This little piggie went to the market....

[TimG]

I helped with a pig slaughter recently, my first. You'll need some special equipment, most notably a tub big enough to soak your pig in that the water can be heated in and something to carry the pig around and lift it in and out of the tub. You should see if you can't find someone who is doing one of their own pigs and get invited over to help.

I was surprised that the dead pigs kicked for a few minutes just like chickens only with considerably more force.

Tim

 

[petrelline]

The scalder we used in our class was a 55 gal drum with a propane heater underneath it, like a chicken scalder only larger. We used a simple pulley on a hook form the barn ceiling to hoist up the pig into the scalder, and then pulled it back out again onto a plain old costco banquet table to scrape the hair off. It took two scalds to get it all, plus singeing and this part was by far the most tedious -- way way more work than feather picking.

 

[buff-eye]

We did two pigs three weeks ago and it was a group effort. On saturday we killed and let bleed out, skinned, cut in half and let hang for the night. The next morning we do the rest of the processing. Pork chops, ribs, bacon, and the hams. We grind up the the and make breakfast, sweet italian, hot italian and plus we made some goetta for the first time. Three days to cure bacon and a couple of months on the hams. Its all so tasty we won't do it any other way.

 

[dancingbear]

We got ours on May 8th, they were about 6 weeks or so old. They were about 25-30 lbs.

We could have butchered in September, they were huge by then. The males were around 200 lbs., the girls were around 180-190. The weather was way too warm, though, so we had to wait. The first chance we had to butcher was the beginning of November, the next was Thanksgiving.

The first one, the forecast had said it would be cool enough for about 3 days. Then it changed, warmed up, and we had to rush, butchering the day before we had intended, and we weren't really set up yet. It was also our very first pig ever, and nobody with experience around to help. So we got him gutted and hung up, let him cool over night, then we were up early, trying to get him skinned and cut up before it got too warm. It was quite an ordeal.

Here's a copy-and-paste account I posted on another forum, so I don't have to type it all again, 1st post:
Anybody who's butchered a hog and scraped off the hair, what did you use for a scraper? Those bell scrapers seem to have gotten a little hard to find, and pricey. Seems like there'd be something else that might work as well, or nearly.

We butchered one so far, we skinned it. This was a major PITA, as I want to save the fat and render it for lard. A pig's hide doesn't peel cleanly off like a deer's hide does. I lost a lot of the fat, and had a heck of a time cleaning hair off of everything before I could cut it up. Hair sticks to fat, and can be hard to see. It's hard to remove the hide without cutting deeply into the fat, so you have all these little "fat petals" hanging off the carcass. Each one getting hair in it.

We don't have a tub or barrel to dunk in yet, I read that you can lay a heavy towel or burlap on it, and pour hot water on it and let set for a few minutes.

A friend told me his dad used to torch off the hair. That may be what we end up doing, anybody tried that? I know the roots would still be there, but at least the hair wouldn't be stuck in the fat.

2nd post, after we tried something else:
The 2nd pig was butchered Thanksgiving day, and was lot easier than the first one. We did end up using a torch to burn off the hair, it was so much easier then skinning, and we had a clean carcass to gut an hang. We let it hang overnight in the barn, it was a nice, cold, night. We cut it up the next day, and had most of it in the freezer by that night. We were able to fit what was left in the spare fridge so I could finish it up over the next couple of days. I went ahead and froze the bacon slabs, I'll thaw and cure them later.

Del found out our feed people use a reciprocating saw to cut through the bones when they butcher. Sears had a 6 amp one on sale for $40, so I ordered it, Del will pick it up after work, and the next pig will go even easier, and a lot faster!

So the torching process was this: I swept the torch (Del found one with a nice, long tube, so we don't have to bend over while burning the hair) back and forth, against the grain of the hair, repeating until each area until it's pretty well covered in ash and soot. Del used a long-handled scrub brush, looks like a mini-push broom, and the garden hose, to rinse and scrub. Once an area was scrubbed, I went over it some more with the torch. When there's ash built up, it blocks the flame, so frequent scrubbing helps a lot. I took about an hour to finish torching and scrubbing, before we were ready to gut the pig. We also tried scraping, but the scrub brush turned out to be faster and easier, and work better, too.

We have a low platform Del made, to drag with the tractor, for transporting big pigs (or other large meat creatures) and managed to roll him up on there with the help of a tarp, and gutted him on that. We don't have anything near where we can run a hose, to hang an animal that size, so we had to gut him down n the platform, on the ground. It would probably be a lot easier if we could hang them up to gut. We could run a hose down to the barn, but then we'd be sliding around in mud trying to clean the pig.

Evisceration took about an hour, then we hosed out the carcass, dragged B'rer Pig (strapped onto the platform) down to the barn and hung him up, on Del's home-made gambrel, (which turned out not heavy enough, it bent, but it served the purpose anyway) and let him cool until the next day.

