The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Dundonald hens on November 20, 2010, 07:47:50 am
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Please help folks what one of these measurements is right ?? my 2 piggies are booked in to go next thursday I actulay thought they were a lot heavier than this by looking at themand by them standing on my feet when i try to feed them lol
girth x girth x length x 69.4 = KG weight
.98 x .98 x 1.1 x 69.4 = 73.32 kg
or
(L x G x G) ÷ 13781 (cm) = weight in kg
110 x 90 x 90 / 13781 = 65kg
What weight is right ????
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The calculation I use is girth squared x length x 69.3 = weight
(measurements in meters and weight in Kg)
So using your measurements (btw you've used 90 for 1 calulation and 98 for the other ;))
0.9 squared = 0.81 x 1.1 x 69.3 = 61.74 Kg
0.98 girth would give 73.2Kg
An APPROXIMATE live to dead weight is 72%
So your 62Kg carcass will kill out to 44.5Kg or 53Kg from a 73Kg carcass.
HTH
Karen
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Is that good ?
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Is that good ?
53KG deadweight is about what we aim for as a rule for the porkers. We find that 50KG ish deadweight, makes about 50KG of sausage - the weight of the bones, and other losses, seem to equal the amount of rusk/flavouring/water you add to the pork.
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It's all relative ;D
Ideally a liveweight of closer to 85Kg will give you more pork BUT you've got to weigh things up - is it worth the cost of feeding over the next wee while (cos it won't put much more weight on them in cold weather) and the hassle factor when (if) the snow comes worth it for a few extra Kg's ? IMHO the meat will be the same quality, any extra weight from extra feeding now is likely to go straight to fat anyway.
The smallest of my 3 killed out at 46Kg if that helps ?
I collected my pork yesterday (apart from 1 which has been put to curing) and the butcher said he'd never seen such nice pork, with as little fat in his life (granted he was only in his early 30's, if that ;)) he called it 'stunning' ;D ;D ;D and said he'd actually brought some butchers from his other shop up to see the carcasses. 2 pigs completely filled my small chest freezer and more than half of my tall upright one - don't stress yourself trying to get the weights up now, just enjoy your hard work.
BTW the GOS x Large Black is soooooooooo nice ;)
HTH
Karen :wave:
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Which abbatoir and butchers did you use Karen? I'm just being nosy!
I have a fancy for Large Black crosses too- maybe in the future!
Beth
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Hi Beth,
It was Shotts abatoir (owned by Chapmans) and the butchery was done by William at their Glasgow Rd shop in Wishaw.
Their costs are 70p per kilo (inc sausages) plus 70p per kilo for curing.
I got 3 pigs killed, 2 for pork, 1 for curing and the total cost (including killing, transport, packing, labelling and curing) was £169.
Once I've got the cured pig back, i'll list EXACTLY what amounts I've got (if it would be of any help)
What I REALLY want are some registered LB gilts and cross with a tammy boar (before AIing with pure LB for future litters) my reasoning is that they'd do well in the woodland (and help keep the weeding under control and deer away) and the LB would chill the Tamworth out (maybe ? just a bit lol!) and it would make some GREAT bacon :yum:
Karen x
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we weigh ours before sending them to slaughter 120 kilos to get a good eye of bacon ideally you want a minimum of 10 mm back fat it all depends on feeding large blacks can get fatter than tamworths mangalitzs are a naturally fat pig as are kune kunes when did you see a skinny mourie we do our own cutting and sausages got the certificates it solves the problem of is it mine and have i been shorted on weight as to rooting to much concentrate they dont root as much all breeds of pig will root if they are not ringed remember to find out the limit for weight for your selected abattoir before sending them or they will be rejected and heavier the next week
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we do our own cutting and sausages got the certificates it solves the problem of is it mine and have i been shorted on weight
yes, I'll be doing my sums carefully when i get it all back :-\
Thanks Lillian, wanting to cross more for temprament and taste rather than rooting ability, my Kunes (adults) don't root at all and I'm too worried that the piglets will get lost in 130 acres to let them loose in the wood, hence the need for something bigger and more inclined to root !
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Intresting topic!
I have just measured one of my boys and measurements are: girth 109cm, length 124 cm ( middle of ears to tail) so according to the calculation above he is approx 102 kg. I'm pretty pleased with that as he will be 28 weeks when he goes for slaughter. All of them are quite even in size, so Im going to have alot of pork!
Is the calculation accurate to a few kilos?
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Yes, I think it is to within about 5Kg - but I have to confess, I've never actually checked :-[
The last 3 pigs I sent I just went 'by eye' and reckoned they were about right (it's a bit like having kids I think - first time round you want to do everything totally by the book and get obsessed by weights and measures and having everything 'just right', further down the line it's amazing how relaxed about it all you get - but that could just be me ;D) they killed out between 45 and 50 Kg and I'm more than happy with that ;) ;D
On the LB x Tammy subject - I've spoken to Lee (ukag) and she has some ;D
And say's they DO make great meat pigs. Watch this space........................
She's SUCH a bad influence on me ;D ;D :pig: :pig: :pig:
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Thats who I got them from I think are they away up north in lochgilped ?
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Yes, Lee's up in that area - somewhere (usually chasing sheep up and down the road ;))
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our pigs weigh 90+kg. what is the meat weight. i know the dead weight will be roughly 150kg. just worried now about the freezer. i think there may be presents ahead.
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I think dead weight is roughly 72%. Someone may correct me :)
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Shetlandpaul, which breed and what age were these 150kg pigs?
