Official Squatch Watchers

[Parront]

36” is about 6” too short for me. My inseam is 36”.

Tall! I bet you must have a difficult time in a lot of kitchens.

 

[Molpet]

These were the pot bellies.

How many for 30lbs, I hope that is boneless

 

[drumstick diva]

I think my inseam is about 26" or a bit less (one leg is a big longer than the other. I call myself "petite" sounds better than shrimp (what my father called me).

 

[rjohns39]

How many for 30lbs, I hope that is boneless

30 pounds includes the bones (we kept for soup), and just one. all total, I got about 100 pounds of meat, fat, internal organs and bones out of 3 pigs. Pot Bellies are not a good meat pig, but they were really cheap and we thought them to be good as a starter to learn from. I can't imagine what we would have done if we had started with full size pigs, given the mistakes we made.

All went well for the first 8 months (which is when we were originally going to process them), then we had babies. Uhhuh, the boy wasn't really fixed. It kind of went south from there. They defeated every form of fence we came up with. Neighbors getting mad at us as they herded stray pigs back to our place. So if and when we do pigs again, they will ALL be either male or female but I'm not believing anyone who says the boy is fixed.

 

[Parront]

says the boy is fixed.

Always it is let buyer beware! LOL It does sound like a lot of trouble for the amount of meat. The only pigs we could raise here would be Guinea Pigs!

 

[Molpet]

30 pounds includes the bones (we kept for soup), and just one. all total, I got about 100 pounds of meat, fat, internal organs and bones out of 3 pigs. Pot Bellies are not a good meat pig, but they were really cheap and we thought them to be good as a starter to learn from. I can't imagine what we would have done if we had started with full size pigs, given the mistakes we made.

All went well for the first 8 months (which is when we were originally going to process them), then we had babies. Uhhuh, the boy wasn't really fixed. It kind of went south from there. They defeated every form of fence we came up with. Neighbors getting mad at us as they herded stray pigs back to our place. So if and when we do pigs again, they will ALL be either male or female but I'm not believing anyone who says the boy is fixed.

I remember your woes with them.
I thought there would be more meat. What was live weight? Did you get a ton of lard?

 

[rjohns39]

I remember your woes with them.
I thought there would be more meat. What was live weight? Did you get a ton of lard?

Not really, The inedible organs (or those I class as such) and the skin constitute a lot of the weight. The big one was close to 300#, the two smaller ones were between 125-150#. I got a fair amount of good clean fat from the big one and a little for the smaller ones. The big one had a good 1" to 1 1/2" layer of back fat and a good amount of lard fat. The little ones maybe a 1/2" or so and I lost a lot of that in the skinning process. Simply put, you want a pig that goes close to 500# at 8 months to get good meat and fat, I think. Rae will know better.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

Some of my friends have American Guinea Hogs. They really like growing them for meat.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Not really, The inedible organs (or those I class as such) and the skin constitute a lot of the weight. The big one was close to 300#, the two smaller ones were between 125-150#. I got a fair amount of good clean fat from the big one and a little for the smaller ones. The big one had a good 1" to 1 1/2" layer of back fat and a good amount of lard fat. The little ones maybe a 1/2" or so and I lost a lot of that in the skinning process. Simply put, you want a pig that goes close to 500# at 8 months to get good meat and fat, I think. Rae will know better.

The guy that guided me through the butchering of our pigs has potbellies. He breeds them with American Guinea Hogs and his family eats them or sells them as feeders. They grow faster than either parent breed but have similar fat content. He slaughters the pure pot belly piglets at about 6-8 months and cooks them whole in his smoker. He says they aren’t really worth growing out. He likes the smaller pig breeds for similar reasons I do, 1) they are less likely to hurt you 2) you can grow them out with minimal grain input 3) they are easier to manage while butchering (not too heavy). You have to slaughter more to get the same weight of meat, but they are cheaper to feed. I got 120lbs of meat (and about 15lbs of fat) from our two AGH. We spent about $300 on organic grain. The meat is divine, the fat melts in your mouth like butter. I’ve slated to get a breeding pair this fall so we have piggies in the pipeline all the time. I’m planning on doing things like growing masses of squash to help lower the feed bill.

 

[Parront]

The guy that guided me through the butchering of our pigs has potbellies. He breeds them with American Guinea Hogs and his family eats them or sells them as feeders. They grow faster than either parent breed but have similar fat content. He slaughters the pure pot belly piglets at about 6-8 months and cooks them whole in his smoker. He says they aren’t really worth growing out. He likes the smaller pig breeds for similar reasons I do, 1) they are less likely to hurt you 2) you can grow them out with minimal grain input 3) they are easier to manage while butchering (not too heavy). You have to slaughter more to get the same weight of meat, but they are cheaper to feed. I got 120lbs of meat (and about 15lbs of fat) from our two AGH. We spent about $300 on organic grain. The meat is divine, the fat melts in your mouth like butter. I’ve slated to get a breeding pair this fall so we have piggies in the pipeline all the time. I’m planning on doing things like growing masses of squash to help lower the feed bill.