[WinslowPorker]

Hi everybody,
Just seeing what weight I should be taking my pig oo for a baconer? I have some oing Monday that are bout 100 kg for pork, but thought I had read somewhere that you take them bigger for bacon/ham/curing??


As always every bit of advice gladly received


Wp

[Fowgill Farm]

Don't know about weights but i like my baconers to be 45 inches + around the chest, have sent both gilts & boars for bacon and no difference in bacon just ensure boar hasn't had any female company to be sure.
HTh
mandy

[Anke]

Also make sure that your abattoir takes pigs larger/heavier than 100kg liveweight, lots of them don't anymore!

[hughesy]

Most butchers would say 100kg live weight is a baconer. A porker will be around the 70kg mark. This is mainly because the chops for example from a 100kg pig will be too big, people don't want to pay £2.50 or more for a single chop.

[ScotsGirl]

Abbattoir might not take or will definitely charge more. 70kg is the optimism weight otherwise they can't put two pigs through the de-hairing machine at one time. Can damage machine and obviously more time consuming for them.

[daveh]

The abbatoir I use, Joseph Morris of South Kilworth Leics, has a maximum weight limit of 100kgs. The last two pigs we took in were approximately 105 and 90 kgs live weight. The larger one was big enough for bacon and was a teensy bit heavier than I thought.


I understand that the weight limit is due to the size of the scalding tanks.


Regards, David

[Fowgill Farm]

Sent a year old gilt that i had been unable to sell    to the butchers last week and herewith the butchers bill
 
Slaughter 154kg pig & £34
Bone to bacon/sausage £23
50kg sausages trayed/wrapped/labelled @ £1.45/kg = £72.65
Total £129.65
 
Said she was very fatty but i never intended her to go this route so that was why i let her get bigger.
hth
mandy
 

[MAK]

That is quite some bill Mandy.
What else did ( or will) you get back in addition to the 50 kg of sausages?

[Fowgill Farm]

That is quite some bill Mandy.
What else did ( or will) you get back in addition to the 50 kg of sausages?

I have the middle of the pig made into streaky and back bacon - dry cured for 4wks and the legs made into gammon steaks and bacon joints again dry cured approx 4wks. The bacon comes in 450g approx packs ready to sell and all joints & steaks are vac packed.
As to the bill yes its probably expensive but they make a good quality job which i and my customers appreciate, it looks very professional and its that service that i don't mind paying for. I could get it done cheaper but my customers wouldn't be happy getting their meat delivered in a big plastic bag which is how i get my lamb from somebodyelse and then have to pack & label, most of my customers are urbanites.
Mandy

[MAK]

yes - as you say Mandy. A quality product can command a good price and keep people coming back for more.
We have been limited in the size of how we dry cure our bacon because of tray size in a domestic fridge. Smaller pieces will not cut as well as the lengths your butcher will use and we will have more "scraggy ends" with each piece.
We don't sell any pork prducts but if we did I would either have to invest in larger fridges, brine baths and packaging kit or get it done professionally like you.

[Mrs Snoodles]

it is quite a big bill but there's an awful lot of work getting all the bacon and sausages together.  Your bill seems about the same as I would expect from our abattoir.   Likewise we can probably get it cheaper elsewhere but I really rate what they do and so am happy to pay.

[Rhodie]

My market is for 110kg baconers, but have supplied as small as 95kg for a private butchery.  My Middlewhites are slaughtered at 70-75 kg as porkers for our own shop/online sales and a couple of organic shops elsewhere.