[Cjnewton82]

Hello there I'm trying to get my head around what to use my pigs for meat wish.
I intend to take my pigs 2OSB 2GOS 2 SB to around 25weeks old 60-70kg live weight. They will be raised put doors on sow and weener nuts and waist veg from my local farm and greengrocer.

Could some one  please give me break down of. use the different parts of there pigs for to produce the best produces and the most cost  Effective way with regard to not losing loads of money
Ie

Side one
Head for sausages
Shoulder for mince
Loin for bacon
Sorry this is written badly I'm highly Dyslexic lol :-)

[ddangus]

Hi Chris,

If you are not butchering the pigs yourself and I guess you would not with 6 pigs it would probably best to discuss what you are planning with your butchers.

I  (we) have just buchered two pigs and have a fairly good idea what to do. This took me and my wife probably 2 full weekends but we also made a lot of processed products ( black pudding, haggis, suasages, bacon and ham). They were two Tamworth gilts at 9 months, probably weighing around 70 kg each (carcasse weight)  fed on foraging and sow nuts.
I will list what I have done with all the bits, this might help you but it also depends whether you want to cure your own hams or mainly sell it as fresh meat ( i.e. not cured). it is from memory but should give you an idea what you could do. I am not quite sure what you mean by most cost effective, the most expensive products to buy are processed i.e. sausages and ham. You can use most of the pig but I doubt you make a lot of saving as you will have to pay for an abbatoir and most likely getting the pigs butchered.

Head - made into brawn I cut of the cheeks separatly, rolled them and braised them and had them as a cold meat. I do not think you could really make sausages from the head meat or at least not very much. A lot of the flesh on the head is actually fat or at least on the Tamworths I raised.
Shoulder- One half made into a picnic ham, the others mainly  went into sausage meat.
Loin- Cut into pork chops , tender loinvarious steaks
Belly- rolled belly pork and streaky bacon. Also produced a fair amount of ribs
The belly also produced some of the fat meat for mixing with lean for sausages.
Legs- Trotters and hams. One dry cured ham and three wet cured hams used for boiled ham.
Fat- I rendered all of the unusable fat as lard.
Offal-  Liver, lungs and heart went into haggis. Kidneys are still in the freezer.
Blood- made into various black puddings.

Kind regards,

DD

PM me if you want more detail

[hughesy]

Would be a good idea to discuss this with whoever is going to butcher it for you but to give you an idea....
Take half a pig carcass. It breaks down into four main compoments, shoulder, loin, belly and leg. Shoulder can provide roasting joints of various sizes, steaks, diced pork for casserole or stir frying, and/or is often used for sausages. The loin can be cut into roasting joints or more commonly pork chops and steaks and/or made into bacon. Belly can be rolled into joints, cut into strips or made into streaky bacon. The leg can provide top quality roasts, lean steaks, or can be cured to make gammon or ham. Within that framework there are dozens of different cuts that can be produced, Have a look at this to give you some ideas http://www.lovepork.co.uk/prime-cuts

[Small Plot Big Ideas]

I came across this page about pork cuts earlier today which might help a bit - it certainly gave me some useful information!

http://www.lovepork.co.uk/prime-cuts

[Cjnewton82]

Sorry if i didn't make myself very clear ddangus. what i meant by cost effective was how do i maximise the amount of money I can make from the carcass, not how can i do it the cheapest!!! lol :-) 

I am going to speak to my butcher but i wonted so ideas first so i didn't go in there completely blind and look like a Townee plonker!!!

Thank you all for your replies

[Hassle]

i'm not going to repeat what everyone above has typed or what a search of this section would turn up as this has probably been covered a million times.

Firstly what is your market, will they all want chops / joints or are they all mainly sausage and bacon eaters as don't have the time to do Sunday Roast?  Making sausages and bacon are expensive but will always have an outlet everyone eats those the returns though, well that's up to you.

Secondly storage are you expecting to turn up with a box and for your customers to have the room in their upright freezer? or will you store some for them allowing them to draw down.

If you want to see and understand try and buy a DVD called "pig in a day" by Hugh 'the nostrils' Fearnly-Wittingstall, it's a bit of a Cut and Shut DVD but he's pretty good and it makes sense and one of the things it covers if different cuts.

Also don't forget the law bit if you sell you need food hygiene regulations, if they collect from your butcher he does if your butcher sells to you and you sell on he needs wholesale food hygiene regulations.

Finally good luck and enjoy the administration isnt that bad