Pigs

Askim

hi, anyone any tips to share, me i am in 2nd year fattening, 2 last year & 4 this year, butcher kills & i cut up & cure, make sasuages & black pudding, anyone have a good recipe for pudding ?

corazon

Thinking of getting a few pigs myself. I am on 3.5 acres in the midlands and have hens and a polytunnel. Anyone made salami or chorizo with their pork?

Davenjulie

we kept pigs for the first time this year. They have just come back from the butcher and taste great:) The only disapointment was that they had quite a poor meat to fat ratio which was probably due to the fact that they were rather small and we probably fed them too much. Used the tape measure method to weigh them but it was way out. Method worked out about 95kilos when they went to slaughter but dead weight was only 60 kilos. This was probably due to the fact that OSB's are rather long pigs which maybe skewed the results.

knownothing

try asking some of the older polish people,as they know all about pig killing ,processing etc.as one who has sampled much of their produce, i can vouch for their knowhow .i speak not of shop bought produce.to have good eating pig,you must kill early and go for quality not quantity.also some pigs are more suitable for our needs than others .type of feed also has a big efect regards ,meat to fat ratio.also it is a matter of taste: jack sprat and wife etc,:)

cra

Davenjulie your measuring method was not to far out as pigs kill out at around 70% of liveweight so you were only out by a few kilo.

Davenjulie

Thanks cra.
Would 95 kilos be the weight to aim for then as our butcher said the pigs were very small?

cra

Your butcher would have thought that because intensively rared pigs are fattened to 110kg plus so that would be what he's used to.
As for a target weight, years ago they used to kill pork pigs at 90kgs and bacon pigs at 110kgs, it's up to you after that. I try to finish mine between 95-100 to get a 65-70kg carcass. If you were happy with the size of the rashers etc. you got back then you could judge by that.

Askim

i would agree with cra, kept 2 for the first time last year, aim was to feed them well, keep them happy & get both to the butcher, this year i have a better meal, feeding less meal, make them eat turnips ( had to give away 2 car trailer loads last year ) and loads of other veg

abusingelves

The size of the rasher cannot be used as a reliable guide, as different breeds have different muscle mass in the longisimus muscle. Our saddlebacks ended up with a relatively small rasher as a consequence of their relatively small longisimus muscle, despite them being well over 110Kg.
We will definitely not be allowing them to get this heavy again. 95-100 sounds about right.

We made Chorizo and Salami this year.
They have been hanging for just over a month now. The salami needs a lot more time, and hasn't been tried yet.
The chorizo we put in tomato sauce for pasta at 3 weeks and it was very good. It also tastes great cold, but it needs more time.