The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: carl on March 06, 2008, 01:21:38 pm
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At last the day arrived, with a mixture of dread and anticipation, I finally took my five porkers to the abattoir.I borrowed a marvellous ifor williams trailer from a neighbour, who's 13 year old son had to help me hitch up and guide me out of their yard.my lad alex ,6, helped /hindered in the putting of pigs into trailer,( thought it would be easier in the evening than at the crack of dawn with the clock ticking), luckily another neighbour paul had offered to help and noticed that evrytime a pig came near my son would squeel and away the pig would trot.after what seemed an eternity the lure of food got them in the trailer and I tucked them up in it for the evening on a bed of straw and provided a trug of water. I then completed all my paper work, pig movement license, fci form and butchery list. helped son with home work, fed him and put him to bed. sneaked out twice with torch to check up on pigs, snoring away and quite cosy. did two loads of washing, washed pots, fed and watered chicks in brooders. wife turned up at 10.30 having been to london and back on business and went straight to bed ( wanted hotwater bottle and hot choclate). tidied up, scraped muck off sons school shoes and finally retired to bed at 11.30. rose at 6.00 and got jet washer out to wash down outside of vehicle and trailer. ( involveld much untangling of hoses and electric leads.) double checked trailer, pigs( tatoo's, earrings, in good heath and calm) and themn paul turned up 7.30 and off we went. traffic not brilliant at allowing for me being apprehensive with trailer on back. arrived at abattoir at 8.00, back in nicely with pauls guidance, 4 pigs trotted out, one took root in the back, needed a little shove?carry out. forms signed, paperwork exchanged and off again, with barely time to think about my pigs departure. back to base, cleaned and disinfected trailer and outside of car, ( virkon) and back to work. faxed butchery list to abattoir which i had forgotten to hand over in my state of high anxiety. will collect the produce friday @1.00pm, then distribute allocated bits. Will take stock of whole process and work out next move, sausages, chops, joints etc. I might even be able to eat some pork if i can stomach it, this weekend. was it worth it, on a scale of 1 - 10, 8 or 9 for experience, 2-3 financially. will I do it again, you bet I will.
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Carl you are about to enjoy some of the best pork, possibly the best pork you will ever taste, dont let the opportunity slip past. Well done for making a difficult job so seemless. I dont have a 6 year old son, just a 2 year old collie x who thinks her sole purpose in life is to UNload the pigs from the trailer. Your day sounds amazing. Well done.
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..and you know what.......when you go back and pick up those boxes, you'll be unbelievably proud at what you've achieved. To have your own pork on your own dinner plate is so rewarding....and that's before you've even tasted it :). Only trouble is......you'll be twiddling your fingers now, itching to get some more!! ;)
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congrats. carl - v. reminiscent of my first time- it can be a little traumatic , but as blinkers and hilarysmum say , you wont believe the sense of achievement when you collect your product. i must admit we had family around on the day we picked ours up from the abbatoir , and that evening we all sat down to a roast pork meal with all the veggies from the garden also - unbelievable!!!!!!!
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thanks for the kind words, can't wait till lunchtime when i am off to pick everything up. amazingly most is now allocated and people are asking me for more. I did not know what to do with myself last night when i had no pigs to feed and water. ( i used to waste a god half hour just checking the pigs over and talking to them). when i picked son up from his after school club the first thing he said was " are the pigs dead", which shook me a little. he is going to have to come with me on my delivery round this evening so I wonder what he will make of it. It's a shame blinkers is so far away or i would be knocking on the door for his spare weaners.
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im sure it will do your son the world of good - a real education into the rearing of livestock in a traditional way and seeing the quality of the end product - do update after your collection around quality and quantity of final product - do you know their final killed out weight yet? my first two were 80 and 87 kg respectively , dunno if that was right or not - anyone able to let me know??
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Kids at that age are not phased by the problems that 'us' adults get cause kids can discontect themself from these things.
