All of your pig talk got me in TROUBLE!

[Sara Ranch]

@Pastor Dave - how about an indoor pig? It might be safe, right?

I have my dogs test the goat pastures and the cattle pastures. They find a lot of escape routes that just weren't visible to me. (Good doggies!) Once the doggies are better trained, they will probably be in the goat pasture with the goats to help prevent the escapes. *fingers crossed*

 

[AClark]

I had a wench once... didn't need my son's help. I was on a mini deployment to Subic Bay in the PI... Oh, wait... that's a story for another place and time
Or did you mean (I hope not) wife? I hope you meant winch... I'm by myself here (& not so young anymore) so in the interest of my health I think when the time comes I'll pay to have it processed.

Haha, definitely take it in. On our excursion of "our buddy shot 5 wild hogs and gave them to us" I learned after the 2nd monster sized hog that was in excess of 400 lbs, that no, it's just too much on me and DH. I spent the better part of a day standing on a step ladder, I smelled AWFUL, was greasy, and really tired and sore.
We don't have a winch, what I ended up doing was using a big tow rope, threw it over a large branch, and around the hogs feet on one side, and to my bumper on the other and pulled it up in a tree with the truck. It works.

When it comes time for our two, they are going to the processing plant. I don't mind the blood and guts as much as the grease and how exhausted we were. Even Dawn dish soap struggled with that greasy feeling.

 

[Baymule]

We slaughtered 3 in June, 1 for us, 2 for friends. We have 2 at the processor now. I would slaughter our own pigs again.

 

[Pastor Dave]

I had a friend from church work on my Taurus .380 TCP. It would not chamber last round. He brought it over to shoot it to show me the improvements. It was great. He wouldn't take money, so I gave him some rabbit sausage and summer sausage. I am glad I can process to give some away here and there.

 

[Baymule]

I am sure the rabbit sausage you gave him was worth more than any money you could have paid him.

 

[Pastor Dave]

The time I put into it makes it too expensive to sell. Lol

 

[AClark]

We slaughtered 3 in June, 1 for us, 2 for friends. We have 2 at the processor now. I would slaughter our own pigs again.

I think domestics are easier than ferals. The skinning was the worst part of it all really. Regardless, I will take my domestics to the slaughterhouse for that. Our local one won't do feral hogs so those are on us, and I won't mess with anything I can't pick up on my own anymore either. The sheer size factor made it difficult. Once hanging, two of them were taller than me, and it just wore me out skinning back legs and trying not to dump gut contents on the meat.

 

[Matt n Lee]

Well we have a pig update. Got the fencing done and the little guys are on pasture. I also go in trouble for uploading the waking up the pigs video without DW permission. I will NOT be making that mistake again Enjoy.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Congrats on the piggies!!

Bit late here but those pigs are very small for those ages.
4 weeks = 15lbs
8 weeks = 45lbs
12 weeks = 85-90lbs
16 weeks = 145lbs
20 weeks = 210lbs
24 weeks = 265lbs
Those are all approximate but your pigs should have weighed 85-90lbs and 145lbs at 3 and 4 months old which is about 3 times what they weighed. This means either the pigs are not what you were told they were, they were not fed properly, or its a bad line genetically.

We had a line of pigs with the same problem, they were fed and fed and not growing so we got rid of them for slaughter and the parents went too. If your piggies have not put on a large amount of weight gain since you have got them, you will want to start feeding them a good hog feed or you will still be trying to feed them up come spring.

Pigs grow based on their feed aka nutrition, you can literally hold a pig at a weight by limiting feed. We practice this with our breeding pigs they are fed to the weight we want and then diet is adjusted using shell corn to keep them lean but filled out enough for carrying a litter of piglets and nursing them. Shell corn doesnt digest well but keeps their tummies full along with hay, they do get pig and sow feed still just less then when they are bred or have piglets on the ground. Fat gilts/sows have complications when being bred more often then not, fat boars are lazy breeders generally giving smaller litter sizes.

Our pigs get pig and sow, shell corn(dry), hay, when we have them apples, carrots, sugar beets, pumpkin, squash, and any veggie kitchen scraps. Atm our big breeder girls get 8 scoops of shell corn and 3 scoops of pig and sow, they are all over 400lbs and lean. We have a pen with our 3 herefords and 2 barrow they get 3 scoops of shell corn and 3 scoops of pig and sow. A scoop is one of the 3lb scoops. The hereford pen gets more pig and sow because we are growing them to size, the shell corn is to keep them full but allow us to put weight on them just a tad slower then straight pig and sow to make sure their skeletons keep up.

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, they should be around 250lbs by 6 months old. We have had our own issues with our pigs like suddenly be short on pens so the barrows were put in pasture with the goats and sheep which ment we couldnt feed them like we were doing and they got less feed overall. We ended up with stunted piggies, we currently have two barrows that are only around 200lbs but were born in march if i recall correctly so they are about 2 months behind and will likely end up 3 months behind by the time we butcher.

 

[Matt n Lee]

@misfitmorgan that is eye opening information. The pigs have NOT grown as much as I would have expected, but being first time pig keepers I wasnt sure what I should be looking for. They were definitely worm infested when we got them, but we were able to clean them out using a LOT of pumpkin and a bit of tobacco and now they seem to have cleaned up very well. 3 and 4 months old were just what the breeder told me. I doubt he keeps any real records. I think its time we get a measured weight of our own and see where they are and start tracking their growth rate. We currently feed them twice a day. It will be a mix of hog feed/wet cracked corn with quite a bit of scraps from a local cafe. like half a 5 gallon bucket full.

Maybe we should start going with free choice on the feed. They are hungry in the morning which is another sign their worm load is way down because they had very little appetite in the beginning. The video above shows the pigs as of 1 week ago at the end when they are in the kiddy pool. I would say they are filling out a bit more but it isnt any dramatic change. Ill try to get a new video of us tape measuring them and then calculating the weight.