Tamworth Piglets!

[that's*satyrical]

Thanks for all the advice/help. I will be sure to post of pic of the new babies when they arrive. We are supposed to pick them up next Saturday.

 

[Royd Wood]

Great choice of heritage pork and the tams wont let you down

Do you do the LB/Tam cross Royd? I understand that "Blackworths" make a really nice cross? We have never had Tams so have no experience here with them but there is a farm in TX who do Blackworths & they really like them.

I have heard that the Tams are more highly strung than the LB's but then the LB's are SO laid back it would be hard to find a pig that could beat them on that.

Liz

Well they look good so far but I'll let you know when they hit the store shelf in a few weeks time. They are 9 months old and almost ready to go at 250 lb.
They look like LBs but are squealers and just not chilled out
Tams are a fine pig however they specialise in being escape artists and so noisy, saying that its better than having the ploughing machine hamps around. We have one hamp left only because she knocks out great LB cross piglets who are growing fast and might be ready by 7 months. ???? we will see ?????
We processed some pure Tam barrows recently and I must say the pork was very good but the bacon was disgusting.



Yes disgusting the way we all fought over it at the table

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Yes disgusting the way we all fought over it at the table

LOL!

They are 9 months old and almost ready to go at 250 lb.

Are you getting a good marbling at this size? I've recently been reading that some folks are now growing their pork a little bigger? How's the lard quantity at this age? We personally like our pork lean but we are going to have to put some fat on at least one this year if we are going to replenish our lard.

Sausage (LB cull gilt) is gaining quite fast & is certainly a little porker. She is getting fed cooked eggs every day with her grain. Hoping to wean her off the grain & just feed her milk/eggs & alfalfa as well as her pasture of course but not got quite enough milk right now.

Liz

 

[Royd Wood]

Yes disgusting the way we all fought over it at the table

LOL!

They are 9 months old and almost ready to go at 250 lb.

Are you getting a good marbling at this size? I've recently been reading that some folks are now growing their pork a little bigger? How's the lard quantity at this age? We personally like our pork lean but we are going to have to put some fat on at least one this year if we are going to replenish our lard.

Sausage (LB cull gilt) is gaining quite fast & is certainly a little porker. She is getting fed cooked eggs every day with her grain. Hoping to wean her off the grain & just feed her milk/eggs & alfalfa as well as her pasture of course but not got quite enough milk right now.

Liz

We sent 2 pure Tamworth barrows which were up around 350lb and 400 lb meat was fantastic but in my book they were too fat. There was 120 lb of fat off the 2 pigs which for me is way too much however because we render and sell lard it was put to good use. These 2 were raised at the farm for the last 2 months and not on the loose with the rest of the pigs.
We are getting some others up to 300 lb more often these days which I think is working out well meat wise with crossbreds but it takes so long with cull LBs. Still on a learning curve here but our customers love the meat and understand that sometimes a 6 week wait for the next pack of bacon is the norm.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

There was 120 lb of fat off the 2 pigs

WOW! That is alot of rendering to do!

Liz

 

[that's*satyrical]

So question about future piglets. If we were to keep some for meat & sell some is it better to keep/sell gilts or barrows? How many should we keep for meat for a family of 5? What age/size would be best for slaughter time? Thanks so much.

And one more question for Liz. Would you be interested in a trade so both of us might try this LB/Tam cross at some point?

 

[Cornish Heritage]

If we were to keep some for meat & sell some is it better to keep/sell gilts or barrows?

Not quite sure what you are asking here. Are you talking about selling as piglets or mature stock ready for butchering? We enacted a new farm policy here this year in that we only sell Barrows as feeders. The reason we have done this is to try & stop some of the backyard breeding. Because our business is registered breeding stock when we cull an animal there is a reason for it & we do not want it to be bred. Of course if we cull a boar then it is easy to make him into a barrow but you cannot easily "fix" a gilt SO we keep all cull gilts here on the farm to raise for our own consumption.

If you have registered pure bred Tamworths, you'll find that you will be able to sell your gilts as piglets way more easily than your boars.

How many should we keep for meat for a family of 5?

LOL! Depends how much you enjoy pork, bacon & sausage It also depends on what other meat you have in the freezer, not to mention the age of your kids. If you are feeding teenage boys then you are going to need more than if you are feeding toddlers We pack our sausage & bacon in 2lb packs so there isn't that many packs per pig. I'm betting we eat at least 3-4 pigs a year but ours are normally various sizes.

What age/size would be best for slaughter time?

Depends on whether you like your meat lean or marbled? The "experts" say that once a pig reaches 250lbs that is when it starts to put on the fat. We like our meat lean so we butcher around that weight. Some folks like to wait for 275lbs to 300lbs.

Would you be interested in a trade so both of us might try this LB/Tam cross at some point?

Thanks but no thanks No more pig crosses on this farm - no money in it especially with the price of feed right now.

Liz