!

If you are interested in reading some more about pigs, pasture, and the combination of those two things, I encourage you to check out this THREAD over on the Homesteading Today forums. I had initially asked about different heritage breeds that people were using in their pasture situations, but it also brought up a lot of good thoughts on pastured pigs and breed selection.

So, Pigs or Sheep ... Do you have an input?