We did end up skinning pieces as we processed, but by then we were in the house, out of the cold, and the pieces were small and easy to manage. We could cut the skin off more easily, without mangling either the fat or meat underneath, and without getting hair all over everything.

By the next time we raise pigs, we'll have a better set-up, since we'll have a much better idea what we need, after all this. We don't have a scale to weigh the meat on, we're guessing we got about 200-250 lbs per pig. The last 2 are the 2 females, and a little smaller, we won't be doing them until after Christmas. They're probably about 50 lbs lighter than the males were.

End of copy. Here's a link for anybody who may want to read the rest of that thread. http://bb.bbboy.net/thejourneyforum-viewthread?forum=3&thread=75&postnum=0

So next time we raise pigs, we're waiting until around July to get them, and start with weaner pigs, 6-10 weeks old. 4 or 5 months is plenty of time to grow them out, and that way we won't be pouring huge amounts of feed into them way past the 200-250 lbs mark. Once they hit around 250, any additional weight gain is almost all fat. And when the weather gets cold, they eat more. A lot of the food energy goes into staying warm. We ended up feeding them 2-4 months longer than it took to get over 200 lbs. And that's the time when they eat the most. We were going through (before we killed the first 2) almost 200 lbs of feed a week. That's an expensive mistake. We didn't have anyway to take to have them processed, so we had to wait for cold weather. Now, we're having to wait for not-quite-as-cold-weather, so the pig won't freeze while hanging overnight to cool. Del had to be gone over X-mas, we were gonna try to do one this weekend now that he's home, but it's really gonna be too cold.

Jeff, you're a braver soul than I, raising piggies in the winter! I wouldn't want to, the big ones are having a hard time now that it's cold. We really need to butcher ASAP.

Do you know about giving them iron?

 

[TimG]

Quote:
Did it take two scalds because the whole pig wouldn't fit into the 55 gallon drum?

 

[Brunty_Farms]

No, I don't please fill me in on the Iron.... I tend to get animals first ask how to raise them later.

I have a regular pig feed for them... along with some of that Calf Mania I was supposed to buy. Should I get a mineral block? Or is there another little secret I should know.

By the way that link from Poylface was great!

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
You only have to worry about Iron in newborns piglets reared in farrowing houses that don't have access to soil. Iron does not cross the placenta so piglet are born iron deficient. Teh Iron supplementation, usually a shot of Iron Dextran, overcomes this deficiency. If pigs are housed outside where they can access soil, there is typically no need for supplemental Iron.

Jim

 

[dancingbear]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Quote:
You only have to worry about Iron in newborns piglets reared in farrowing houses that don't have access to soil. Iron does not cross the placenta so piglet are born iron deficient. Teh Iron supplementation, usually a shot of Iron Dextran, overcomes this deficiency. If pigs are housed outside where they can access soil, there is typically no need for supplemental Iron.

Jim

Yeah, I was told that, too. Read it in a couple of books, too. Then one of my mostly grown pigs, outside, (you saw the pics, right?) quit eating. He was lethargic. I was frantic. Called a vet, he had me stop in and describe what was happening, he gave me some shots to give him, B-complex, and a couple of other things, but I forget what they were. I gave the pig the shots, (these pigs normally wouldn't let you walk up and touch them. I was able to walk up and give this pig 3 shots, me nervously watching the others pigs the whole time, Del was out on the road, I couldn't reach any neighbors to come over and help) it didn't seem to help, he was still going downhill. Iron wasn't one of them, he told me that same thing you did.

I called a friend, she had a guy she knows who raises pigs, lots of pigs, has for years and years. He called me the next day, and I told him all the same stuff I told the vet. He said not a lot usually goes wrong with pigs, and anemia in a pig that age, on dirt, is unusual, but that was what it sounded like. He suggested giving him an iron shot. I had Del pick up the iron injection (yeah, Iron Dextran, like you said) from TSC on his way home from work, and gave Mr. Pig a shot as soon as Del got home. By the next morning, Mr. Pig perked back up, and I got him to eat a little. By that evening, he seemed back to normal.

I found out later, that areas with a lot of limestone tend to not have iron in the soil. KY has lots and lots of limestone. It appears that we don't have a lot of iron in our dirt, much to my surprise. Since then, I give the pigs an occasional treat with some liquid iron mixed in. The guy who told me about the iron, said baby pigs are pretty much born anemic, he always gives his new piggies iron shots. Since then, I've found that's a fairly common practice in this area.

So, Jeff, I have no idea what kind of soil you have, or how much iron is in it. But if a pig stops eating, and isn't all hunched up or anything, (which may indicate a blockage) it may be needing a shot of iron. When they get anemic, they won't eat. It's cheap, readily available, and I will always keep it on hand when raising pigs, from now on.​

 

[Kim_NC]

Nice looking pigs, Jeff! Looks plenty cozy under the shelter too.

Interesting about the iron. We've always gotten weaner pigs, but are planning to keep a breeding pair this year. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[petrelline]

Quote:
The pig fit OK, it took two scalds cause the hair was a pain in the *ss to get off.