[Justin]

This year we raised our first pigs, a pair of Berkshire boys. They've been surprisingly easy to look after and quite the pair of characters. Last week came the fateful day to take them to slaughter.

I'd tried a couple of days earlier but they just weren't getting into the trailer no matter how hard we tried. In the end, we left the trailer open backed against the gate and fed them in there for a couple of days until they got the hang of it, then on the appropriate morning, they were in before I had the bucket in there. Duly noted for next time and something to do a couple of days ahead.

I had planned to have a go at butchering them myself but time at the moment is too short so have a local butcher service doing them but I'll aim to do one of them myself next year. Had a call this morning to say they'd arrived at the butchers and were 78 & 80kg. Perhaps a little more fat that ideal but not bad. Will have to figure out feeding next years lot perhaps a little less, or take them a couple of weeks earlier. Discussed how best to make use of them and what sort of joints we'd want.

Tomorrow I should have a freezer full of meat and a great result from our first proper livestock adventure. We're thinking of having 4 next year and possibly our first sheep. I might need to buy another freezer at this rate

[greenbeast]

Berkshires are a little prone to laying down fat.
Glad it's gone well, they're a lovely breed, we have two sows we've just weaned and put back in with the boar

[harmony]

It is advised not to take berkshires to much more than 65 kilos liveweight. After that they lay down fat.

[Caroline1]

We did 2 and then 3 but went back to having 2 the next time. We got a bit over confident but actually there is only so much pork you actually want to eat  we also butchered the 3 ourselves, great experience but back breaking. Would suggest just doing 1 and getting the butcher to do the other. They make it look so easy, there is definitely a knack to learn 

Enjoy there is nothing like the taste of your own efforts

[Justin]

It is advised not to take berkshires to much more than 65 kilos liveweight. After that they lay down fat.

ah, that's worth knowing for the future, thanks.

[Justin]

We did 2 and then 3 but went back to having 2 the next time. We got a bit over confident but actually there is only so much pork you actually want to eat  we also butchered the 3 ourselves, great experience but back breaking. Would suggest just doing 1 and getting the butcher to do the other. They make it look so easy, there is definitely a knack to learn 

Enjoy there is nothing like the taste of your own efforts

Yeah, doing just one myself next year sounds like a plan. I have the river cottage video and all of Scott Rea's videos downloaded for study.

[greenbeast]

We did 2 and then 3 but went back to having 2 the next time. We got a bit over confident but actually there is only so much pork you actually want to eat  we also butchered the 3 ourselves, great experience but back breaking. Would suggest just doing 1 and getting the butcher to do the other. They make it look so easy, there is definitely a knack to learn 

Enjoy there is nothing like the taste of your own efforts

We've done quite well eating mostly pork for over a year now, but quite glad to have our own veal meat and chickens in the freezer now  too

[Justin]

I expect we'll be eating a lot of pork, just as well we enjoy it. There's a bunch of venison in the freezer at the moment too, and we're looking at raising chickens for meat next year, not just the ones we have for eggs.

We're opening our little glamping site next year, so it will be great to be able to offer guests eggs and bacon produced here on the farm along with an assortment of porky goodies to buy.

[TheSmilingSheep]

Glad it's going well, and you're enjoying it....  Your reference to the freezer made me smile... we've just bought no.6 on gumtree!!!!  And I'm reminded of husband's first pig butchering weekend at a friend's home in Dorset, years ago.  Big barn, small laptop propped up showing a river cottage video, big knives, pet dogs salivating near by.... looked like something out of a cohen brother's film!
I see you're in devon too - if you're planning proper free range chickens for meat we'd be very interested if you were thinking of selling any.  It's something we've thought of doing ourselves but so far haven't made the time to put it into action.  It would be a great motivation to try out someone else's to find out how delicious real home-grown chicken might be..... (very good thread on chickens for meat on the chicken page - but you've no doubt found that already!).

[Piggerswiggers]

Check out QMSmootube videos for butchery guidance. I prefer it to Scott Rea as it just seems easier to see. Our third pair of pigs went to departure lounge on Monday and I've butchered them all so far and it really does get easier! I also did a pig in a day course at the artisan food school which improved my confidence.
We had Berkshires this time and they were lovely pigs, killed at 30 weeks and 67 and 70kg each deadweight. We were completely anal with measuring their feed as it's so easy to over feed them and we'd been warned that they tend to get fat. Lovely long loins with really good eyes of meat for back bacon and about 2-3 cm back fat.
Only problem is that I rather miss my boys.............. Roll on next Spring so we can get some replacements.

[Justin]

Been away from here for a couple of months, so much going on with renovating the house, running off and getting married and also preparing for our site opening.

The pigs have been in the freezer for a while now and we've been thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our labours. It's been really interesting tasting the difference between shop bought pork, even really well sourced local stuff, and our home raised meat.

I've always been a bit of a Jack Spratt, never liked fat much. The first time we cooked some chops, well, the taste of the fat was so sweet. My wife and I just looked at each other and both said 'we're never going to go back to buying it, are we'.

However, I think I slightly underestimated just how big a volume two pigs take up and we are definitely going to need more freezers as we're going to raise 4 this year, two to pork weight and two to bacon, so we have plenty to sell to customers staying with us.

Now, I really must go and look up HFW's recipes to use up the heads, trotters, ears etc and how to make proper pork scratchings as I need to free up some space for some more venison.