[Animals 101] How To Breed & Care For Pigs

Welcome to your next "Animal 101" lesson of the Farming Simulator Academy! Today, we're focusing on pigs. We'll show you how to choose the right housing, feed and care for them, breed them, and make money from them.

What Is Special About Pigs?

There are three breeds of pigs: German Landrace, Bentheim Black Pied, and Berkshire. They differ only in appearance, so your choice does not affect gameplay.

Housing Options

Your choice of housing determines whether you need to provide water manually and whether your pigs can produce manure and slurry.

• Pig Pasture: You need to provide both feed and water. The pasture does not produce manure or slurry.
• Pigsty: You only need to provide feed because water is supplied automatically. A pigsty can also produce manure and slurry.

How to get water: If your pasture requires water, deliver it with a compatible tank trailer. Fill it from a water tank placed through the construction menu or from a suitable river or lake. Natural water sources are free; water from a placed tank costs money.

Feeding Options

Feeding pigs is more demanding than feeding most other animals because a complete diet consists of several different crop categories. If you use your own crops, provide all four feed categories in the following proportions:

• Base – 50%: corn or sorghum
• Grains – 25%: wheat or barley
• Protein – 20%: soybeans, canola, or sunflowers
• Root crops – 5%: potatoes, sugar beet, carrots, parsnips or redbeet

Tip! Start with ready-made pig food from the dealer and gradually expand your farming operation until you can grow the ingredients yourself.

Breeding Pigs

Pigs reproduce when all three breeding conditions are met:

• Pigs must be at least 6 months old.
• The pigs need to be at 100% health.
• There must be free capacity in the pig housing.

Keep the animals supplied with feed to maintain their health.

What You Need For Pigs

Your exact equipment depends on your housing, feeding method, and whether you want to use manure and slurry.

Basic equipment:

• Tractor with a front loader and loading equipment: Use a bale spike for bales and a pallet fork for pallets such as pig feed.
• Straw blower: Used to provide straw in barns that support manure production.
• Slurry tank: Used to transport or spread slurry.
• Manure spreader: Required if you want to transport manure or use it to fertilize your fields.
• Manure heap: Required to store manure produced by a compatible barn. Place it near the barn.
• Water tank: Only required if you use a pig pasture and need to provide water manually.

Optional:

• Use a compatible animal trailer if you want to transport sheep yourself instead of paying for direct delivery.
• Look for the pig icon to make sure a trailer supports pigs.
• Larger trailers may require a truck or dolly. Check the displayed "Combinations" before buying.

Tip! You do not need an animal trailer just to buy or sell pigs. You can have them delivered directly to the housing for a small fee.

Let’s Get To Work!

Step 1: Buy the pigs

Buy pigs directly at your pig housing and have them delivered for a small fee. Alternatively, take an animal trailer to the animal dealer, buy the pigs there, and transport them yourself.

Tip! If you want your pigs to reproduce, remember to leave some free capacity.

Step 2: Feed the pigs

Unload ready-made pig food or your own crops at the feeding point. If you grow the feed yourself, use the proportions explained under "Feeding Options" above. If you use a pig pasture, you also need to deliver water with a tank trailer.

Step 3: Provide straw for manure

If you keep pigs in a pigsty and want to produce manure, deliver straw to the designated unloading point. You can buy straw bales at the dealership or produce straw yourself. Use a bale spike to transport the bales and use the straw blower to distribute it. Also make sure a manure heap is placed near the pigsty.

You can sell manure and slurry or use them to fertilize your fields. For more information, see our tutorial about fertilizing.

Step 4: Sell the pigs

Breeding gives you additional pigs to sell. When your housing approaches its capacity, sell some pigs to make room for more offspring. You can sell pigs directly through the animal overview at the housing or transport them to the animal dealer yourself with an animal trailer.

Well Done!

Congratulations! You've learned how to take care of your pigs. Ready for another lesson? Head back to the Farming Simulator Academy and continue when you are ready!