[Jakebob]

Can anyone please tell me more about castrating pigs/piglets, thank you.

[harmony]

It's a job for the vet.


Why do you want to castrate? It is not common these days.

[Backinwellies]

Not really a vet job, years ago I used to teach students,  but no one really castrates these days .... pig is off to the butcher before it is old enough for any problems.

[Smudge.casper]

Hi if you go back the previous posts this subject has been discussed before.  And has created rifts.

You would be better contacting Scottish pig keepers association they will give you advice without others putting their neeb in.  I have found them to be knowledgeable and well informed when I asked them for advice.

Regards
Smudge.casper

[Jakebob]

Ok, I apologise for asking.    Thanks anyway folks. Didn't realise there was already a post and didn't mean to cause a stir.

[harmony]

Don't apologise for asking - that's what these forums are for.


As a previous poster said people tend not to castrate these days but it should be carried out by a trained and competent person, which is why I suggest it is a job for the vet.

[Womble]

OK, my turn for a stupid question then!
 

people tend not to castrate these days.....

So why did they castrate before, and why don't they now?  What's changed? 

[Tamsaddle]

I sadly don't keep pigs any more, but when we did we were a really small outfit with just two sows and a limited amount of space, paddocks and arks.   Each year we kept 6 of our own piglets and generally sent them to slaughter between 26 and 28 weeks old.   Ideally we tried to raise just one gender each time, but what you get from a sow is unpredictable.   When we had to have a mix of males and females in the six, having castrated boys made life much easier in not having to separate them at around 4 months old, or use up extra paddocks/arks for the remaining 2 to 3 months.   It was easy to do the procedure once we learned how, the piglets didn't seem unduly bothered after 20 seconds, the meat was just as good as uncastrated males, and all the pigs appeared to live very happy lives without continuously humping their sisters.    The difficult decision was having to go ahead or not at 3 days old, long before you know which weaners you will be able to sell, or even how many/what gender the second sow's piglets will be.

[Womble]

Ah, understood.  Thanks for the info Tamsaddle  .

[Tiva Diva]

FWIW, we often castrate. Unless we want to produce a boar for breeding (and there's not a huge demand for them, especially round here), we'll castrate the lot. If we do want to produce a breeding boar, we'll leave intact any boar piglets that look promising, e.g. good number and alignment of teats, no colour defects, not runty.
We castrate because we can then run weaners of the same age together, whatever their sex. Also, we sell a lot of our pigs as weaners, and castration means we can sell a male and female together. Novice pig-keepers are also generally happier having castrated rather than intact boars, as the latter can certainly be rather boisterous as they get older.
Sometimes we get the vet to do it just because of the need for extra pairs of hands, usually we try to combine some other farm business for the same visit. I have castrated them myself: I found it very easy but then I am a doctor in my "day job"! If you want to castrate yours, ask your vet to show you how, and then get them to watch you do a few to make sure you are doing it right!
HTH

[Bex]

So why did they castrate before, and why don't they now?  What's changed? 

Forgive me if this is way off the mark, I'm not actually a pig keeper yet, but I do spend all my free time researching!

I believe they still, very often castrate in France (perhaps the rest of europe also, I'm particularly interested in France though). As I understood it, they believe that the testosterone released (at puberty?) taints the meat. The reason we don't do it over here very much anymore is, I suppose, because we send the pigs off young enough that it's not an issue. - That said, I have heard tell of people who've eaten older, in tact boars and said there was no tainting... 

 

[Womble]

Interesting! So does castrating set back their growth at all?

[Marches Farmer]

Never had a case of boar taint in the hundreds of boars we've finished.  Go at around 23 weeks (mostly GOS).  Separate them from gilts at weaning.  Reputed to finish a week or two earlier than castrated boars but since we've nothing to compare to I can't say.  We occasionally take on a breeding quality boar but sell when he's ready to work (around 7 months) so, again, not a problem as he'll be adjacent to but not in with other pigs for the last six weeks.

[Fowgill Farm]

Never had a case of boar taint in the hundreds of boars we've finished.  Go at around 23 weeks (mostly GOS).  Separate them from gilts at weaning.  Reputed to finish a week or two earlier than castrated boars but since we've nothing to compare to I can't say.  We occasionally take on a breeding quality boar but sell when he's ready to work (around 7 months) so, again, not a problem as he'll be adjacent to but not in with other pigs for the last six weeks.

Ditto here MM.
Mandy