The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: ppd on August 01, 2012, 07:48:22 pm
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Hi :wave:
I have just phoned the abbatoir today to check on what I need re pigs ID and either ear tag or slap mark will be fine, so went ahead and ordered a slapmarker. Now they are not cheap when you are as small scale as me, but as I indend keeping pigs for a good few years yet I thought that it was a worthy investment. But what I didn't know or have never seen discussed on here is that some abbatoirs will slap mark your pigs for you (they offered this to me). So if you were only raising a handful of weaners to clear ground etc. and thought that the expense of buying one was a bit much then you could see if the abbatoir had the facilities to do it for you. The one thing that I did wonder is how would they do it and would it make the piggies a bit stressed just before salughter :-\
Anyway it may be worth any small scale pig keepers to find out and maybe save a few pennies ;D
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Ear tags are cheaper, why not do that?
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It is my first time raising weaners - but - once the head comes off what's to say which carcass is yours?
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Hiya - personally, and this is only MY opinion....I would invest in your slap marker. If you feel its something you're going to do several times....and rearing pigs is highly addictive ;) , then its worth it. You can then slap them a couple of days before they're due to go. Do it whilst they're eating and they barely notice...although they might glare at you for a second or two .... and then the job is done and you know that your 'meat' is going to come back with your herd mark on it and be easily identifiable. :thumbsup:
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Blinkers exactly my thoughts too, would rather it was me doing it over a bucket of lovely feed and I can already picture 'The Glower, :o
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have they told you you wont get the head back :farmer:
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Hi Robert :wave:
Yes, I can get the heads back, but would prefer to get the 'right' body rather than the 'right' head :innocent:
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stick to tammies, then u can see the ginger hairs. ;D ;D
did u get the tammie sow u mentioned a while back?
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Hi ppiggy
She is coming once the boys go in a couple of weeks! Fencer hasn't got back to us so only one field piggie proof at the moment and hope to fit in a couple of weaners before abbatior deadline for christmas!
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just get them to leave the head on the body plus there should be some hairs left to identify the pig :farmer:
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slapshot is v quick, id say less stressful than a tag.
did u find some weaners in the end? we have tammies gilt weaners ready at end of august.
my sows share with youngsters, just some get fed separately if needed. once they sort out whose boss, they r fine. we have giant sty and they all all pile in together.
i dont think ud get ur carcuss swapped on purpose, unless u had it in perfect low fat condition, if u r a pig beginner then i doubt itl be a perfect carcuss, takes time and experience to get it right and butchers r fussy, so i wouldnt worry. we did get sheep lost once at abattoir tho but that was an accident.
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Can you let me now which abattoir is offering this, they'll need a complete slapmark kit and a couple of minutes to set yours up. Pigs are slapped with the abattoir's number as part of meat hygiene inspections, was this possibly what they meant?
The wrong pig back is very rare, and yes there are examples of it, just as there are examples of people walking out of their house to be immediately hit by a lorry, but you still step outside. Slapmarking does give better confirmation (esp if the abattoir is going to butcher as well), but this is a choice.
On stress, slapping just before slaughter should not add stress unless very badly done, most pigs just react for seconds to the slap.
Technically it would be illegal under PRIMO 2011 to move the pig to the abattoir wihtout either a slapmark or a tag.
Final thought is that if several people left their pigs at the abattoir for slapping this would increase the risk of your pig getting the wrong number, and you getting the wrong pig back.
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Your slap marker and ink will last you for years if you're only sending a couple of pigs off at a time so cost wise won't be expensive at all. I slap bums and shoulders so am sure of getting my own pigs back and the pigs have jumped a bit but carried on eating lovely treats so I'm sure it is no more than a slight irritation to them.
I got my slapper and ink from Supplies for Smallholders and can't rate them highly enough!
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Thanks Sylvia - The slapper you have is the type used commercially at all the major pig units in the UK and Ireland - so should last you a lifetime!
On the subject of stress - I would certainly recommend slapping before travelling to the slaughterhouse, as the journey / unloading etc needs to be as easy as possible.
The very very large slaughterhouses do everything possible to reduce stress in pigs, they dont use electric shocks to render the pigs unconcious - another method is used. And last time I had a conversation with my contact he told me they were carrying out trials with filling the air with a citrus (oranges) odour, as it was felt that waiting pigs could "smell" the slaughtering process and their stress levels increased because of this.
