The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: langdon on May 10, 2010, 09:08:59 pm

Title: hopefully this week
Post by: langdon on May 10, 2010, 09:08:59 pm: we just bought our livestock trailer the other day( i love it, new toy ;D)
so we are going to try and get our very first pig of to slaughter.
6 mths passes by really fast.
langdon ;) :pig:
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: dixie on May 10, 2010, 10:15:30 pm: Worth having a practice at loading before the day! try feeding them in the trailer, then on the actual day, halve the amount of feed the night before (mine get a pint of beer too) so they are very hungry in the morning and they should just follow a bucket of feed on!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: Hilarysmum on May 11, 2010, 07:01:44 am: For the sake of the abattoir try not to feed anything more than an apple or a v. small handful of feed on the day. A full stomach can be quite messy at killing.

Congratulations on the livestock trailer. They are very expensive over here. Am still saving up for mine. :D
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: dixie on May 11, 2010, 09:10:06 am: Yes should have said, get them to follow the bucket but dont let them have the contents!!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: Hilarysmum on May 12, 2010, 06:56:49 am: The last time I let them eat in the trailer I got a right rollicking from the abattoir, although it was in rapid fire French it left me in no doubt of his meaning!!!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: WinslowPorker on May 12, 2010, 01:36:12 pm: Us to Langdon, my first 3 are booked in for 24th May ! looking forward to home reared pork for the bank holiday weekend BBQ!!

Thanks Dixie & HM, i will bear that in mind as well when we take ours
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: langdon on May 12, 2010, 06:39:02 pm: fab thats my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: dixie on May 12, 2010, 08:08:54 pm: If you havent tagged them yet, once they are loaded and ready, thats a good time to do it, or the night before when they are eating!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: Sharondp on May 12, 2010, 08:10:36 pm: Quote from: dixie on May 10, 2010, 10:15:30 pm
(mine get a pint of beer too)

That is brilliant!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: dixie on May 12, 2010, 08:14:06 pm: Boy do they love a beer! I've never seen anything human or animal down a pint as quick as a pig!!
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: Sharondp on May 12, 2010, 08:15:41 pm: Home Brew? Carling? Fosters? ;D
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: Daisys Mum on May 12, 2010, 08:24:21 pm: I always load mine the night before as I am usually on my own on the day. They always are sound asleep when we arrive there at around 6am,so do not get stressed at all.
Title: Re: hopefully this week
Post by: Anke on May 12, 2010, 09:30:51 pm: Same here, ours go in late afternoon the day before, and then its an early start the next morning. They sleep, and don't get fed just before slaughter. We also tag just in the trailer, while they are still hunting in the straw for any leftover pig nuts.

Just had a slight problem last time, as we left the trailer electrics connected overnight (there is a short somewhere...), so as not to forget early morning, and the car battery was totally flat. So we had a trailer with two large pigs in that we couldn't even take off the car, and car wouldn't move.... finally managed to get it started (with trailer electrics disconnected!), and OH then drove all the way to the abattoir with no lights on the trailer, just to get there... fortunately no police on the road at this hour of the morning...