The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: WinslowPorker on September 06, 2012, 05:46:46 pm

Title: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: WinslowPorker on September 06, 2012, 05:46:46 pm
Hi everybody,

A quick question, how many/much sausages should I be expecting from a pig that kill weight is 84kg?? I have a really bad feeling my butcher has been significantly short changing me on how many I have been getting back!!

Please all comments will be great as I feel I have had my pants pulled down!

Thanks
Wp
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: HappyHippy on September 06, 2012, 06:07:52 pm
If the kill weight is 84Kg, I'd think you'd be looking at around 50-60Kg of cuts & sausage back altogether.
I find with the sausages that we get, there are approx 24 per kilo.
HTH
Karen  :wave:
And I hope your butcher's not at it  :-\ but shame on them if they are !
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: thestephens on September 06, 2012, 06:11:57 pm
our last Kune Kune, just over a year old, we got
86 packs of 6 sausages and other cuts if that is any use to you?
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: robert waddell on September 06, 2012, 06:38:10 pm
if your kill weight is84 kilos    that will be be with trotters  hide   offal and head    the live weight   would be about 120 kilos     so without hide head and trotters   you would expect 60 kilos  then the bones come off that weight     depends on what they put in the sausages   the weight should go up    breadcrumbs water  skins and seasoning     also depends on how clean he makes the bones    will be able to add to this over the weekend  :farmer:
there is a previous post on weights  when butchered and cuts :farmer:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: FiB on September 06, 2012, 06:40:36 pm
I guess the short answer is it depends how many he makes  ;D , Skins and labour being dear, you might have to be specific about the emphasis you want puting on sausages?  We had a similar experience - one half a pig (long story)from one butcher came with NO sausages untill I asked and then he grabed a handful from the counter - (confirmed our opinion of THAT establishment!), then 2 pigs from our butcher came back with about an upright freezer drawer of sausages per half pig.... but we did ask for lots and had a separate bill for labour, skins and ingredients aside from the normal. 
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: WinslowPorker on September 06, 2012, 08:27:39 pm
Ok so to be clear my last pigs were a carcass weight of 84kg and I had joints & chops' we got back approximately 15kg of sausages per pig. I have just spoken to a friend of mine who is a butcher that I met whilst doing farmers markets, he said that last week he butchered 8 Saddlebacks with a carcass weight of 60kg each, he said after joints and trimming the carcass very lean, he managed to get 400lb of sausage so 50lb of sausages per pig, now based that mine were 40% heavier I have estimated at 70lb or 32 kg (roughly) which in turns means I am thinking that I have been somewhat shortchanged of approx 17kg of sausages per pig, bearing in mind that I had 7 at the time, I am feeling a little agitated to say the least!


WP  ???
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: Fowgill Farm on September 06, 2012, 08:34:16 pm
to be honest i don't think you did that bad! remember you got chops too, sounds like the guy who did the saddlebacks only did joints which i presume were from the legs that means the rest of the pig went for sausages hence the large quantitiy, just had a look at my last bill and from two pigs i got 22kg sausages after the rest was butchered traditionally to joints; legs shoulders, chops & belly and one pigs wor a big lass!
HTh mandy :pig:
 
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: HappyHippy on September 06, 2012, 08:42:15 pm
Yeah, I agree with Mandy  ;)

If he got 50lbs of sausage from each pig it's possible he had less weight in terms of joints/cuts than you did. Without breaking it down in terms of 40Kg in joints and cuts and 20Kg (or whatever amounts) of sausages and comparing like for like it's going to be impossible to tell if your butcher is playing fair  :-\
I could have all my pig turned into sausages or only the shoulders - it's the how long is a piece of string scenario I'm afraid WP, but if you don't trust your butcher it's time to look for another  :innocent:
Karen  :wave:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: domsmith on September 06, 2012, 09:21:11 pm
He is talking rubbish. you could not get that amount of sausage per pig, unless they use 50% water and rusk mix!

d
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: Tudful Tamworths on September 06, 2012, 11:36:51 pm
As well as what people said above re. choice of joints and chops v sausages, it's also important to remember that everyone has a different idea about the quality and composition of sausages. I insist that mine are 90% meat - and that means no sinewy stuff, eyelids, and not TOO much fat, etc. Only the meat I would want to eat myself goes into my sausages and burgers.
 
