[welshlass181]

As most of you know we took 6 kune crosses to slaughter on Monday this week.  There was 1 larger sow, 2 small gilts and 3 medium boars.  The larger sow had a skin rash so they skinned her and boned the meat so i can have a play with sausages and burgers/whatever the other 5 came back with a primary cut  cos they were so small.  They jointed the legs and i had 2 sides of ribs and 2 sides of belly pork.  When they phoned us on Wednesday they said that they were very small and there wasn't much meat on them and this was the best way to treat them ..... fine i said 

got there today expecting a maybe 1 or 2 bags of meat but they'd put them in individual bags and the smallest one was 12kg and biggest was 34kg (big boned sow) what i didn't expect was a bag full of offal and the heads and trotters in the bags with the meat (in seperate bags ofc) There might not have been a lot of meat to what they're used to but i was well chuffed with it lol going to boil up the trotters and heads for the doggies so they'll enjoy it hehe

My mum took the kidneys, hearts and livers to freeze and she cooked the lungs and bits up for the pooches.

Totally over the moon and have a freezer full of pork ready for BBQ season

PS not as fatty as i expected either can't wait to stick some in the smoker

[Beewyched]

You just need the weather now, so you can get the BBQ lit 

Out of interest - how much did they charge you?

[welshlass181]

£20 each so £120 all told.  Was quite happy to pay that tho  they did a fab job and were very patient with the noob pig reared hehe

[Smokin]

Hi Welshlass, can you tell me which slaughter house you use? Thanks in advance

[oaklandspigs]

Hi Welshlass, can you tell me which slaughter house you use? Thanks in advance

Ditto, would like to add you comments to the Good abattoir guide if you are happy for me to do so

www.oaklandspigs/links/abattoirs

[Mel]

 £20.00!!! Wow! That sounds fantastic,our local abb charges £50.00 each! lucky you! enjoy 

[lill]

happy eating your pork as you know that is your own, how you have fed it, how it has been reared and not like the same pork that is bought from the supermarket

[welshlass181]

I'm still getting a lot of crap from the "piggie protectors" about my herd being reared for slaughter ....... grrrrrrrr even tho mine are free roaming and well kept, yes i admit there was a problem with them losing condition a few weeks ago but that's been dealt with.

[lill]

some do gooders think pigs should always be clean when outside and when they wallow these do gooders think that we are not looking after them properly, i would hate to see what the pigs would look like if they were looking after them.

[welshlass181]

I tend to be quite firm with them to begin with and if they carry on i get a tad stroppy.  My family know where our pork comes from (my land) and we know that it had a happy life with us.  Sod um lol jst irritates me

[Smokin]

who are the piggie protectors, thought that was us that give them a good life, preserve the breed etc??

[welshlass181]

They tend to be people who think that no animal should be reared for food blah blah i asked them where the world and animal population would be if we didn't eat/use them?  I think that it is because that mine are Kunes and Kune crosses that i get some hassle ........ people say they should be "pets" and i tell um that pork is pork no matter which breed it comes from  and my pork is awesome

[Tiva Diva]

Ignore them: they are living on another planet.
We have converted 5 vegetarians so far with our pork, once they can see what good lives our piggies have they are happy to eat the meat.

[HappyHippy]

My take on it is that if no-one eats these animals, they won't be around for long (no need to breed) and that poses a real risk of extinction for many breeds which are already seriously low in numbers. Plus, I'm sure I read somewhere that if everyone was to stop eating meat we would need the equivalent of an extra one and a half planet earths to have enough space to grow the required amount of veggies to keep us going.
I got terrible stick from a piggy protector from USA/Canada on facebook 
According to her, I am undoubtably the devil incarnate because I dare to breed pigs for eating. 
Everyone has different views and feelings (it would be a boring world if we all thought the same !) but at the end of the day, you've got to live and let live.
I don't go around telling folk what to do (well, except Bruce & the kids  ) and I wouldn't expect anyone to think they'd a right to tell me what to do (except Bruce, who thinks he can  ) we've all got better things to do with our time - these folks obviously don't ! 
Karen x

[Sudanpan]

Its so weird when people look at you askance when you say that you raise pigs for meat, saying 'how can you send them to slaughter after looking after them...' - meanwhile they are quite happy to buy the rubbish from the supermarket!

Our society is just so far removed from the proper food production reality its incredible.

We lived in Egypt for a couple of years and one of my abiding memories is watching a lady who had come out to buy her (live) chooks from the Toyota truck poultry man, then stood chatting to him with the 2 birds (still alive) just stuck under her arm 

Tish