You need to go up to Missouri or Iowa.
You might want to look for one of the rare/endangered breeds of pig. Go to the link below and click "Conservation Priority List" and scroll down to pigs. There's probably nobody close, but they'd also probably be happy to work with a small operator.

Good luck keeping a boar.

Here is a link that might be useful: American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

Do you REALLY want a boar? My understanding - which may be wrong - is that they aren't the easiest animals to keep. I don't think you would be able to keep him and the sow together, especially after she farrows, and even if you clip his tusks and ring his nose, he would need a strong, sturdy pen and house of his own. You might do better to look into AI. Ask your vet if he can do it for your sow when she's old enough. I'm sure that semen, either cooled or frozen, is more easily available than a boar, and that way, you aren't locked into one particular bloodline - you can pick and choose from season to season. If you wanted, you could possibly get semen from one of the less common varieties, although they may be reluctant to sell you a straw of semen if your sow is a different breed, so that would have to be looked into before you committed to one. While AI isn't cheap, requiring veterinary assistance over several visits for most of us amateurs, (most larger-scale pig farmers do it themselves, or have a trained employee) it's probably cheaper than keeping and housing a boar to use on one sow.

My understanding is that many of the "old" breeds produce less fatty meat than the new, modern variety of pig, which might be a plus for you. You don't say what breed your pig is, so I am assuming she's one of the more common ones.

Honestly, I was so excited at the time to have even found a pig that I forgot to ask what breed she is. I'm not a pig expert by any means, so for me to even take a guess at her breed would be pointless. But I can tell you this, I saw her mother, and she was at least 300 lbs, maybe even 400 lbs. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you she was the size of a large bear.

My fence by itself isn't strong enough to hold such a beast, but I added electric wire to discourage her from pushing against it.

AI sounds like an interesting idea. I'm going to have to look into that. But even if I decide to go that route, I'm still going to want another pig (another female, instead of a male).

Some of the considerations regarding AI--your gilt needs to be "in heat" at the same time your AI semen is available (not always easy if shipped through the mail). Unless AI is done by experienced people (including vets), I think it would be a waste of money. Also, it can be difficult to tell when a gilt is in heat. There are tricks to stimulating heat in gilts. If you can find a feeder pig market (search the net), you might be able to connect with a farmer before the castrating has been done. Also, if you plan to raise the pigs for meat, I would suggest that you purchase barrows, if possible, (castrated males). Modern farms usually castrate within a week of birth. Electric fence works well to keep the pigs in provided it is operational most of the time. Baby pigs may escape beneath fence. Pigs are fun, though. Plan to keep as pets. Enjoy!

the sow must be serviced twice also to become pregnant. 1st time for stimulating the egg flow and 2nd for fertilization.
Modern hogs are bred to a lean genetics standard, they look nothing like the swine of the past. Some of the best genetics can run upwards of 3oo$ per straw.
Keeping a boat to service 1 sow would be a negative savings when his housing and maintainance are factored in.,
I have normally had best experience rearing 2 or 3 pigs together rather then a single pig, its easy to sell the excess by the half to friends, family and neighbors.

I'm not interested in paying $300 for a pig. I don't want them for show and I'm not raising them for meat (although that day may come... who knows). My foremost reason for wanting pigs is so they can help me prepare more land for my expanding garden. I will be rotating them from plot to plot, so that they dig up roots and provide manure. I want them to work for me, simply by doing what pigs do.

I only paid $30 for the one piglet I have now, and she's working just fine so far. If I find some more piglets I'm willing to pay more if I have to, but not too much more.

Ask the people at the feed store who has pigs.
Good Luck finding some!

Another source might be a 4-H club or County Extension. NFO used to provide hog markets (National Farmer's Org.)

OK, if you aren't looking to produce more pigs, then the advice above to get barrows (gelded males) or another female seems to be good, as do the source suggestions. From your initial mention of a boyfriend, I made the assumption that you truly wanted a boar to breed more pigs. As you can gather from the above, it doesn't seem to be a viable proposition, under your circumstances.

While I've not tried it, using pigs to prepare garden areas from a rough state has a long history. I agree that more than one pig is better than a singleton, but bearing in mind your pig's mom's size and weight, and realizing that she will get there eventually, do you really want more than 2, if you aren't going to eat them?

Sticking my nose in, I would suggest that you start to train her to follow you for food, or however the 4H people train their pigs, now, while she's still small, and doesn't realize her mature size. And do train her to respect an electric fence. Pigs are smart, and I have been told that their memories are very good, so they are trainable, within reason.

