6 Best Portable Hog Feeders For Saving Time

Carrying heavy feed buckets through mud and rain is a ritual most hog raisers know too well. It’s a daily grind that consumes time you probably don’t have. The right portable feeder can transform this chore, giving you back hours each week and making your pasture rotation system far more effective.

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Why Portable Feeders Simplify Pasture Management

A stationary feeder creates a sacrifice zone. Pigs gather, root, and compact the soil in one spot, turning it into a muddy mess that becomes a breeding ground for parasites. This forces you to either accept the pasture damage or constantly try to lure the pigs away from their established feeding area.

Portable feeders solve this problem directly. When you move your pigs to a fresh paddock, you move their food and water with them. This simple act distributes their impact across the entire pasture, improving soil health and breaking parasite life cycles. The pigs stay on fresh ground, and you stop wasting time trying to manage a permanent mud pit.

This approach isn’t just about saving time on chores; it’s about building a more resilient system. Healthier pastures mean healthier pigs, which reduces the time you spend dealing with health issues. A feeder on skids or wheels that you can drag with an ATV or even by hand is a cornerstone of efficient rotational grazing for hogs.

Tarter 12-Bushel Feeder: High Capacity on Skids

When you’re raising more than a handful of finishing hogs, capacity is king. The Tarter 12-Bushel Feeder holds around 600 pounds of feed, which means you aren’t running out to the feed bin every other day. This is a massive time-saver, especially if your pastures are a good distance from your feed storage.

The feeder is built on heavy-duty steel skids, making it designed for movement. Hook a chain to it, and you can easily pull it with a small tractor or ATV to the next paddock. The adjustable feed gate lets you control the flow, minimizing waste as your pigs grow.

However, its size is also its main tradeoff. While it’s "portable" with equipment, moving 600 pounds of feed plus the steel feeder by hand is not happening. This feeder is best for operations with at least a half-dozen pigs and the equipment to move it. If you’re trying to manage your pasture with just manpower, this unit will become a stationary anchor once it’s full.

Brower 80-Pound Feeder: Top-Fill for Easy Use

For a smaller group of pigs, the Brower 80-Pound Feeder strikes a great balance. Its smaller capacity means you’ll fill it more often than a giant bin, but the design makes that task incredibly simple. The top-fill lid is hinged and easy to open, allowing you to pour feed in without stooping or struggling with awkward angles.

This feeder is light enough for one person to move easily when empty. You can pick it up and toss it in a wagon or drag it by hand to the next grazing spot. The poly construction means it won’t rust out, which is a significant advantage in wet climates.

The main consideration here is the number of animals. An 80-pound capacity will disappear quickly with four or five large hogs. It’s an excellent choice for a pair of finishing pigs or a small breeding group, but you’ll want to place it where refilling it every few days is convenient.

Sioux Steel Creep Feeder: For Farrowing Pastures

Raising piglets on pasture presents a unique challenge: giving them access to high-protein starter feed without the sow eating it all. The Sioux Steel Creep Feeder is designed specifically for this. It features adjustable bars that create openings large enough for piglets to enter but too small for the sow.

This is a critical tool for giving your litter a strong, healthy start. It ensures they get the specific nutrition they need, leading to faster growth and more uniform weaning weights. By placing the creep feeder away from the sow’s main feed area, you encourage the piglets to start exploring and foraging on their own.

This is a specialized piece of equipment, not an all-purpose feeder. Its capacity is relatively small because it’s only meant to supplement the sow’s milk for a few weeks. If you plan on farrowing on pasture, a dedicated creep feeder isn’t a luxury; it’s essential for saving feed and ensuring piglet health.

Little Giant Chow Hound: Durable Galvanized Steel

The Little Giant Chow Hound is a classic for a reason. Made from tough, 24-gauge galvanized steel, this feeder is built to withstand the abuse that pigs can dish out. Its simple, gravity-fed design is reliable and effective for feeding one or two hogs in a backyard or small pasture setting.

Its biggest strength is its durability and simplicity. There are no complex mechanisms to break, and the steel construction resists chewing and weather. The magnetic door helps keep pests and rain out, reducing feed spoilage and waste.

The Chow Hound is portable due to its small size, but its capacity is limited, typically holding around 50 pounds. This makes it ideal for someone raising a pair of pigs for their freezer. You’ll be refilling it frequently, but for a very small-scale operation, its ruggedness and low cost are hard to beat.

Kane Big Bin Feeder: Weather-Resistant Poly Build

Rust is the enemy of any metal equipment left outdoors. The Kane Big Bin Feeder sidesteps this issue entirely with its heavy-duty polyethylene construction. This material is rust-proof, corrosion-resistant, and surprisingly tough. It’s also lighter than a steel feeder of a similar size, making it easier to move.

The design features a sloped top and a rain shield over the feed trough to keep moisture out, which is a major factor in preventing moldy, wasted feed. The poly material also has smooth, rounded corners, which makes it safer for the animals and easier to clean between batches of pigs.

While durable, poly isn’t indestructible. A determined boar could potentially damage it more easily than a heavy-gauge steel feeder. However, for most pasture-raised heritage breeds, the tradeoff for a lighter, rust-proof, and easy-to-clean feeder is well worth it.

Hog Slat Nursery Feeder: Ideal for Younger Pigs

Once piglets are weaned, they graduate from a creep feeder to a nursery or grower feeder. The Hog Slat Nursery Feeder is designed for this transitional stage. It features smaller feed openings and a shallower trough that are perfectly sized for young, 25- to 50-pound pigs.

The key benefit here is minimizing feed waste. Young pigs are notorious for playing with their food, and a feeder designed for a 300-pound hog will allow them to push out and waste an enormous amount of expensive starter feed. The design of a nursery feeder forces them to eat with their head in the trough, keeping the feed where it belongs.

This is another specialized feeder that saves time and money by doing one job very well. It ensures your weaners get off to an efficient start without wasting costly feed. Once they outgrow it, you’ll need to transition them to a larger finishing feeder, but the feed saved during those crucial early weeks makes it a worthwhile investment.

Choosing Your Feeder: Capacity vs. Portability

The perfect feeder doesn’t exist; you’re always balancing competing priorities. The final decision comes down to a simple tradeoff: capacity versus portability. Answering a few key questions will point you to the right choice for your farm.

• How many hogs are you feeding? A pair of pigs can be managed with a 50-pound feeder. A group of ten finishers will need something that holds several hundred pounds to save you from daily refills.
• How are you moving it? If you’re moving it by hand, you need something under 100 pounds. If you have an ATV or tractor, a large feeder on skids becomes a practical, time-saving option.
• What life stage are the pigs? Don’t try to use a finishing feeder for piglets. Using stage-appropriate feeders like creep or nursery models prevents waste and improves animal health.

Think about your entire system. A large, high-capacity feeder saves you time on filling but requires equipment to move. A small, lightweight feeder is easy to reposition by hand but demands more frequent attention. Choose the feeder that best fits your scale, your equipment, and your management style.

Ultimately, the best portable feeder is the one that integrates smoothly into your daily routine and pasture rotation plan. It’s an investment that pays you back every day in saved time, reduced feed waste, and healthier land. Choose wisely, and spend less time hauling buckets and more time enjoying your farm.