Buying Pigs
As with poultry, buy from a reputable breeder. Once you've decided what breed you want, contact the breed society for help. Full details of rare breed societies can be found on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust website. Again, "Country Smallholding" and similar will have "pigs for sale" classified adverts.
In 2003, we had two gilts (young female pigs); although we wanted boars, they weren't available. In 2004, we had three boars and we have had boars since then. Boars are supposed to be leaner and ours certainly killed out leaner than the gilts but whether this was a gender issue or because we were much stricter about controlling the amount of feed, I'm not sure. Some people say that gilts can be difficult at times as their hormones cycle but we didn't find any problem with that at all.
Sourcing pigs in Scotland wasn't easy a few years ago. In 2003 we travelled to Lanark to get the gilts, and in 2004 beyond Dumfries (a good 5 hour round-trip in a very uncomfortable, ancient Landrover) to get the boars. However, it does seem to be getting easier and "The Scottish Farmer" weekly publication regularly has weaners of various breeds advertised for sale.
Once you've bought your pigs you'll need to get them home. Although young pigs are small, bear in mind that they can be strong, boisterous, do produce extremely smelly dung and don't have any obvious "handles". They also make an incredible amount of noise - a ear-splitting shriek - when being handled. Fortunately, they turn it off as soon as you put them down. We brought home our first piglets in the newspaper-lined back of our old Citroen car (with the windows wide open!). Now we use a large puppy crate, lined with straw and placed in the back of the car (windows still wide open, though). In our experience the pigs will sleep most of the way. Also plan exactly what you're going to do when you get them home - the less stress for you and the pigs in getting them into their home the better.