The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: MiriMaran on September 08, 2009, 09:24:09 pm
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As a newbie to pig keeping I don't have the experience to see by eye whether Snuffle looks like a good weight. I don't mean good weight for slaughter, but as in not too fat and not too thin. My hunch is that he is OK, but would like anyones opinion please. He is 6 1/2 months.
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/MiriamVernon/2009/006-4.jpg)
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Hmmm - looks about right to me - 50 roasts, a good few chops, and a packet of scratchings(http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Happy/happy-051.gif)
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He looks good to me MiriMaran...but don't let him go much longer unless you intend keeping him for breeding
farmer
:farmer:
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He looks great.
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Agreed he looks nice, but needs to get in the freezer pretty quick!!
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Thank goodness for that! I thought he looked OK, but was worried everyone would be saying he's too fat or too thin! We are planning to talk to our butcher neighbour to sort out a date for everything. He is really keen to help with the butchery and will be ordering sausages casings e.t.c. for us. We plan to see him on Monday to get the ball rolling. Talking of balls I had no idea boars whatsits were quite so large!!
I have to confess that I feel psychology ready for them to go - especially since Niffle tried to hump me the other day!!! I've loved their company, but I just see yummy food now!!
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Enormous, arent they?! Boars bits I mean. But dont you think they always have "feminine" feet - v delicate?!
Think Ive asked before, what slaughterhouse are you using, cos you're quite close to us?
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Elliots in Chesterfield then the carcasses will be delivered to Crouts Farm Shop in Duffield where out butcher neighbour works and then he'll bring the carcasses home. That's the plan anyway!
Where are you?
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You are in for the taste experience of a lifetime. Dont forget to make bacon and gammon too. Have you ordered the next 2 yet? Once your visitors, neighbours, friends have tasted the pork you wont have much left.
It amazes me how my son always manages to time his visits to when we are doing a pig for ourselves.
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Snuffle looks like he needs to go soon before his big gonads take over. I'm sure he will taste fantastic. I have just booked in two gilts to go to Branhalls at Oxspring for their holidays( so to speak). Allways an interesting time, and what its all about. They are booked in then for process by local butcher. I get quite excited by the thoughts of all that lovely pork and what we can do with it. I hope it all goes well for you.
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According to my butcher boars bits are very popular in Jamaican cookery now there could be a whole new market ...
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Thanks everyone. Is there any chance that we have left it too long and they are going to have boar taint?
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Elliots in Chesterfield then the carcasses will be delivered to Crouts Farm Shop in Duffield where out butcher neighbour works and then he'll bring the carcasses home. That's the plan anyway!
Where are you?
Thanks for that, see PM! Are you taking him yourself? Night in the trailer for him...
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Don't worry about Boar Taint...very unusual in outdoor reared pigs and not likely at such an early age
farmer
:farmer:
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And in the very unlikely event he will still make great sausages and bacon
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What's boar taint?
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Apparently boars over a certain age and maturity can taste a bit fishy or at least that's what my father-in-law says.
Night in the trailer may not be an option as the trailer we have is a bit wee. Infact, I'm a bit worried about its size so we are going to get it into the field this weekend, feed the pigs in it and see how they fit! If they don't fit comfortably we have a big problem on our hands!
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Yes. boars coming to sexual maturity start to taint the meat: boars, goats etc
If they're slaughtered early enough its fine... or else castrate them as babies
Hope your trailer is ok Mirimaran, if not you'll have to borrow one!
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Although we have never had boar taint, and a friend (I keep repeating this story) had an 18 month old working boar, who got a bit antsy with her, so she offed him to the abattoir, he came back in 4 pieces as they could not carry him in 2.
Other friends have done tamworth and tamworth cross boars (both well over a year) and they were both rank. But to me they stank before they went off, so was not surprised.
Moral of this diatribe is how does he smell ?
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They both smell their normal piggy smell - no worse than normal!!
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Then the meat (in the opinion of me) will be superb
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Goodo that's what I like to hear! Can't wait to get eating them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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OK the pigs are booked in for Friday, they fit in the trailer, the car can tow the trailer out of the field and down the lane - I think we are set. I have filled in as much as I can of the AML2 form and the food chain form - is there anything else I need to be panicing about?
I so want to get everything right!
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Andrew gave us a short talk tonight at the CSSA meeting (he used to be a butcher). He said to make sure you know what you want your butcher to give you back before they go to slaughter. The animal is divided into four Primals he said and he gave us a chart - it should be on a website somewhere, which shows the different cuts. But basically ask for the sort of cuts you normally eat from the supermarket - if you don't eat a lot of roasts then just have leg ones and put the shoulder into smaller pieces for casseroles and roasting. These websites are useful
I wish I had asked for more bacon from Andrew - that was the quickest thing to go in our house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOookzk9aZ4
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Pork%20Cuts.htm
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Everything is coming back to us and we are doing the butchery on the kitchen table - a butcher friend is helping us.
Would like to have been with you there though!
