Raising Asian heritage hogs for meat

[bfc chicks]

I raise asian heritage hogs for meat and some for pets but do not push that. The present group pushing these pigs want them for pets and are trying to block butchering of them. Is there an organization supporting the asian heritage hog as a dual purpose bred. Please contact me for further discussion.

I presently raise asian heritage hogs. I have raised them since 2018. Boy what an experience. Taste is fantastic and yes there can be a lot of lard, not fat. Humans are fat. But some other traits that need to be discussed. They usually will stay in confinement quite easily unless the ground is saturated like it is this year. Then it under the fence and into all places not wanting then. They will root ask my neighbor who is getting a new yard next spring at my expense. Once starting to root they do excellent jobs at working up the garden in the fall. Feeding them follows the line of 2 Cups of feed one in the morning and on in the evening. When I was a child my father raise two hogs a year for our table he could fatten them up by feeding them hog feed for month 3 then switching them to 3 ears of our open pollinated field corn till butchered. He supplemented that with a 5 gallon pails of weeds from the garden and table scrapes per pig an in 5 to 7 monthes they where 250 to 300 lbs and ready to butcher. The asian heritage hog is slower at growing so it takes 9 months to get them to butcher size of 90 to 125 lbs. Giving a hanging weight of around 75 to 90 pounds of tasty meat easy to consume having bacon hams and cuts maybe a little smaller. Somewhere around Dec 19th. we will butcher 2 shoats for hams, bacon, and cuts and 3 sows for sausage and bacon. (these are the three that out of my 23 asians insisted on getting out. The neat thing about ahh is that I have little pigs that look like large blacks, hamps, berks, durocs, whites , and blue buttons. One of the nice things about the asians is that the boars do not acquire the giant testicles as do our American hogs and there for there is not the strong taste of urine in the meat. Similar to the situation of hunting a prize buck deer. Presently I breed my stock to a Julianne boar, a potbellied boar, and a potbellied American quinea hog cross. I have 12 guilts and sow and hope to get up to 15 sows by 2022. I am very interested in finding those who would like to start an organization to promote the true asia heritage hog as a dual purpose animal. Or maybe a triple purpose animal because the lye soap is very rewarding. I can be reached at [email protected]

 

[cassie]

I have a comment or question and I really don't know the answer. For years I have heard about the terrible taste and smell of boar meat. I can tell you we didn't get around to castrating our last two hogs (long story) and we didn't get them butchered when we should have either. These two boars weighed well in excess of 300# apiece when they were processed and they were delicious. The was no smell or off taste to the meat whatever. These boars were never used for breeding and there were no sows on the place. Do you think that could be the reason that there was no problem with the meat? Does anyone know?

 

[Frayedndfrazzled]

I raise asian heritage hogs for meat and some for pets but do not push that. The present group pushing these pigs want them for pets and are trying to block butchering of them. Is there an organization supporting the asian heritage hog as a dual purpose bred. Please contact me for further discussion.

I would love the information for the organization supporting the Asian heritage hog as a dual purpose breed please.

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

AKA potbelly pigs.
I know going into this its a very controversial subject but I've come to think of potbellies as a dual purpose breed as many chickens are.

I have 2 PB as pets that will soon be bred together and we plan on selling some of the piglets and keeping some to raise for meat. We manage a small homestead and PB have more purpose on our land than large feeder hogs which require more maintenance.

I know the question "can you eat PB?" has been asked on here before, but my question(s) are does anyone have experience with raising them for meat? From what research I have gathered they have a richer taste but the downside is they can contain ALOT of excess fat if not fed the correct diet. So my other question is what should I feed them to so they have more meat on them? Will traditional hog food suffice, along with fruits and vegitables?
I've never raised hogs myself but I have family that has but being commercial hogs I feel they are mainly fattened up for weight price and not so much caring about fat content.

I LOVE my 2 PB and I would be completely heartbroken if something happened to them, as such they aren't for eating but some of their offspring will be. I also know that if given the wrong diet they will become fat and unhealthy which I do not want either for my babies. Pigs have come to have a huge place in my heart and I only want the best for them wether they are pets or for meat.

