FINALLY corssed the finish line!

[GrowURown]

And I TOTALLY forgot to update! I had initially asked a few questions on here when we first got the hogs...we are down to one lady hog now, considering either keeping her to breed to processing...still unsure...she's a VERY sweet girl. Course our little barrow was sweet as well, but the plan for him was to go to freezer camp all along...sold one other little "bonus" pig we had inherited of sorts from the idiot neighbors - just didn't have room for all that meat! So...here's the pics of him loaded up to go on processing day:


Bacon and myself - for comparison


the side of Bacon


Rear view so you can check out the hams

Hanging weight was 272 - he was a little on the fatty side, it probably would have been better to go about a month earlier to get him processed, but we took him January 12th - so a month earlier would have been mid Christmas rush around here and it wasn't feasible to go then. We were VERY proud of this for MANY reasons...so I wanted to share.

 

[freemotion]

Pork fat rules!!! I, for one, was disappointed that my pigs were so lean....a drawback of pasturing them, apparently. Greens and beans with salt pork, lard made into pie crusts, biscuits, cookies, cakes, and bacon, bacon, and more bacon! I could never have enough pork fat!

 

[GrowURown]

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT MY VOTE IS! I was so excited to see the lovely fatty meat that wouldn't be dry when cooked on the grill and the giant bag of soon to be lard they saved for us! But the wife HATES too much fat - picky about that - so next time we will go just a little sooner/smaller with them and try to shoot for them to be done NOT during a holiday! We got EVERYTHING back - so it's been some work finding a spot for it in the freezers...but WELL worth it!

 

[freemotion]

Ship that fat right to me, old friend!

 

[RIRss]

Well I just got 2 new baby girls and I plan on putting them in the freezer in November so I hope they come along well. Also nice looking pig what did you feed him?

Thanks,
RIRss

 

[GrowURown]

For the most part a 13% hog grower/finisher from Big V feeds, then half hog grower/half corn chops for a couple of months and the last 3 weeks or so straight corn chops...this was of course supplemented with quite a bit of pancakes from my wife's job - IHOP slop bucket buffet for the pigs and chickens on the regular - one of her employees is a MASTER pancake seperator in the dish room!


ETA: He was a berkshire/yorkshire cross btw...dunno if that helps

 

[Royd Wood]

Oh nice one Growurown - I bet it tastes fantastic and you are right to feel very proud
We had some Large Blacks cross Yorkshires and the results were superb.
Got some Hampshire cross Tamworth next but a few weeks to go

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Great job!!!

 

[RIRss]

Thanks for the info GROW I am doing a duroc and yorkshire breed. Hopefully they come out good and if one of them is really nice I might keep one for breeding.

Thanks,
RIRss

 

[GrowURown]

Thank you everyone and you are welcome RIRss! I bet yours will come out just fine! It really is something awesome to be able to say "I made this" and not just mean that you cooked dinner, but that you also grew it and it wasn't a tomato!