Anyone with experience with pigs?

[jkcove08]

My father-in-law costom feeds hogs for various companies. We have the feed store bring in ground corn for the hogs to eat and he uses cornstalk bales for bedding. They will also eat on these and that is fine. Make sure that you keep as much feed in front of them as you can. Also as much fresh water. We also butcher our own. I grew up with deer hunters since I was very little. I can butcher a whole deer in a couple days by myself. Pigs are totally different. Since you are a deer hunter I will recomend raising a hog for mixing with deer meat to make ground deer. We raise one every year to go in the meat to add some fat to make it cook better. If you are going to butcher it yourself I would suggest letting it get to about 200 to 250 lbs. I would be much easier for you to handle. Hope this helps. Jenn

 

[pegbo]

Okay my hubby just bought a pig from a friend who is raising it, butchering it and then giving it to us. It's costing us about $280 for the whole process. And it sure beats chasing the pigs around the pasture when they get out! Been there done that!!!

 

[mwendig]

Thanks for the post on butchering, savings some fat for ground deer sounds like a great idea! Do you have any good sources of how the cuts are done on hogs etc.

Thanks everyone for your posts this forum has been a great resource!

 

[jkcove08]

As far as butchering, I did it just like the deer. I deboned everything. The outer backstrap is harder to get out because of the backbone. If you have access to a meat saw you can cut the pork chops from it or if all else fails you can get a new blade for a sawzall(sp). I would suggest you partially freeze the section first. Also we used 2 lbs of pork per 8 lbs of deer. we ground the deer first, then pork, and then mixed and ground them together for a third time. Your local butcher might have a chart for cutting the hog up also. Good luck.

 

[mwendig]

ok thats about what I expected.


Anyone have thoughts on options for selling and what I can expect to get for them?

Also if anyone has more info and feeding them silage and cow grain that would be great.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

 

[politicalcenter]

I used to raise pigs and lost money on them. I can buy them at auction much cheaper than I can raise them. But I get my pork at the supermarket these days. Pigs can be a real pain. Check out local produce stands and try to get their unsellable produce. Also buy you feed by the ton. You can use soybean meal in moderation to increase the protein value. Then you can buy the less expensive feed for bulk.

 

[politicalcenter]

You probably won't get much for hogs. Berkshire hogs bring the best price round here in Alabama.