I have raised Asian heritage hogs for five years. The purpose was for meat. Asian heritage pigs are a heavy lard pig like American Guinea hogs the problem I had was if I wanted anything to eat left don’t take it to a butcher. They trim. And then you have small chops, hams, bacon, and such. I raised them on non gmo 12% and sometimes 15%. But don’t forget there was a reason for that lard. Lye soap, cracklings, great for cooking with it in pies and such. PB ( Asian heritage hogs are lard pigs just as the American Guinea hogs. But what you might want to consider is the age. It takes AHHs 9 to twelve month to reach butchering size, where as the American commercial hogs only take 6 months. As a child my father would have use pull a 5 gallon pail of weeds per pig and 3 ears of corn and then the last month add a 15% feed, still it’s not adding protein because the AHH isn’t made to put on body mass but rather lard.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They trim

Honest question, could you ask them not to trim? Our processor for livestock will do accommodations usually, but we never had a hog to send in, so I know nothing about lard

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

AKA potbelly pigs.
I know going into this its a very controversial subject but I've come to think of potbellies as a dual purpose breed as many chickens are.

I have 2 PB as pets that will soon be bred together and we plan on selling some of the piglets and keeping some to raise for meat. We manage a small homestead and PB have more purpose on our land than large feeder hogs which require more maintenance.

I know the question "can you eat PB?" has been asked on here before, but my question(s) are does anyone have experience with raising them for meat? From what research I have gathered they have a richer taste but the downside is they can contain ALOT of excess fat if not fed the correct diet. So my other question is what should I feed them to so they have more meat on them? Will traditional hog food suffice, along with fruits and vegitables?
I've never raised hogs myself but I have family that has but being commercial hogs I feel they are mainly fattened up for weight price and not so much caring about fat content.

I LOVE my 2 PB and I would be completely heartbroken if something happened to them, as such they aren't for eating but some of their offspring will be. I also know that if given the wrong diet they will become fat and unhealthy which I do not want either for my babies. Pigs have come to have a huge place in my heart and I only want the best for them wether they are pets or for meat.

I have raised Asian heritage hogs for several years now. At 73 I find that the AHH is much easier for me to handle when butchering, as I scald and I don’t lose a valuable commodity the lard. I have a family that feels only butchers know how to butcher and so taking some to a butcher friend he still trimmed the lard and throw it away when I could have had lard, lye soap, or just protection for items stored out side like smearing lard on fence posts to help the (new!!) treated wood last longer. At 72% hanging weight I like to get all I can and although the hams are only 5 lbs each on a 60# hog. Eating for one person is plenty. As for feeding my hogs receive three cups of non gmo feed 16 or 18% feed, 12 oz of shelled non gmo corn, and as my father had us do all our growing years a 5 gallon pail of weeds from the garden per pig per day. And even then there seemed to be plenty of weeds. The AHH grow slower but the flavor and texture is worth it. Hope this helped.

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

Honest question, could you ask them not to trim? Our processor for livestock will do accommodations usually, but we never had a hog to send in, so I know nothing about lard

I asked them not to trim but in the processors eyes it was still too much lard. So he cut at least half off.

 

[cassie]

I asked them not to trim but in the processors eyes it was still too much lard. So he cut at least half off.

Can you get him to sell/give you the trimmings? Maybe ask him to throw them in a special bucket or something for you? That way he can feel good about trimming the "waste" lard and you can feel good about receiving it. Years ago, I can remember my aunt rendering lard. I don't remember what all she used it for. I do know she cooked with some of it. Made the best pie crusts.

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

Can you get him to sell/give you the trimmings? Maybe ask him to throw them in a special bucket or something for you? That way he can feel good about trimming the "waste" lard and you can feel good about receiving it. Years ago, I can remember my aunt rendering lard. I don't remember what all she used it for. I do know she cooked with some of it. Made the best pie crusts.

Since I’m 72 going on 73 soon and have been organic farming since I was 9 when I bought my first rabbits and chickens for eggs I have learned an encyclopedias full of life adventures. I just butcher my own hogs now and get aaalll the lard I want. I’m building a scolder so I just roll the hog in and scrap it the way my parents did, and I can handle an AHH by my self. I cook with lard, use it to grease things that I don’t want rain damaged, make yes great pie crusts, corn bread, yeast and sour dough bread in the Dutch oven and being that I cook on a wood stove use it to grease my pans for roasts and things like hamburger and so much more and make lye and a really nice hand soap. I don’t use it in my wringer washer though because it can tend to clog up hoses and gum up shafts. I make liquid soap for that. But again home made lard, lye soap is great for hand washing of really groundin dirt and after rinsing, and running through the wringer I than run my clothes through the Maytag wringer washer with really hot water and they get really clean. Air drying really gives them a pleasant smell.

 

[cassie]

I have never been able to get clothes as clean as I did when I used to old wringer washer.