The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: ScotsGirl on September 07, 2012, 10:43:04 pm
-
We have 3 boars which are coming up for 6 months old. I am sure the bloke who sold them to us said kill at 7 months for pork and 9 months for bacon. I am worried because one of them smells, well a bit like a dirty bloke's undies (not that I go around smelling them!!)
Is this normal or is it taint and will it affect meat? Having sniffed all pigs I think it is only one of them.
What is the ideal weight to get rid? We want a mix of gammon and pork. We're using the tape measure method as a guesstimate of weight.
-
I'm surprised he sold you boars when you specifically said you wanted to raise some for bacon. Boars from traditional breeds are normally not kept on beyond six months - by which time they have reached "pork weight". This is because of the risk of boar taint. Running them on to heavier weighs increases the risk, as they are maturing sexually.
Now this is a can of worms, because some people can detect boar taint, some can't. Also, it's less prevalent in some breeds than others, and can be affected by a whole host of things, including age, cleanliness of surroundings, environmental conditions, feed, etc. I've written a piece on this subject for the November issue of Country Smallholding magazine.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about it at this stage, but I would get those pigs away asap. You can make bacon and ham out of younger pigs - the only downside is that your rashers of bacon may be smaller because the "eye" of the meat in the loin is smaller.
Good luck and let us know how you get on. Email me if I can be of any help: tudfultamworths@hotmail.com
Liz
-
pigs have a smell of there own as do sheep and cattle washing them can eliminate it but if they are intact and riding each other they will start to develop boar taint :farmer:
-
Scotsgirl, I sent an OSB off last year at six months and cured the middle as bacon (Lill's recipe) and it was lovely with a lot of meat on it :yum: :yum:
-
Sylvia,
I don't suppose you have a pic of your OSB just before it went to slaughter?
Mine are booked in for 19th Sept and will be just over 27 weeks but I am concerned that they aren't big enough
Sally
-
I am sending my 3 osb's and 2 saddleback boars tomorrow at 27 weeks and like you I was not sure if they were big enough but my local pig farmer who is taking them for me and also butchering them had a look and said that they were ready. I will take some photos this afternoon and try to put them on tonight. Most of them will be having bacon made from their middles.
-
Thanks Daisys mum
-
Hi,
Last June I sent two OSB boars off at 9 months and a half (give or take :P). The larger came back for a hog roast, which was delicious! and the other one is in the freezer, which we are loving! I started to panic, but there were no signs of boar taint from either of them, but as Robert suggested, I hadn't seen them riding each other. They hadn't been castrated.
HTH
Nic :pig:
-
Not had much luck with the photos managed to get one to load so hope this helps.I will let you know the weights when I have them.
-
Howe many "stock fencing squares" high are they? Just curious to compare with my Berkshires :D
-
Hmmm, yours does look a bit bigger than mine. Well I always knew one of mine was smallish. Anyway, they are going soon whether they are upto the weight or not.
thanks DM
Sally
-
Come on people don't make this more complicated than it is, measure them then you will know the weight.Simples :excited:
-
Berkshire Boy, mine get measured every couple of weeks thats how I know they are below what I think should be the correct weight. Having said that, as these are my first, its still good to compare to others.
Sally
-
Sally, if they are under the weight you want hold them back a while. The abattoir won't mind if you change the date.
-
Also get a bit fed up with the scaremongering about boar taint. Yes it happens but rarely especially in rare breeds. :rant:
-
dont know if this will help but in our early days we kept records of weights taken weekly on each new breed we kept i seem to have lost a few of the breeds but have dug out the osb's we took them to 25 weeks on the weigh band they ranged from 70kg, 75kg & 76kg killed out @ 112lb, 120lb & 122lb this is excluding head and waste just the boxed meat all entire boars (we usually run boars for meat and have taken them to 8 months no problems our reason for this is we find less BF on boars but that is just our opinion & findings over the years) the osb's have a slower grow rate than some we have tried but the fat is wasy less than some too wont say which i dont want a fight today ;)
-
be a devil chickenfeed post it up it is ment to be a learning forum :farmer:
-
no breeds mentioned here but both are black & white :innocent: its been a long weekend and its monday morning i am in a good mood from the weekends results so i dont fancy a fight on my hands :relief: (today)
-
Well said chickenfeed I don't rate the saddlebacks and Hampshires either. :roflanim:
-
:eyelashes: who said that :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
-
BB your choice of pig is black and white as well :roflanim:
-
:stir: :innocent: :roflanim:
-
That is true Robert but everyone knows they are the best. :excited:
-
I really like their personality although wish we had some girlies as love watching them root around and they have done a brilliant job rotovating the perimeter of our field. Will be sad to see them go.
OH wanted GOS or Saddlebacks but he was outvoted!
The boys measured around 47kg to 58kg on weigh tape method assuming I calculated correctly - girth (cm) x girth x length divided by 400?
-
Both my osb boars and my saddleback boars were kept together and they were all 27 weeks when they went off this morning, they will be back to the butcher on Wednesday so will try to get some photos of the carcasses on .
-
BB if they are all fed killed and cooked the same way there will be minimal differance in the end product :farmer:
-
BB what weight would you send yours at? Min eare 50ish KG which I know is prob too small but just wondering how heavy I should go.
-
I usually send mine between 60 and 70 kilo.
-
We used to send them between 60 and 70 kilo as well berkshire boy. We have never suffered boar taint in the eleven years we have been keeping pigs. Even with some of our boars who we kept till 8/9 months, I guess we were just lucky maybe.
-
We normally send ours for pork at about 22-26 weeks, and for bacon at 9 months-1 year. We don't normally keep uncastrated boars much past 7 months, but had 2 that went at nearly 10 months the winter before last (because we couldn't get them out of their field past the 4 foot snowdrifts etc. before then) and they made beautiful bacon, with no hint of taint.
-
Pigs now in cold store they weighed in at 79kg, 71kg and 78kg for the osbs and 63kg and 77kg for the saddlebacks. The back fat on the heaviest osb is about 1inch.
Picture shows the osb at 78kg.
-
Well done Daisys mum good weights and nice amount of fat. :thumbsup:
-
The weights and carcasses look excellent. From the photo you posted of the OSB and a Saddleback I thought they might be less than that, especially the SB. Did you by any chance take any girth, length or height measurements before they went off? We have some going in about 2 weeks and for once I am going to try and remember to get the tape measure out beforehand so I can finally calibrate their calculated and real weights. Tamsaddle
-
how did you measure the backfat :farmer:
-
how did you measure the backfat :farmer:
y
I didn't they were each labelled by the abattoir, they went to Spennymore
Tamsaddle I did not measure or weigh them before they went off I had allready decided that they looked right to me and our local pig farmer who was doing the transport agreed.
-
ah they measured by probe :farmer:
-
ah they measured by probe :farmer:
Ah I did wonder how they had done it, do you know if it is accurate?
-
spot on as far as i understand mind it is only the back where you would get the bacon from as that is the only cut that is crucial what is the backfat on the saddelbacks :farmer:
-
The backfat on the saddlbacks is 23mm and 24mm