I know that a good solar charger can give you a very good jolt, if you want to make an electric fence at a distance from the electric main. Get one rated for over 10 miles, as you can move the fence when the ground is thoroughly turned up in one place.

Oh, I certainly do want to produce more pigs. Breeding is cheaper than buying, but that doesn't mean I won't also be buying as well. I have 10 acres for them to dig up and poop on. That's going to take quite a long time, enough time for the next generation to be born and help me out.

It's been my experience that wild (ferrel) hogs do a good job digging up, clearing land, and you can pen feed them prior to slaughter and all is well, but sure seems like, an expensive way, to clear land ? WDIK

Well, if you read through this thread: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0822362324749.html?21

you might not think pigs are very expensive workers at all.

One person in that thread said her neighbor spent 18k just to have one acre cleared. That's a ridiculous amount to pay, if you ask me.

And even at that price, all she got was clear and level dirt. She didn't get the added bonus of free fertilizer that you can get from pig manure. Neither did she get the bonus of free meat if you decide to slaughter one of your pigs, or the cash money if you decide to sell one to someone else.

Before I started looking into pigs, I looked into hiring a bulldozer or a back hoe. That was going to cost me $500 just for the dozer to show up at my land, without doing any work at all. For him to start working I would have to pay an additional hourly wage.

I wish I could afford to have things done quick and easy, but I just don't have that kind of money. So my only other choices are to either get some pigs, or to dig up 10 acres with a shovel and buy a few tons of fertilizer.

I'm going with the pigs.

I think your idea is workable. I also think you had better do a bit more rersearch on keeping hogs. It aint all pie in the sky. I have seen more than 1 eager non country person make a mess of things!
Each hog eats around 600 pounds of (prepared)feed from weaning to butcher at 250 pounds. Thats without supplementals from foraging. The hog, once it reaches 250 poiunds will take less feed per day but layers on more fat(waste). Hungry hogs will work better in foraging but will need a larger space to forage. They know when the electric is off and can run faster than you might think, its difficult catching freed hogs w/o a rifle.
It might work to use electro netting which is easily movable; this could be moved avery few days to fresh grubbing. 2-3 hogs should do a pretty good job of rooting a small area. Your hands would be quite full with managing more than a trio.

Believe me, I am under no illusions that it will be "pie in the sky." But if I was going to give up on my dream, I would have done so before I finished cutting down all those trees, cutting out all those green briars, digging all those post holes, building that pig house, and building that fence.

I did all those things with my own two hands and it was hard. I would have much rather been sitting in a chair watching football, but sitting in a chair isn't going to make my dreams come true. I have to put out effort, and when I'm tired, and sick, and just want to go to bed, I have to put out even more. I'm done driving past other people's land and saying to myself "I wish I had something that nice." I'm going to have something that nice, come hell or high water. If I drop dead out in the field somewhere, just leave my body there to compost. Even in death I'll be working to make this land better.

I've been through too much in my life to let some farm animal intimidate me. I will improvise, I will adapt, and I will overcome. But I will not quit.

You have the right attitude. In response to your statement "I've been through too much in my life to let some farm animal intimidate me. I will improvise, I will adapt, and I will overcome. But I will not quit."
One of our earlier presidents (Truman?) once said, "A cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig looks a man in the eye and sees his equal." (I do not remember the exact quoteÂbut this is close). I would add that a pig does not adapt to man, but man adapts to the pig!

That said. In my experience (quite a few years), pigs are very motivated by the feed bucket. Sometimes a nice treat is the best way to reason with them. Here is an idea for your electric fence. Some pigs, being the intelligent critters they are, will decide they will absolutely never cross a line where an electric fence once existed. It is wise to set up a gate that they will learn and trust going through so that you can get them out of their electric fence when the time comes. A small trailer would also work and be a good idea. You can train them to eat in the trailer or in a separate area where they must go through the gate everyday.

Pigs are fun. They made me laugh and so I quit my high stress job. However, after raising them for about 10 years I did quit commercial operation. Someday, I hope to have a few as pets again. You choose your life and live it the way you want.

Yep, I can agree with the latter 2 posts. Hard work gets it done. I miss pigs, couse I miss all the hoofed stock, just have fowl now. About them learning where the hot wire was, my buddys hogs were like that, would NOT go beyond where the wire used to be, it took some time for them to mose past into the newly opened are. I have had hosres such as that too, and cattlebut hogs fear the juice more than the others.
I used to think pigs were smart, but, they dont act too smart at chow time; they havent fifured out that there is enuff for all and you can take your turn. They eat like some people I've seen!