Making sausages is a great way of stretching meat - but if you're in the pig-rearing game on a small scale and all you want is great produce, I'd say go for quality rather than quantity.
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: Padge on September 07, 2012, 07:52:05 am
i couldn't answer the debate or question but to say if you have doubts to change butcher     i know previously another member on here has expressed doubts about some of their local butchers :-\
 
 
Off topic i know  but is it possible to process the whole   or pretty much the whole carcass for sausages? :sunshine:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: robert waddell on September 07, 2012, 07:56:25 am
yes you can  :farmer:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: Padge on September 07, 2012, 07:59:27 am
thank you Robert for the super speedy reply  ;D  i guess the trick will be getting the fat balance right
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: robert waddell on September 07, 2012, 08:03:35 am
if you were to sausage the lot     it is a bit of a waste     bacon chops joints  etc       there can be more fat on the front shoulders and the rear than what is along the back       it is just that the back is used as the must be obeyed Guido  :farmer:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: Padge on September 07, 2012, 08:32:22 am
i know it seems a bit of a waste but we made sausages earlier in the year(march)   blinking loads of em      and they've all gone    but still have joints etc in freezer so figured sausages for the 2 extra miggies we took this time was the way to go :sunshine:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: domsmith on September 07, 2012, 12:44:51 pm
we get alot of people who make mainly sausages from their second lot of pigs because that what they use day in day out.

d
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: robert waddell on September 07, 2012, 05:13:09 pm
OK a bit earlier than i though     Hampshire pig liveweight 96 kilos    this was weighed on the cattle scales     deadweight   75 kilos       shoulder 15.875 kilos of meat      2.525 kilos of usable bones     4.1 kilo bones that are not usable
 
middle 11.705 kilos bacon   4.2 kilos  belly    1.115 kilos spare ribs    1.340  kilos belly scraps    0.540 kilos  tenderlions    0.295    kilos of kidneys     1.5  kilos unusable
 
rump  6.585 kilos of stew   3.305  kilos of gammon steaks  3.3 kilos haughs    1.5 kilos off trotters   2.270 kilos of skin    2.4 kilos of bones     4.970 kilos of scraps   
 
and the head weighs 7.5 kilos
 
so by my calculation   the useable meat alone is 48 520  kilos   from a Hampshire  other breeds will be a bit lighter or heavier fat does not weigh as much as meat/muscle   and also feeding would or could make a difference   that is approx half the liveweight is pure meat then bulk that out with rusk/breadcrumbs   and water  plus seasoning  and flavouring   we don't do sausages this cheap skate way so cant tell how much weight that adds or volume it bulks it out by      some sausage makers have the contents of there sausage like pate  and as tudfull has said could contain all sorts that the butcher has paid for  and will use   and you could not tell from eating just what is in there :farmer:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on September 07, 2012, 11:42:17 pm
Hi,
I butchered 2 pigs the other week for a smallholder, the pigs were approx 75 kilo each (carcass Weight)
I put all the shoulder meat into the sausages, and with the seasoning and water and rusk. this made 20 kilo of sausages per pig.
 
They also got the legs bone and rolled all the Pork chops and the belly was boned out and minced.
 
Hope this is  a bit of help  :)
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: WinslowPorker on September 08, 2012, 06:13:28 pm
ok so the butcher who said about the large amount fo sasuages called today and said that they  had also sausaged the legs in the mix, this is because the person that owned them was selling the produce at farmers market and sausages were better for him. so panic over but thanks for all your advice
WP :farmer:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: princesspiggy on September 08, 2012, 07:00:15 pm
if ur worried, just weigh what u get back, including bones. i always ask for surplus fat back too, and weight that. we struggle to get butchers to do many sausages as its time consuming and the skins are expensive.
we were going to sausage a whole pig once but the butcher wanting £300 for skins and labour so we never bothered. and just went for the normal joints, chops and 2 kg of sauages for £30 cutting fee.


 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: rudolph76 on September 09, 2012, 11:56:44 am
Just to give you a little idea of what we got back from our butcher.


We sent 2 GOS recently with a live weight of 405lb between them  :excited: [size=78%] When we collected them we weighed all the meat, not including liver, kidney etc and got, what I think to be a good return.[/size]


We had all the meat packaged as to what we wanted so could just put it straight in the freezer;


Chops - 28lb
Sausage - 18lb
Belly meat - 10lb
Joints - 146lb
Rib - 18lb


We also had a lot of extra bits, offal etc for the dogs so we were well pleased with the butcher. They also asked what size joints we wanted!!!!! Very pleased

Title: Re: All advice needed!! - how many sausage from a pig
Post by: Chicken Tilton on September 10, 2012, 10:58:59 pm
I had 9 Berkshires last year and they were around 56 kilos each but we managed to get around 10 kilos of sausages per pig but then our butcher did save everything, trotters, heads and all the good waste.
It sounds as though he could be telling the truth but you never know in these hard times.
You really need to get the dead weight before he butchers and then weigh everything when you get it back and then you can make a better judgement.
One way round this problem is have the slaughter house do the kill and then have a separate butcher come and collect them to do the cutting up. At least you can see if your id tags are your own, as i had a butcher give me a pig back which wasn't even a Berkshire but swore it was! Ive never seen a Berkshire with ears over the face!! Hope this helps