Linz
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Hi Guy sounds like a really good weight, we aim for 60 - 65 k which comes back very lean. This is due to customers requirements, would prefer more fat myself. You can judge for next time from these, and either grow them bigger or send them smaller to taste. Everyone will be so delighted with the superb flavour, texture and juicieness (is that a word?) they will be over the moon with their pork. Dont wait get out this week and buy some more. HM
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;D have fetched the meat back, a lot more than I estimated.( i used the measuring method , but guessed at them being medium build, they were large) So I have collected close to 360 kilos of dead pig. 9 halves jointed and one whole half, with just one head for a chap who wanted it. there is a good inch of back fat with more in places. Should be very succulent and tasty. The butcher said they were well finished pigs and the meat looked excellent. I know now why butchers are all so hefty. I am very happy with the outcome and the abattoir/ butchery came in at a very reasonable cost, so I am back into a profit state. i think i made about £30 , which is better than the small loss that would have occured based on my estimated weights. I will try some tonight and let you all know what we think of it on monday.
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thanks hm - i think you are right as the extra fat gives more taste (if that were possible)
Well done carl £30 profit and meat in the freezer - bargain :)
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So........................................what did you think of the flavour then ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Now, you're gonna HAVE to go get some more weaners and do it all again. ;)
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Carl you made a small profit, most UK pig farmers would be delighted to make as much. Well done. Now go get some more weaners....
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What a weekend, I've been so busy. have sorted delivery / collection of 6 halves. H ave butchered 2 halves for self and neighbours to have a bit. have not had time to eat much myself. I boiled then roasted the trotters and shanks of one half, the smell was fantastic, as was the crackiling. OH who had been a bit reluctant even to see the processed pigs got taken in by the aroma and polished of a plate full of bits picked off. son tried a bit and declared it delicious happy pork. I was torn between enjoying it and feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all,( which pig was it? plus I was worn out by then). I just did some spare ribs in chinese spices for supper as it was quick and easy, they tasted good. sitting down to eat at 8pm on saturday was the first time off my feet since 6.30 am, and I still had a list of jobs to do later. Sunday was much the same but I got out to drop pork off at my mums and and a friends. I managed to find time to set some more eggs in the incubator, but failed to build a new brooder set up in the outbuildings. Tonight I am going to butcher the last of my 3 halves and the remaining half is being collected tuesday sometime.
P.S. @ £30 profit over the whole 5 pigs, meaning my three halves have cost me £10 less than the others. which I have given away more than that in porky favours. But it has been well worth it, and would recommend it to anyone with the time and space. Saw a field full of OS &B piglets on the way back from the abattoir , will be ringing up to see if there any avaoilable at 8 weeks.
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Well done Carl, I really enjoyed reading about your experience. I hope it goes as smoothly for us when the time comes :(
I keep telling myself to not get attached but you just can't help fussing them, they're so lovely to watch :)
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Pigs give you the best of all worlds, a wonderful pet whilst they are alive, and best dinners ever when they are not! Hows that for pragmatism
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congratulations. we had our first year of this last October, and processing the meat was great, especially sausage making. The meat tastes gorgeous, and it does feel good to know the food miles sit in single digits! I had bog standard pigs last year and have gone for Tamworths this year, so it will be interesting to taste the difference. Kate
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as long as you dont lose sight of why you have them in the first place you cant go too wrong - as hm says , you get so much from them in respect of the end product and an addition to the family whilst alive - we currently have os &b carl - they do look great - it will be interesting to compare the end product with the gos we had first
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We processed one of our sows last week
I had mixed feelings as we had had her for over 2 years since she was a 8 week weaner
However she had to go & the end result was well worth it despite two & a half days of processing! :P
160 kilos of meat has become
50 kilos of bacon
40 kilos of gammon
40 kilos of sausages
10 kilos of diced pork
10 kilos of mince -
plus sausage rolls meat loaf pate salamis & faggots!!
when I know nothing has been wasted on our pig I somehow dont feel so guilty about the sow ???- if that makes sense to fellow pig owners? ::)
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Not just no waste, but the good life she had. Its what all smallholders (should) strive for. I bet the meat was superb.HM