Eve :wave:
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I think dead weight is roughly 72%. Someone may correct me :)
That's about right ;D
I'm confused though ShetlandPaul - you're not going to get 150Kg meat from one 90Kg pig ??? If they're 90+Kg, they'll likely kill out around 55-60Kg and then you'll have around 40Kg of meat from each of them. Two pigs will more than fill a small chest freezer and three would probably need 2 freezers, just to be on the safe side ;) But like Eve, I'm interested to find out what they are ;D
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hi sorry. we have two pigs big pig and strangly little pig. the big one is roughly 95kg and the little pig is about 92kg. so roughly we expect a 75%dead weight which should give about 140kg dead weight for both but i was wondering how much of the dead weight is usuable meat. we are planning on having them split and then doing the jointing myself. planning on using most things really fancy trying to produce brawn. they are a large black crossed gos. but they are just black. and sadly very friendly.
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Mine were also LB x GOS, they were all around 85Kg live weight. Killed out at around 50Kg and we got around 35-40Kg of useable meat from each of them. So you're probably looking at 100Kg in total. I would say you'll need a big chest freezer to fit them in (unless you're doing lots of curing)
I've got to say too, that this is some of the nicest pork I've had. Much sweeter than any of the other crosses I've had and without doubt the best bacon ever ! but I've not taken any tamworth crosses for bacon - that's next ;)(and although they were quite small in baconer terms, the eye of the bacon is still a good size)
HTH
Karen x
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1 pig = 1 tall standing freezer plus a bit more, in the case of our 6-month chubby GOS, but then we have the heads (for brawn, the recipe we had worked really well), bones for stock and skin, too.
:wave:
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could you post it eve.
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Here it is:
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/535161
Hubby is the brawn maker in our house as it takes a strong stomach (the eyes are still in the heads! :o). I believe there was quite a bit of unused liquid the first time 'round, and we used less lemon after the first time, too. It all takes a bit of tasting and playing. The parsley in it is nice.
The brawn from our own pigs' heads tasted better. Could be imagination, of course!
Enjoy!
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I used a horse weigh tape...turned out to be pretty much right...they went as 100 kg...dead weight was 80 kg..thereabouts...though only got 44 kg back as a whole pig...plus 14 lbs of sausages..with that whole pig..(offal not included)...feed back ..excuse the pun..everyone is delighted with the meat..especially the sausages...just thought with 80 kg of dead weight..would have a bit more ???..probaly missing the obvious ;D
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This measuring things beyond me as i have weighed the 2 halfs from the spotty pig one being 31kg and the other with its head on being 39kg so that makes it 80kg ????
going by my measurements they should have weighed that alive including allt here inerds ???
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Did you get the heads back, as they weigh a fair bit
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Yes got the heads back and I am making head and trotter brawn from the river cottage meat book it smells great !!
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Collected my pigs this morning and dead weight was 84kg, 81kg and 2 @ 75kg. have had a productive day cutting 3 of them! Started at 8.30am and finished at 2.30pm. It was so rewarding and we had chops for dinner which were to die for...if I may say so myself! :yum: :yum: They had about 2cm to 2.5cm of back fat. Have around 15kg of meat to make sausages, salamis and chiorizo tommorow and bacon the following day. Thank goodness for this cold weather...I dont have to use my fridges at the moment! Willpost some pics of cutting etc when i can figure out how to reduce file size:) I'm a very happy bunny indeed and a little tipsy as have had a small whisky...or three!
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Well sarha iv been doing the same well apart from the whiskey it a school night im only allowed guiness !!
This has been my first atempt and we have a freezer full of chops / stuffed rolled bellies / roasting joints / back bacon curing / belly curing for streaky bacon / have made pork and apricot and pork and leak sausages / and some wet curing to make some hams.
Been at it all day Saturday afternoon, all day sunday, last night after work and tonight.
tomorow night got chorizo to make and a quarter to butcher and thats it all done apart from finishing the curing.
and hey your right thank god for the cold weather my friend come into my shed and said " for futt sake is this what fred wests shed looked like "
Been good funn
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:-[ :-[ Dun. hens have just reread your post and seen it says with heads on. Am very embarrassed. Sorry :-[
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Dundonaldhens....it's great isn't it?? Busy but bloody rewarding!! Was going to make sausages today but thats my job tommorow. I've been curing bacon and have put one ham in a wet cure ( brine ) ready for xmas as I'm not brave enough to do air dried ham at the moment....so busy day tommorow:)....and I'm looking forward to it! Thank goodenss I have not got work until Friday.
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Well i cured bacon for 5 days followed the river cottage meat book and if u excuse my langauge fut me it was salty !
The chef at my work has told me to leave it running under a tap in a overflowwing pot for 24 hours and it should be fine
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I tried to do some a couple of months ago and that was extremly salty. but it maybe that we are used to the shop bought stuff and what we make is how salty bacon used to be. i don't know maybe we are just not very good at it.
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Well i cured bacon for 5 days followed the river cottage meat book and if u excuse my langauge fut me it was salty !
The River Cottage forum gets this comment about monthly!! Apparently the recipe is just wrong, but the book went mega, so lots of people follow it and get a mouthful of salt in every bite!
Yes soak it and this will reduce - but next time don't repeat the recipe, it was nothing you did wrong and it will only happen again!
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Dundonald, remember that bacon is a preserved meat meant to last through winter - preserved with salt! So it's normal to be salty, but we're not used to it anymore as mass-market modern bacon production uses not just salt but also chemicals and even liquid smoke to speed up the process and save money.
Blanching the lardons or rashers for 45 seconds will turn it into the most flavourful bacon you've ever had - put your own bacon in the pan together with the most expensive supermarket bacon you can buy, and you'll realise the lack of flavour caused by using modern methods (apart from a uselessly short shelf life).
Crunchy bits of salty fatty smoked bacon in mashed potatoes :yum: :yum: :yum:
Enjoy! :wave: