Baymule's Pigs 2017-2018

[Baymule]

Slaughter date is November 6, counting down. We made the decision not to keep the sow, we are not set up to farrow a sow in winter. She is showing heat and has a real bad attitude. She has tried to bite me a couple times and I walloped her with a shovel. I don't go in there any more than I have to. I wait until the heat of the day when they are laid up asleep to retrieve their feed pans. Sometimes I just throw down a flake of hay and pour their corn over that. They eat the hay too. I lost their water trough for 3 days, I couldn't see it anywhere and without a line of sight to run in and get it, not happening. I finally saw it up against the outside fence and was able to go out the front gate and around to get it. Lucky for them that they have dug pig ponds that I can fill with water.

We went to @Devonviolet 's Friday and got more whey for them. This ought to be some good pork! We also bought more smoky mozzarella cheese, ricotta spread (I don't call it failure cheese any more LOL) and more kiefer--for US!

If she is this mean now, she will be a 400 pound holy terror if she farrows. So we'll just pack them both in the freezer, we have a half hog sold to 2 different families which will make us a little money on this deal. Not too bad.

I am going to rethink my pig raising. I will continue to buy and raise feeder pigs. I am going to build a dedicated hog pen with a better watering system. The feed bin feeder I have for the feeder pigs will continue to work, but I didn't use it for these wrecking machines we have now. I'm not going to put them in one of my pastures as we work too hard for pigs to root it up. Where ever I put the pen, it will have back up the trailer access, kinda hard to do when we have so many trees. But I'll figure it out.

9 more days......

 

[Devonviolet]

Yup! I'm shore disappointed that y'all wind be narrowing that sow. But I certainly understand. I'm kinda thinking about those pasture pigs now.

 

[Simpleterrier]

The wife is canning sausage today!! Just had thirty pounds made into rope sausage. Cut into sizes that fit in a can in jar we are using wide mouth pints. Put a teaspoon of water in each pint then pack with sausage. Leave head space. Put in can and can for 1hr and 15 mins at ten lbs. A friend of ours has been giving us some of hers and that's how she does it.

 

[Simpleterrier]

here's a pic of my hog pen and house. I run a string of electric around the inside. The blue barrel is a gravity feeder I made and the white one has a hog nipple in the side of it for water. I loaded them.monday night to haul on Tuesday to the butcher. I have a portable loading shoot I made and it went beside the shed with a gate from the left side to the shoot . I then opened the gate and let them go into a smaller area then ran them up the shoot into the trailer.

 

[Baymule]

Yup! I'm shore disappointed that y'all wind be narrowing that sow. But I certainly understand. I'm kinda thinking about those pasture pigs now.

If you are going to get feeder pigs, skip the pasture pigs. (you still have to feed them) You will pay handsomely for a pasture pig, and a longer wait to reach butcher size. Your sweet husband will tire of the pigs long before you slaughter. A regular pig will reach market weight much sooner and sometimes, sooner can't come soon enough. If you want grazing pigs, all pigs graze, but wouldn't you want that pasture for your goats?

I gave them serious consideration, but I don't want to be a breeder. Why would I want to pay more, get less and take longer? I made the decision for feeder pigs, the short term works for me.

 

[Baymule]

View attachment 39728 here's a pic of my hog pen and house. I run a string of electric around the inside. The blue barrel is a gravity feeder I made and the white one has a hog nipple in the side of it for water. I loaded them.monday night to haul on Tuesday to the butcher. I have a portable loading shoot I made and it went beside the shed with a gate from the left side to the shoot . I then opened the gate and let them go into a smaller area then ran them up the shoot into the trailer.

I like your set up. Can you post a close up picture of how you have the hog nipples attached to the barrel? I will more than likely be using them next go-round. Can you also post a picture of your chute? Last time we loaded up lambs, we made a temporary one of cow panels.

That is interesting about the canned sausage. Did you precook it or put raw links in jars? Post a picture!

 

[Simpleterrier]

Raw links right in the jar. The links float untill they cool down then the Greece floats to the top.

 

[Simpleterrier]

blue gate and loading shoot are temporary solid side on a loading shoot works best for pigs.

 

[Simpleterrier]

here's a pic of a gravity feeder I made

 

[Simpleterrier]

here is a side view of my waterer. I did have the nipple screwed directly into the barrel. But had to add the bi nipple and coupling so it could reach threw the fence. I put the barrel on the outside of the pen so the hogs can't beat it up