[Shropshirelass]

Out of curiosity with the traditional breeds what sort of weights do people tend to run them to prior to slaughter? As we're looking into getting some in the future but I'm looking into buying some sheep weighing scales at present & I'd rather buy something big enough for both rather than spend money twice & I know there's a big difference in the sizes depending on what you're sending them for & things like youngstock & a big sow for example, but do you guys tend to bother weighing cull sows?

[ZacB]

Pig weigh tapes are pretty accurate & considerably cheaper

[Shropshirelass]

That's a fair comment but if I'm sorting a load of animals in batches this ways probably easier & quicker, plus if I need to do anything else with them their somewhat restrained & I wouldn't trust a pig to not turn round & bite you.

[SallyintNorth]

Min 60kgs for a porker, 80-100kgs for a baconer if we can get them that big in the time we have available. (No indoor housing, and ours is not a nice farm for outdoor pigs in winter.)  Some abattoirs will have an upper limit they can take, so check that. 

Sheep weigh scales usually too flimsy, especially for baconers, but pig weigh scales will do both .

[FOLgate Produce]

I am finding that with rare breed pigs they get so fat keeping longer than 6 months is counter productive as they just get fatter and fatter and hardly put on meat at the same rate. So regardless of weight those pigs go in on time.
Anything it seems crossed with a commercial does so much better whilst retaining the rare breed taste most of the time and they get meat weight on much better quicker too meaning that even if we let go past 6 months they do just put on fat.  So I guess our rare breeds probably go in around 70 to 80kgs and our crosses more like 100 to 110kg live weight.

[SallyintNorth]

I think the different traditional breeds vary in terms of how they can, should and will grow, how much fat different systems will put on them, and so on.

We like Cornish Blacks (Large Blacks from Cornwall, we like to think local strains of LBs originated here but who really knows) for extensively foraging systems.  If managed in a particular way, they grow slow and lean to a good size at 8-10 months.  If you've forage and / or legal scraps for them, that makes sense.  If you need fast growth and/or don't have anything much to augment their cereal ration, then with this breed you either rear expensive fat quickly or expensive meat less quickly.  My last batch ate half a normal rare breed cereal ration, ate a lot of the waste from our microgreens operation (for which we have no other use than composting), and foraged on our fields.  By 9 months the 3 of them gave a combined deadweight (gutted, on the hook) of 200kgs.

And the bacon was so delicious I literally cried.

[PipKelpy]

Ours are pig scales, heavy things too (Got 2 wheels and handles to pull, don't push, it'll kill you).

Weaners when we had them, Shetland sheep no problem, mules got in, as have my Wiltshire horns (very carefully due to the bars above their heads!) As long as they can see the end gate, they have no issue walking out (As long as i can get them in!)

Which was an issue with some of my Dorset Downs! Not all, just some, you know the kind, the ones who will plonk their front feet right at the entrance to the scale, but not quite On it and no amount of pushing, swearing, threatening with death....... Or bribing with food (someone standing with a bucket at the other end) will get them to pick their feet up and "walk on". So either you keep going, or know that b*tch has beat you this time! There's also the ones who you know WILL fit in the scales and the minute her feet are On the scales, she decides to breathe out and suddenly gets stuck in the entrance gate, so pushing with hands, shoulders, even holding onto the scales and pushing with your foot, nothing working, she's stuck, then the bucket is shook, and all of a sudden, fat ewe becomes slender again! (Her name was Fiver and one of the best Dorsets I ever had, guessed her weight after that!)

I'm assuming modern sheep scales are more forgiving for different sheep styles as are modern pig scales!