This is an update on kill and meat weight etc
On Wednesday the "micropigs" went to slaughter..... that involved closing the stys, putting the horsebox with straw in the field and weighting till they were both in before closing it up..... that sounds easier than it was... because they didn't like each other and when they saw me they did a runner from inside. All done now and they are going to a butchers for sausages.... he charges 1.40 a kilo and I have enough customers to make it all cost neutral to me...
More importantly though...... 7 of Charlottes litter went to the abattoir on Thursday. I kept the largest gilt to be a replacement for Charlotte.
She had a litter on 24th April so that made them 28 weeks at Slaughter.
They were a good heavy and level litter, certainly the largest she's produced.
Their were born outside and spent their first 4 weeks outside. If you remember April and May, you'll remember it was WET, I was worried they would end up straining themselves in the clay mud so they came in for 4 week then. Over the summer they were in the paddock with the brick pig stys.... until they cleared it totally and then they came into the, ahem, "allotment", happily clearing this for me! It took them until they went to slaughter....
I fed them sow nuts until about 14 weeks before moving onto finishers..... but i don't think there was any significant difference. There were a LOT of nettles in both paddocks and, as well, they ate all the clearings that came from tidying the land.
In the paddock, they were in a "field shelter" (well, stock fencing with a lorry tilt over it!) and a fair amount of straw.
I used the rare breed feeding chart from the berkshire pigs site, which has them ending up on 1.93 kilos of food a day.
Under that, they should have ended up at 85-89 kilos... I was very worried about them making weight because its been HIDEOUS down here and the rain will have held them back.
Using a pig tape, they were coming up as between 70 and 73 kilo's when they went to slaughter, one was a greedy beggar and he looked slighter fatter than the others. A neighbour gave me a sombrero feeder (I don't know what they are called really!) and that helped in feeding them, other than that they were fed in a long stream. I had access to free bread, but gave it very sparingly. Charlotte has it becasue she doesn't need to grow.
Well, they went into the box fine and out at the other side.... I couldn't collect because I was working so the collector didn't know to ask the kill weights, but from the 7 pigs I got 377 kilos of meat, which works out at about 53 kilos of meat a pig. I was VERY happy with this, and it was much higher than expected.
In terms of costs
Food (including that which I will need to overwinter Charlotte and Domino) is £855
Vets Bill (my own fault I let Charlotte get too fat prior to farrowing) was £187
Abattoir £154
Butcher was £100 ( I hired a retired butcher who son was also a butcher and he let his dad use his shop - this obviously bought my butchery costs right down....
Fuel £100
Packaging £30
TOTAL
1426I sell "pigs in baskets" to colleagues (other lawyers) which have 20 kilos of meat in them.
I sold 16 at £140
£2240 and I swapped a "pig in basket" for 2 deer with a lawyer who stalks...
That left 30 odd kilos for me and old john, together with the off cut meat, which I used to make 20 kilos of sausages yesterday...... my favourite meat is lamb so a few loin joints and some chops is fine for me in the freezer.
In terms of the meat.... lovely and dark, about half an inch of fat except greedy guts who had an inch.
I did notice a mark on one leg, so I'm a bit worried it got kicked at the abattoir, but I'm probably being over sensitive.
Well thats how my one annual one litter of Essex pigs worked out this year
I posted this just for other peoples information because people are so nice here on sharing what they are doing
Topic: The piggies went and are now in their new, ahem, homes :) (Read 3160 times)
