Thank you for the advice. i kind of figured that cause they're 'heritage bacon type' and all legs and lean meat. grain/table scrap fed. raised outside so they can root around.Royd Wood said:
- Tamworth and Large Blacks are not all leggy and lean actually pretty far from it - they produce the most amazing pork, bacon, hams and everything else but are just a bit slower at finishing which is why they got forgotten about back in the 50s, 60s and 70s leading to near extinction. They dont do too well on commercial feed but on a mixed diet including pasture, dairy products, veg, fruit and grain living outdoors then you cant go wrong with Tams and LB's
lol have you seen those tamworths? compaired to those big ole pink thinks they look like they could run a good marathon to me! maybe the large blacks arn't exactly 'leggy'Royd Wood said:ok - lets get this right
For your own use I would say get hold of some for your backyard from your friend, but if you want to make dollars at market then use pinks for that
LOL! Royd raises Tamworths & Large Blacks so he knows exactly what he is talking about. You can't even compare the taste of the meat from a Large Black to a commercial pig. Not being rude here but the heritage breeds are the real pigs & how a pig was created to be before man interfered. If you are looking for great tasting meat that you see walking out on your pastures each day & will come running for their belly scratch like a dog then you can't go wrong with the Large Blacks.
the rest i'll be waiting to hear myself but as for books story's guide to raising pigs. and for butchering we've raised plenty of batches of non-heritage big pink industrial piggies and we tried processing ourselves once. i would not recomend it. they know exactly whats going on and they get terrified and its just a bad situation.with deer you shoot from a distance, dont know them and once u get close there already dead.Teeah3612 said:
Need to dispel some myths here. A "terrified" pig is not necessary. We process our own Large Blacks on a regular basis. The key to butchering any pig is to keep it's routine exactly the same. If you have multiple pigs in a pasture, some that you do not want to process on the same day, then move either the other pigs or the "butcher" pigs a few days before so they get used to their new surroundings. On the day of butchering, put their feed in front of them as usual & as they bend down to eat, shoot just between the ears (you can find the exact recommended location online.) The pigs never knows what hits it, immediately goes down & then you slice the jugular letting it bleed out. Do not attempt to move it until it has bled out - it will continue to kick for a few minutes & you could get injured. Once bled out, load onto a cart or drag to your tree which is set up with a pulley. Hook the beg legs into the gambril, lift up & proceed to skin & gut. Cut into quarters for ease of handling. We put our pork in the cooler for 7-9 days - really tender that way.
We train all ours to electric wire. Once weaned we use Electric netting until they are about 4mths old & then they graduate to 3 wires of polywire. We use mains electric not solar for a greater "kick." Area? It depends on how good your pasture is. If you can rotate that will help improve your pasture.
Three sided shelter is all they need. We have 5' x 7' Porta Huts here which is great for 3 full size pigs but you will find they will only use them if the weather is bad. They love to sleep under the stars when the weather is mild
The important thing in the heat is a wallow/pond. Pigs cannot sweat so have to be able to keep cool.10-14mths! If you feed them too much too fast they will put on fat not muscle. Remember they don't consume the same amount of grain that a commercial pig does. We feed ours 3-4lbs a day of grain plus some eggs, milk, veggies etc. If you have a good source of other food you can cut that grain down. I know folks that are only feeding them 2 lbs of grain a day.
Impossible to tell you. A lot depends on your pasture - remember these pigs are grazers like cows so they can get alot of their nutrients from the grass.
We do not vaccinate here. We worm at 8 weeks old when we wean but that is it unless we see a problem. You need to ask the breeder who you purchase form if they worm. They should! BUT if they do not then worm them as soon as you pick them up.
Nope
You already have the tools needed. Look forward to enjoying some of the best tasting pork you can ever eat.No good books out there on raising pastured pigs - we have a lot of info on our website
and so do some others out there. Royd is in Canada but he also has a website. For cutting up pork, there is alot of info on the internet & we used the book 'Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game' when we started. Now we just do our own thing
