The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Ginny B on April 11, 2009, 01:07:12 pm
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Hi ... my intensions were all good ... loads of advice ( lots from this site ) buy two little girl weaner's ... really good electric fence supported by sheep fencing ... ark in place ... water in place ... food in place ... if I waited any longer I would die ... sooo off we went !! ... our two little girls had a brother who was going to be left on his own ... so home he came too ... Colin ... he just looked like a Colin OK ! so to my question ... I was led to believe that Colin would be OK to stay with his sisters until 6 months ... but I'm reading "our farm" by Rosie Boycott and she says that pigs come to sexual maturity at 3 months ... do i need to move Colin before 6 months ... he is nearly 10 weeks now ... please help ... I don't want any accidents ... cheers from Tasmania ... hope you are enjoying some better spring weather
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I along with others I know keep boys and girls together. We only take the boys on to 22 weeks though, some will say longer some will say less, but 6 months seems to be the separation time.
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I notice you seem to refer to one of your pigs as a 'Colin' I don't know if this a breed of pig or what.
Hopefully it's not a name like the human name 'Colin' as this is a really bad move.
I'm new to pig keeping too and this site is full of info and support, the one thing everyone in the know says is don't name them. Mine are pigs, that's all, just pigs.
David.
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I keep mine together till they are around 5 months old, then split them!! They are Tamworths, if that makes a difference!
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Mine normally stay together until just on 26 weeks up until that time I dont think the gilts come into season. Re naming them, it makes no difference, it hurts just as much if you take pig and pig and pig to the abattoir as it does if you take Colin, Susan and Mary. Had a lot of experience at this, it gets a bit easier the more you do, but it never becomes easy. Then thats all part of pig keeping.
I should explain our reason for naming pork pigs is that both OH and I do the looking after, so if one is not up to the weather its much easier to use a name to qualify which pig needs watching rather than pig 1 or big pig or not so big pig.
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the one thing everyone in the know says is don't name them.
Giving them a name doesn't make any difference to the flavour of the meat ;D
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I used to have a cat called Colin!
I have no idea whether we'll name our pigs or not, but I would imagione that either way its going to be hard sending them of to slaughter.
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Hello,
All depends on what breed they are. Commercial breeds would mature earlier but I reckon 3 months is a bit too soon. We'd run boy & girl Tamworths together up to around 7 months old with no bother.
Cheers
Gavin
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Mirimaran, its always hard sending them off, the consolation is knowing they had the best of lives and knowing that in a week or two you will be sourcing some more. (And the pork never lasts long anyway cos its so delicious).
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OH thinks we should name them. He wants them to be called Dot and Delia!
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Nice names, go for it. My OH likes 2 to go together so that he doesn't know if he is eating George or Geraldine. It does get easier sending them off, its never easy though. I do go with all ours, in order to make sure the final few minutes are as comfortable and stress free as possible.
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When you say you go with them how far do you go. It never entered my head not to go with the pigs to the abattoir. Do you actually walk through with to the point of slaughter or do you just take them to the abattoir. I'm very curious about what you mean!
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Cheers for info ... and yes Colin is his name along with Pinky and Perky !! ... they are Heinz 57 variety ... it just didn't feel right for me not to name them, they are now part of our lives for however long and have already given us so much pleasure ...Sourcing different breeds here in Tasmania is not so easy ... we can from the mainland but the rules and regs here are so slack that i don't feel happy to unless i can see for myself where they are coming from ... i was shocked to discover that we needed no licences or paper work of any discreption ... no building regs to adhere to ... no man from the council to deal with ... you seem to have to jump through hoops and deal with 'more than my jobs worth plonkers' to keep these lovely animals and us nothing ... whatever happened to common sense and middle ground? ... have briefly looked into importing sperm ... but will what and see how colin and the girls go first !
Ginny
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Mirimaran, when clients ask for the home kill butcher (it is legal here) I stay to the bitter end; (he uses a humane killer) when taking to the abattoir I walk them right to the door. I have never been allowed through. Although I wait for them to come and tell me they have gone. Around a minute from leaving me to his coming out. I am told the process takes 4 seconds.
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Ginny the French tend to take the middle way most of the time. In the UK because of a couple of bodge ups by the big boys or Govt. the smallholder has to take the pain and jump through hoops with the rest. No middle way in UK,
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Six months is about right, although I find it's often easier to separate earlier both physically and because I like to get the pigs settled into family/friendship groups as soon as possible. But I've never heard of pigs becoming sexually mature at three months.
And we name all our Saddlebacks except the ones we sell as weaners. Names just pop into my head anyway and I believe it makes the whole experience of pig-keeping more enjoyable. Yes, it hurts every time I take pigs to slaughter, but it would hurt anyway.
Good luck with Colin and the girls.
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I named two of ours Crackling and Sausage. THis gallows humour didn't go down so well with the "female contingent" - so they're now Talulah and Lola.
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hi all, very interested in reading all your posts. I am just now starting to look into pig keeping. I don't know much about the rules and regs from the govt. perspective. Can anyone point me in the right direction.
any advice much appreciated :)