Potbelly pigs for meat?

[CuriousQueen]

I buy pork from a local farmer who raises Berkshire hogs. It is a marbled pork and the best I have ever eaten, including high end restaraunts. Some fat gives flavor. If the meat is too lean it tastes like shoe leather.
If I ever raised pigs, that would be the breed I would get.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

@Farmer Connie , I was more thinking along the lines of there's a real chance that if you're planning on breeding pigs you may want to raise/sell some for things like 4H, county fairs, other small breeders, etc. Even if initially your goal is to raise for meat, many people find that they're better off also selling live animals. In those cases you probably want to try for purebred, high-quality animals with a documented genetic history, over any ol' crossbreed as they will sell better and widen your market. You can always sell an 'expensive' pig for cheap meat, you can't sell a cheap meat pig as an expensive breeder.

I absolutely agree that selective cross-breeding outside of your usual lines can do great things to improve the bloodlines of a population. Especially if your goal is a chunky meat animal, not a breeding line.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

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@Farmer Connie , I was more thinking along the lines of there's a real chance that if you're breeding pigs you may want to raise/sell some for things like 4H, county fairs, other small breeders, etc. In those cases you probably want to try for purebred, high-quality animals with a documented genetic history, over any ol' crossbreed as they will sell better and widen your market. You can always sell an 'expensive' pig for cheap meat, you can't sell a cheap meat pig as an expensive breeder.

I absolutely agree that selective cross-breeding outside of your usual lines can do great things to improve the bloodlines of a population. Especially if your goal is a chunky meat animal, not a breeding line.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Thanks. XD I'm having a similar problem with both rabbits and chickens - I'm trying to import rare varieties to an area where there are none of them. So I understand the difficulties all too well. :O Sometimes crossing out is a requirement just for health reasons.

 

[Folly's place]

There's a farm near here that raises Mangalica (?) hogs, a haired pig breed from Hungary, that's basically a lard type hog, producing LOTS of fat (lard) and very yummy marbled meat. I'd never seen them, and stopped to visit one day, just to ask about them.
Definitely fine in cold weather! His animals are out on pasture with shelters, so not in confinement, and have a better life.
I've always liked the modern market type hog, long and lean, rather than the older 'rounder' types, but it's true that marbling greatly improves flavor!
Pigs are very interesting, smart animals, needing very good fencing, and I won't be raising them here anytime soon.
Mary

 

[Lazy Farmer]

There's a farm near here that raises Mangalica (?) hogs, a haired pig breed from Hungary, that's basically a lard type hog, producing LOTS of fat (lard) and very yummy marbled meat. I'd never seen them, and stopped to visit one day, just to ask about them.
Definitely fine in cold weather! His animals are out on pasture with shelters, so not in confinement, and have a better life.
I've always liked the modern market type hog, long and lean, rather than the older 'rounder' types, but it's true that marbling greatly improves flavor!
Pigs are very interesting, smart animals, needing very good fencing, and I won't be raising them here anytime soon.
Mary

 

[OkieChickenGal]

I really wanted a couple of American Guinea hog piglets, but there aren't any around here.. Are the purebreeds better for meat than mix breeds?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Er, lemme break it down a little, and this is true for ALL livestock not just pigs;

Purebred Animals
Pros:
Have recognizable genetic traits including temperament, size, flavor or fat patterns that buyers, including restaurants or private meat buyers, may prefer
Usually sells easier, or has a wider range of people you CAN sell to
Have a known genetic history for things like litter sizes, adult weights, dressage %, etc.
May carry a pedigree or other paperwork that makes the offspring eligible for higher sales prices
Breeds true (consistent traits from one generation to the next)
Could raise a rare breed that gets you featured on something like the Livestock Conservancy breeders directory, etc.
Cons:
More expensive to get, especially high-quality breeding stock
Can be inbred, reducing litter sizes and overall health
Hard to raise more than one breed at a time means you get only one set of traits.

Crossbred Animals
Pros:
Lots of genetic diversity, so no chance of inbreeding problems
Best-of-both-world traits (such as a combination of fast growing and marbling)
Cheap and easy to find
Hybrid vigor in a cross-bred animal may mean a bigger and faster growing baby than either parent
Hybrid vigor may mean a healthier and more hardy animal
First generation crosses probably come from two high-quality parents and gets good traits from both
Cons:
Does not breed true
May or may not pass down any positive traits to offspring
Offspring sell more cheaply and have few markets outside meat production
No way to control what traits future generations might have without a few more generations of breeding
Way more likely to have some random recessive gene pop up that's bad
Basically a total toss-up genetically after the first generation

-x-

So if you're raising for one generation, just raising a few feeder pigs, go ahead and get the crossbred pigs. They will grow fast and healthy, they are cheap and easy to get, it will give you a good feel for what you might need in the future.
If you are raising for more than one generation for yourself only with NO chance of selling anything but meat, crossbred animal can be OK too (but will be worse for selling meat to high-end buyers). You never know what you will get, but you can just always keep the very best each year and go from there.

If you ever have ANY plans of selling to other people, consider aiming for a purebred animal and consistent breeding goals (which can include occasional crossbreeding for diversity with a carefully selected animals that improves the specific traits you need). Purebred animals open up a lot of markets you'll wanna consider wiggling into. You will be able to guarantee specific traits to your customers. You can point at the paperwork you've maintained and say "Look, this line has had 12-baby litter for 3 generations and have 6 show wins in their history. That means the babies I'm selling you will probably have 12-baby litters and possible show wins too." If you are crossbreeding, you can't do that. If you raise a rarer breed you can charge a fair amount for the offspring to other potential breeders as well - more than any crossbred animal is worth.

Neither one is "better", more like they have different advantages and disadvantages.

 

[chickens really]

View attachment 1440712
They are a cross from 2 rapid growth types. They price is average. The lighter color ones will get sunburn though. Pasture with trees I hope
Pigs don't have sweat glands, thus the reason they love cool mud.

That's too adorable....

 

[Novalynn]

Potbelly pigs are pet pigs these days. They were once considered a lard pig. They are not good for meat, instead they put on tons of fat and very little muscle, leading to an amazing lard harvest and very little meat. If you want meat, I would not bother with a potbelly. Travel a little further and get something better.

That's a lie pot belly pigs sre just pigs from vietnam. They have very little fat unless you fatten them up they are very good to eat they are a lot easier to butcher than a big hog that only takes you about a day to butcher and don't let anybody tell you that pot belly pigs are not good to eat and then they're inferior because that is a lie a pig is a pig is a pig . It's pork. I raise pot belly pigs eating and they have so much better bacon and so much better ribs than any other pig. Don't let them tell you that it's no good because that is a lie.