[Sbom]

Ok, here's the latest dilemma!

We borrowed a boar and three weeks ago he served her, very thoroughly over a couple of days and then we took him home.
This weekend I think she's in season again! Vulva swollen and has a mucus discharge and she is frantic to escape......

Any ideas or are sausages the only way forward.... :-(

Other dilemma is if I have to pay £27 kill and cut up plus 50p/lb for sausages then how much is she going to cost to be done? She is massive, as in tall and long and well fleshed but to my eye not over fat

[mowhaugh]

Is the boar near enough to give her another try now?

[Sbom]

Yep but this is the third time she hasn't held so I'm thinking there must be a reason? She's not cheap to keep and she last farrowed a year ago now.......

[shygirl]

does you abattoir have a weight limit?
have you considered collecting her from the abattoir and butchering her yourself? it will save you money. could you borrow/buy a sausage maker?
when we wanted a whole sow made into sausages , our butcher quoted approx. £300 in labour though she was fully grown. too much money.

maybe she has fatty ovaries or something.

[Marches Farmer]

I too would suspect a reporductive problem and cull.  What's her condition?

[mowhaugh]

Yep but this is the third time she hasn't held so I'm thinking there must be a reason? She's not cheap to keep and she last farrowed a year ago now.......

Sorry, I hadn't read the beginning properly.

It seems like a crying shame, but if it is going to cost you more than the sausages are worth, it might be better to cut your losses and just have her culled by your local NFSCO collector.  A really frustrating thing to have to do, though.

Is the meat still OK on a sow of that age?  We have an older sow who is looking a wee bit stiff on her back legs and is absolutely massive, so it is something we are going to have to deal with too at some point.

[Sbom]

We can sell sausage all day long so think we are going to go down that route.

Spoke to butcher today, they do charge abit more as she's bigger but that's fine.  We are going for sausage, bacon and mince for burgers/homemade sausage I think.

Or may possibly get them to butcher half only.....not to sure...sad it's come to this really

She truly is massive and my small sausage maker would never cope with doing it all myself.
Expecting around the £2-300 hundred mark but confident I can recoup the cost.

Spoke to auctioneer aswell and he thinks she'd make around £180-£200 at market. I know this would be the easy option but don't want to put her through it :-(.

She's in good condition as being doing nothing since weaning in February but by no means over fat.

[mowhaugh]

It is a shame, but if you can recoup the costs you are making the best you can of the situation.

[HappyHippy]

Sorry to hear that Sbom, but if it's any consolation, it should be great bacon and sausage 
I'm with you on sending her yourself instead of sending to market, that way you are in control of what happens.
Good luck.
Karen

[benkt]

When we sausaged two sows early this year we got about 450lb of sausages from each which cost us around £l/lb for the abattoir to make for us and we sold them all in about 24 hours at £2.50/lb.

[Sbom]

Thanks everyone, think we're going to take her on Thursday......no point dragging it out and the abattoir stops doing home kill soon as they are busy with Christmas orders :-(

Not looking forward to it though 

[devonlady]

Get her there just before they open. That way she will be the first through and be gone before she knows it.