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Supplies for Smallholders - can't rate them highly enough!
same here ;D ;D ;D
got my tags in 2 days, well impressed!
:wave: :wave: :wave:
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SFS the smell is detected even by humans well i could always smell it even when i was a child and the last time i saw a cow going through the system you could see the fear in her so far i have never seen a pig going through the process :farmer:
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Hi Robert,
Sorry I dont think I was very clear in what I wrote.
Its not the general abbertoir stink that they are trying to mask, there is a view that the pigs waiting can somehow smell the adrenalin given off by pigs being slaughtered which causes them to get stressed.
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wither it is adrenaline or just the smell all animals can sense it even turkeys the first one out the shed dose not bother getting caught but by the time you get to the last six or more depends on how many you started with they know they are on a one way trip
i think there are at least 3 smells in an abattoir the smell from the killing process the adrenalin smell if that is not the same as the first and a general stink that indicates something just not cleaned esp in hot weather smelt this once at a bacon curers in winter with a heavy frost :farmer:
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Hi oaklands
It was Dingwall and he def offered to do a slap mark for me. Now whether he was going to do it in the trailor, before unloading, I don't really know because I said that I was happy to buy one for myself and I would rather do it. I got my slapper from SFS too as seemed like good quality and will last me for years! (Not received it yet but only ordered yesterday)
Sylvia I was just going to slap shoulders as saddlebacks. If you slap bums that are black, would it show up? Can't quite belive I am talking to a comlpete stanger about slapping bums :o :innocent:
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once they are dehaired the skin is white or more white than black :farmer:
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Can't quite belive I am talking to a comlpete stanger about slapping bums :o :innocent:
wait til u decide to AI...lol...
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Ah yes I did read the 'vulva watch' thread ::)
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We've just sent our 3rd batch of pigs off. The first two we ear-tagged, but wasted a few as they kept falling out.
We then invested in a slap marker from SFS, and did the 4 pigs no bother.
This time hubby slapped the current 2 pigs whilst they were eating - again no bother at all.
Much easier ;)
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Re SFS and Robert's comments on pigs getting stressed before slaughter - it wasn't like that at all at our abbatoir (Laverstoke) where there is a viewing gallery. First we watched a group of 3 pigs that belonged to someone else, then a group of 3 of ours. Both times, all 3 pigs were eagerly sniffing around this new pen they had just been taken to, pig #1 gave out a minute squeak as it was electrocuted before being hooked up and removed through the plastic curtain for sticking (all within 10 seconds), the other two took absolutely no notice at all, then it was the turn of pig #2, once again no reaction at all from pig #3, then it too was stunned. It was all very surprising to see, and a huge relief, as I had been dreading the second and third one getting freaked out watching #1 falling over and being hoisted away right in front of their noses, but they really didn't seem aware of anything unusual going on at all. Having seen this twice has made taking our pigs to slaughter a very much easier business emotionally, knowing that they are just doing completely normal piggy things right up to the very last micro second, and appear to have no idea at all that their life, or their sister/brother's, is just about to end. Tamsaddle
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Yes ppd, the slap marks show up quite clearly :)
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Hi oaklands
It was Dingwall and he def offered to do a slap mark for me. Now whether he was going to do it in the trailor, before unloading, I don't really know because I said that I was happy to buy one for myself and I would rather do it. I got my slapper from SFS too as seemed like good quality and will last me for years! (Not received it yet but only ordered yesterday)
Sylvia I was just going to slap shoulders as saddlebacks. If you slap bums that are black, would it show up? Can't quite belive I am talking to a comlpete stanger about slapping bums :o :innocent:
Thanks for the info.
as for "If you slap bums that are black, would it show up? - All pigs dress out white, the black is like a thin layer of paint that is scraped off as part of the de-hairing (called scolding) process.
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Thanks all :wave:
Got my slap marker today and only ordered it 2 days ago - so well done SFS :wave: And I shouldn't tell you this, but I will :o I unpacked the said slapper, beautifully wrapped in tissue paper too and thought 'but it's back to front!' , then thought about it for a minute ??? - what a numpty I am :P :dunce: