Do you feed pigs on the day of butcher?

[goatyyymama164]

4-H would be cool but get a pig for yourselves too. Worst part about $-h is they get everything to butcher weight then auction it off and you get no meat. I know some kids skip auctioning but they really need the money for their next year project/savings accounts.

Depending on the breed boar taint isnt a real thing btw. It does exist yes but not until over 6-8 months old, and mostly in dark skinned pigs. Of all finished male pigs only 20% have taint and only 75% of people can taste boar taint.....so your odds are pretty low for ever experiencing it.

My hubby can really taste taints in meat. We ordered half a hog from a guy near us and he said that every time I cook it up it stinks up the whole house and it tastes awful but I can't taste anything or smell anything. I think that the pig we got was an old male that was used for breeding or something.

 

[goatyyymama164]

I’ve raised boars and never experienced boar taint. My pen is big enough that they have a potty corner, giving them plenty of space to root in. So I’m pretty confident that they aren’t eating their own feces. Pigs are going to root. It’s what they do. When they are in such small pens that they can’t get away from their own feces, they are going to root and eat their own feces.

Also, if pigs have roughage, it helps keep the meat clean. They will eat hay and grass.

Another thing on taint, if there are no females to get them excited, it greatly diminishes the male hormones, which can lead to taint.

He had no females around him or remotely near him. This is our first time and we are still learning.

 

[goatyyymama164]

Yes I realized many years ago there was good reason for it. I am talking todays commercial confinement raising where they use landrace pigs and they are for sure butchered at or before 6 months. For the boar taint in younger then 6 month old boars....its not real boar taint. Real boar taint is caused by 16-androstenes which doesnt occur until 6 months or older. 2/3 of all "boar taint" is actually caused by Skatole which is what causes feces to smell. So basically.....the bad smell in that 5 month old boar was not boar taint it was Skatole. Skatole comes from pigs eating feces.

Any pig, any sex, any age can have Skatole taint. Odds of getting true boar taint are slightly over 6.5% and the boar must be over 6 months for it to build up enough to be detected by humans. If any live pig has the "boar taint" smell it is Skatole and not real boar taint...real boar taint can only be smelled when the pork(fat) is cooked. Castrating does not stop Skatole taint.

So far in my life I have been lucky to never come across boar taint so either I am in the 25% who cant taste or smell it or it is really rare in modern pigs.

I can understand castrating for disposition and ease of working with them.

He had a very large pen so he has his own potty corner so he didn't eat his feces.

 

[goatyyymama164]

The butcher called us and he was 215lbs and we will take home about 120lbs of meat if I remember correctly.

 

[Baymule]

Now you know what you are doing. The next time will be easier. We have raised pigs every year since we moved here. If you can raise 2, sell 1 and pay for the feed and slaughter for both, yours is free. Or raise one for family and they pay for expenses for their pig and you both have good meat.

We have a customer that buys a whole pig from us every year. We charge by hanging weight, it pays for our pig. This year we have 3 pigs, 2 people each want half a pig, so we are splitting our pig with DD and family.

We raised a steer and split the feed/slaughter and price of the steer with our DD and family. We each got a side of beef for a
little over $3 per pound hanging weight.

 

[messybun]

I had never heard of skatole taint, but it makes so much sense. Whenever we would cook up store bought bacon everyone in the house but my dad would be gagging. It just smelled so bad! Now we started getting our bacon from pigs who were grazed and really well cared for we noticed such a difference. So nice to finally know why!

 

[misfitmorgan]

My hubby can really taste taints in meat. We ordered half a hog from a guy near us and he said that every time I cook it up it stinks up the whole house and it tastes awful but I can't taste anything or smell anything. I think that the pig we got was an old male that was used for breeding or something.

If your DH can taste taint it is definitely something to watch out for. So long as your butchering by 6 months and he has a big enough pen you should be good!

I had never heard of skatole taint, but it makes so much sense. Whenever we would cook up store bought bacon everyone in the house but my dad would be gagging. It just smelled so bad! Now we started getting our bacon from pigs who were grazed and really well cared for we noticed such a difference. So nice to finally know why!

Most people have not heard of it honestly. People just assume boar taint is boar taint and dont research it. Confinement raised pigs Skatole taint but the level is lower because they are butchered young. If your whole family can smell the skatole taint stick with pasture raised pork. It would be interesting to know if our hereford boar has boar taint now that he is a few years old and lives with the ladies full time but we are not butchering him. He is going to the auction when it is time though, I have no freezer space for a 900lb pig

If you get a pig and it stinks other then in the potty corner, it is Skatole taint. If you finish the pig in a large area free of feces for a month the skatole taint will be gone and you can butcher without worrying about it.

 

[Baymule]

I’m raising 3 boars right now. The biggest is Hereford, the smallest is half Hereford. We raised Herefords before, both were boars. No taint or smell to them.