The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Cjnewton82 on August 30, 2013, 07:09:01 pm
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Just wanted to check Peoples opinion this year I raise my pigs to Pork weight I had all boys but when I spoke to my butcher he recommended girls next year because he thinks there much better because they have in his words not mine "bigger bums"
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Reminds me of my husband who once said we should have put the hens in the pot rather than the cockerels (all of a laying breed) as the hens would have given more breast meat ;D
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I don't think in reality you'd notice the difference. Our gilts are a bigger carcass that the boars but only because we send the boars first so the gilts are grown a bit longer.
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i never noticed. our boys grew quicker im sure.
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Boars definitely grow faster and better than gilts (I hate it when people say "boys and girls", by the way).
Butchers are used to commercial pigs, which mature a lot faster than traditional breeds, so they are used to detecting boar taint in sexually mature male pigs when the pigs are "modern" (i.e. genetically improved) breeds. That's the reason.
Personally, I've never had a problem with traditional breed boars reared to about eight months old (and friends have kept them longer without complaints).
Your choice.