Gave the pigs lots of apples today and then scrubbed their eartags today to make sure they are readable - felt slightly duplicitous!!
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Have a look at the QMS website Quality Meat Scotland.
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OK thanks for that - will do!
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Hi Mirimaran, did your pigs go today? How did it go? :-\
I've spent all day chasing mine around, one of the gilts have come in to season and the bore has decided he's now a show jumper, she should have long gone but the people who wanted her let me down and he's her dad. ::) ::)
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Looking forward to seeing your boar at Hickstead soon - sounds very comical, but probably not much fun at the time!
Yes the pigs went today - today has been a bit manic. My OH is a policeman and works in the Major Crime Unit. A man was murdered and found in the boot of his car yesterday so my OH was working on that and didn't get in until 2am. Just before the alarm went off at 6am my 7 year old woke us up saying he had a dicky tum. My OH was so tired he could barely string a sentence together.
Because our trailer is too small for the pigs to sleep in we had to load them up this morning and of course Snuffle refused to go in, but eventually conceded when he realised Niffle was eating all the food. We had to prod Snuffle's bottom to get him to go all the way in. I was really worried that the journey would be really stressful for them, when they got to the abattoir they'd both fallen asleep and my OH had to go into the trailer and prod them to wake up! They then mosied slowly on down to their pen without a care in the world. So all in all it went very well.
I then had to take my 5 year old to school and made Oliver (who had to stay off school because of his tummy) come to work with me as i was very over due to prune some shrubs for a customer. I then decided that since Oliver was off and often complains of having headaches I'd have his eyes checked. The appointment ran over time so I was very late for picking Harry up!
So all in all a successful, busy and rather strange day. The interesting thing is that the children are not upset at all about the pigs going so I think we have succeeded in making sure the children were clear about what the pigs were for. Harry has even asked how soon he'll be able to eat some Niffle sausages!!
The only slight hiccup is that the boys want to keep the pigs skulls and I really don't fancy skinning the heads e.t.c and then boiling them, but other then burying the heads for a year I think boiling ids the only way to go. How do I get the brains out and get the cavity clean?? I want to concentrate on sausage making not skull boiling!! Any advice on skull cleaning would be very welcome!!
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Looking forward to seeing your boar at Hickstead soon - sounds very comical, but probably not much fun at the time!
I was thinking of the grand national, if only i can teach him to take a saddle! :-\ :-\ ;D
Glad things went well for you, its good to keep busy. I know what its like having the OH in the police, my OH's married to the job. You feel so guilt when they've had a hard night and then come home to even more problems ie sick kids, mad pigs and escapee horses, thankful the OH was off today so has been doing the school run while i seem to have spent all day running after animals and rebuilding fencing!
Hope your little one's feeling better soon, as for the skulls I have no idea how to remove the brains, I'd boil them?? Mine are in to dinosaurs at the moment and spend most of their time in the garden digging for dinosaur bones, keeps them entertained for hours.
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Hey Mirimaran
Hope you boy gets better for the weekend! Heard about the 'job' that kept the police busy last night and today. My o/h was in the Specials a few years ago so have had a few sleepness nights myself. Things are different now...isn't funny how much life can change?!
Good luck with the butchery it'll be worth it in the end!
I think you're right about boiling the skulls, it will be very messy to scrape it clean if you dont. And you'll have to boil to make the bone safe for the kids anyway. When I do stuff for work (eg owl pellets!) I have to soak them in disinfectant as well before the kids gat anywhere near. Be interested to hear how you get on skull-wise...
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Pegasus pig, Harry (my 5 year old) is in the process of making a bone collection and was thrilled yesterday when I found a Blackbird skull! Oliver (my 7 year old) has a dried out frog in a box that he found on a road! OMG my boys have a dark side!!
I'm planning to boil the skulls, but am really not looking forward to it!
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Ha ha boys!! ::) ::) ::) ::) The sister-in-law is getting married tomorrow and the kids went to the rehearsals with the OH tonight, when they came back the first thing i was told was that Auntie Donna's getting married and theres dead people under the ground there!! really looking forwards to tomorrow now can just see the conversations, and the looks on the faces from the family. They think I'm strange as it is!! :o :o :o
I tell the butcher to keep the heads, i just can not deal with them, feel guilty enough as it is. You are so lucky having someone who can show you how to butcher them, I'd love to have a go. I'll go on a course one day when i get time away from this mad house. :D :D :D
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We are very lucky. The owner of the farm shop where our butcher friend works has said that if we are struggling to get all the butchery done or struggling for space then to take the meat down to him and we can do it at the shop with his other butchers helping!!
He's also wanting us to start breeding tradititional breeds as he's been struggling to find enough meat to keep up with demand and has ended up having to use commercail pigs, but were not ready for that yet.
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Boil the head, make brawn, eat the brawn, keep boiling the skull. Make soup, keep boiling until finally its just a skull.
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Does it smell OK when you boil the heads? How do I get the brains out?