Off topic.. but hogs and eventual bacon. Thanks.

All,

As a younger person, many years ago, I had the chance to help out at an Uncle's hog farm.

There was an animal that was unable to stand, the rear leg was broken, perhaps, I do not know for sure.

Fast forward, we, cousins and I, watched him cleanly dispatch the hog, and then we got to trimming it.

I was surprised at the amount of fat the pig had. Greasy, difficult to skin, but we did our best to not waste any meat.

Great lesson learned, there's more to food than buying it at the grocery. There's a ton of effort that brings it to the table.

Thanks to all farmers that brings food to my grocery, I am unable to do what you do.

D.

Butchered many a hog growing up. Cured hams, ground sausage, cooked lard. made cracklins, ate brains and eggs the next morning. Would love to do it again. May try it next year.
Richard in NW SC--- I love pork

Now I hope that this is correct. Pork Bellies on the Stock market is one and the same as Bacon! The under side or tummy of a pig.

I do enjoy raising hogs. They stink to high heaven - everyone knows where the hog farm is - but they are unique animals. I love the sows that grow old enough to have destinct personalities. I enjoy those sows more than the dogs. Some are smarter. The feeder hogs annoy me. They never live long enough to have any smarts. It isn't until they are about 10 months that they quit being stupid and understand what you are saying. I've got one sow nearing the end of her prime that is smart as a whip. She pouts more than SWMBO when things don't go her way and she buries the hatchet with the handle sticking out. I've about decided to just let her live out her retirement years. It would be the first time I have made a farm decision like that, but by golly she's something else.

The cattle are sure more profitable (right now) but hogs have more immediate gratification.

I resent the remark that hogs stink, it's the manure that stinks!! I work for a multi-national pork producing company that produces hogs for Smithfield Foods and all of our hog trailers haul one load and then get washed/sanitized and baked to kill any bacteria that may cause disease. It's a favorite saying of mine that "I work for bacon"!

We bought our place in the country last July, by the end of the month I had 4 Berkshire feeders. We kept the two gilts to breed, they will get AI'ed in 3 weeks on their next eustrus. The two barrows were brought to the locker last Friday. We picked up 3 Tamworth feeders 2 weeks ago. I like raising pigs. Loved being around them as a kid. We're raising ours on pasture, they don't smell at all. The tamworths do leave a "pig" smell on your hands when you scratch them, they enjoy the mud more than the Berks did though.

A buddy of mine kills a hog every Christmas eve and makes fresh tamales.

Yes, that"s right. I had a SIL who, upon getting his first family hog butchered said he wished he had the whole hog made into bacon! yeah, city kid.

I raised Durocs for a few years on a small scale. Tried to keep their watering trough clean but as soon as I'd fill it they would come over, straddle it and pee.

Got the bright idea to put a nose activated demand waterer on one of the posts. Located it such that it would be where the hogs could easily reach it with their noses. Capacity of the bowl was maybe 6 oz to give you an idea as to it's size.

Didn't take them long to figure out that if you butt it with your nose the bowl would fill with water and you could have your drink.

Wasn't long after the installation I was walking up to the pen and lo and behold, one of them was backing up to the thing and did what they did to the trough. I couldn't believe my eyes and I assure you I didn't like what I saw.

Must be something to flavoring the water because mine only wanted theirs flavored.

While on the subject I usually fed Farley's Show Gilt corn ration. One year I thought I'd save some feed expense and fed them Milo and no corn.

Guarantee you Milo will not produce the quality of meat that corn will. Never did that again.

Mark

I was wondering how much per pound for a hog ready to butcher? It's from a young farmer who is finishing 6 and ready to sell in about a month.

Don't know but I liked to get them up to 200#. Makes the chops a
decent size. I just raised for my own consumption. The slaughter
house/butcher shop did the injection method of flavoring. One
thing he did was to include the chops in the flavoring. Going to tell
you a flavored (smoked) chop is some fine eating. Like eating ham.

Mark

In Ontario every hog is supposed to be tattooed and registered with the government.

I had a small scale hog operation for about fifteen years. Started out farrow to feeder market and would keep a few back to butcher. Grew my own corn, had my own feed mill, the works. As the arthritis started to take over my life I had to start scaling back. So I sold my sows and boar and started to buy SEW pigs from my cousin. I'd get a small group( 15-20 )of them in April and send them out in October. I sold all of them on the private market so families could fill their freezers with meat. As time went on I could no longer grow my own corn so I rented my small field and used the money to buy corn. Had a good thing going. I sold pigs to the same people every year and would even gain a few customers each year. At first I would sell them at what the market price was, but the market was too volatile and decided to sell at a set price to make a little profit. When corn got to the $7.00+ price one fall I gave the whole thing up. When my customers asked why I quit I told them I could not make money feeding $7.00 corn to pigs. They all said they would have paid extra for the pigs. My hogs were that good. In fact the owner of the locker plant I took the pigs to always wanted to buy any extras I might have. He would even buy them at my set price. He told me that the pigs he bought from me would end up in his retail case. The secret to raising quality pork is to invest in good genetics and mix the feed rations the way the feed store prescribed.

(quoted from post at 02:39:54 01/29/15) I've got one sow nearing the end of her prime that is smart as a whip. She pouts more than SWMBO when things don't go her way and she buries the hatchet with the handle sticking out. I've about decided to just let her live out her retirement years. It would be the first time I have made a farm decision like that, but by golly she's something else.

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We had one old sow that we kept just because she was fun to have around for us kids. She too had a distinct personallity. Once we finally sent her to market when she was getting very old and broken down she weighed over 1,000 lbs.