Commercial pig production in Georgia is a modest contributor to state agricultural revenues, featuring around 811 specialized pork farms generating over $53 million. While small in terms of revenue it is a growing niche market with heritage breads and organic prosecution on the increase.
NOTE: Georgia simultaneously battles a massive, costly infestation of destructive wild feral hogs see this link for information on Feral Hog Management.
Pig production operations are generally categorized into specialized enterprises based on the life stage of the animals managed. These systems split the breeding, nursing, and growth stages to maximize farm efficiency.
Main Types of Production Enterprises
Farrow-to-Finish: Manages the entire life cycle; breeds sows, nursing piglets, and feeds them to market slaughter weight (around 270–285 pounds) on one farm.
Farrow-to-Wean (Farrow-to-Feeder): Focuses exclusively on breeding and raising piglets until they are weaned at about 3 weeks of age (12–14 pounds), then selling them.
Nursery Operations: Buys newly weaned pigs and raises them to about 40 pounds before selling them as feeder pigs.
Finishing Operations: Purchases feeder pigs from nurseries or farrow-to-wean farms and feeds them a high-energy diet for about 4 months until they reach market weight.
Wean-to-Finish: A modern variation where weaned pigs are moved to a single finishing facility and raised all the way to market weight.
Seedstock / Purebred Production: Focuses on breeding and supplying high-quality genetic lines, replacement gilts, and boars to commercial operations.
Intensive Pig Production:
Intensive pig production keeps pigs confined indoors at high densities using commercial feeds and automated climate control to maximize growth rates and output per unit of land.
- Housing: Fully indoor confinement, slated floors, climate-controlled barns, and individual stalls or pens.
- Feeding: Precision-formulated commercial grain diets designed for rapid weight gain.
- Management: High capital investment, strict biosecurity, routine veterinary care, and high labor efficiency per animal.
- Pros: Fast growth cycles, high output, efficient feed-to-meat conversion, and predictable market readiness.
- Cons: High waste concentration risks, disease transmission potential if biosecurity fails, and reduced animal expression of natural behaviors.
Extensive Pig Production:
Extensive pig production lets pigs roam outdoors on pasture or range, using land-based foraging with low capital costs and lower stocking densities.
- Housing: Pastures, open paddocks, or simple portable shelters and huts.
- Feeding: Foraging, root crops, pasture grasses, supplemented with local feed or grains.
- Management: Low fixed capital investment, lower animal density, natural ventilation, and manual or low-tech oversight.
- Pros: Lower startup capital, high animal welfare perception, natural foraging behaviors, and lower localized waste concentration.
- Cons: Slower growth rates, higher exposure to environmental parasites and predators, and larger land requirements per animal.
UGA Extension
Hogs have been raised in Georgia for personal and commercial use since colonial times, and hogs continue to be a part of Georgia's historic and current agricultural heritage.
Many farmers in Georgia rely on swine production for part of their income, and UGA Extension provides research and resources to help those farmers. However, factors such as drought, economic pressure and industry consolidation have combined to make pork production a relatively small contributor to the state's agricultural revenues.
Georgia Grown
USDA data shows that pork is in great demand in the USA and Georgia’s pig production is growing and produced almost 80,000 pigs in the past 12 months.
National Swine Registry
Services include litter registrations, performance pedigrees, breed promotion and marketing assistance. The NSR can meet all of your genetic needs, including free genetic consultation and across-herd genetic evaluations. The website also provides a data base of registered breeders.
American Berkshire Association
The American Berkshire Association is a community of family farmers, chefs, retailers, distributors and agriculture leaders who are committed to excellence and enlightened farming practices to produce the highest quality pork. The ABA has developed a detailed testing program to ensure that all pork sold under its Registered Berkshire Pork seal has been produced from 100% purebred heritage Berkshires.