About our pigs
One (castrated) male and one female from the same litter of yorkshire/old spot pigs (mostly to be able to compare the bacon on a male vs. a female). I noticed a small bit of that “pig” odor in the bacon, but nowhere near the amount I had on our first pig. Male vs. female made no difference in smell to me- both had a faint smell- on the fat in the inner cavity only. Because my husband and dad found it easier to gut the female vs. the male, I’ll probably stick to raising just females in the future.
Feeding and Care
Regarding raising pigs this year, I tried a little something different. Feed consisted of scraps and a fresh spot of pasture in the am and hog feed in the pm. We used 1300 lbs of feed on 2 pigs for about 6 months in the pig tractor. The last 2 months relied more heavily on grain both am and pm since vegetation was limited and the pigs were much larger.
The drawback: The pigs acted like they were starving (although they were not really) at all meals- very loud, and no way was I going to step in that pen unless the feed was in the pan!
The pig tractor still worked well, but is in need of some repairs before next year. 2 corners have pulled apart at the bottom of the framing (probably from the lift and shift method of moving, since the wheels are still not installed). The wire is a little more bent, but still useable. The tarp I have to replace every year, and usually needs a fix part way through the summer and reinforcement in the fall. I’ve still had no one escape under the tractor, but one pig jumped out 3 times this year- always only as I was bringing feed. I put barbed wire on 3 sides of the pen to keep them from jumping up, and that worked until there was a hole in the tarp and it jumped through there once.
Regarding growth: I taped a few times, with these figures:
6/16 (8 weeks old, 4 weeks here)
female 21″ Girth 23″ length = 25 lbs
male 22″ girth 23″ length = 27 lbs
9/24 (22 weeks?)
female: 34.5 girth x36 length= 107 lbs
male 37.5girth x36 length= 126 lbs
11/9
female: 45 girth x42.5 length=215 lbs
male: 40 girth x 40 length=160 lbs
The male was larger until the last 1 1/2 months or so, then the female grew significantly larger.
I didn’t tape just before butchering. We also didn’t check hanging weight (we don’t have a proper scale for that). Thanksgiving day was the start of our processing.
I DO have weights for what we ended up with in the fridge/freezer. No skin, fairly well trimmed of fat, and the only bones included in this weight were ribs and some bone in chops- “hams” were de-boned, I didn’t use any organs, head, or feet, and no lard weight is counted. The female pig yielded 125 lbs in the freezer, The male 100 lbs.
Processing
We processed both pigs at the same time this year. This was our timeline:
Day 1: Butchering (gutting and skinning) took about half of the day- then the pigs were wrapped in a sheet and hung in the garage.
Day 2: Both pigs were cut up (My husband uses his sawz-all to cut it into big chunks, the remaining cutting is done inside). We packaged chops, loins, and ribs immediately and chunked everything up to be ground for sausage. the “hams” and other suitable larger chunks for brined roasts were set aside.
Day 3: All the sausage was ground. We’ve got a small grinder my husband had for deer and we’ve got access to a larger grinder from family (that works 3x as fast). It took a solid evening to double grind our 100 lbs of ground pork. We packaged most of it (using mainly ground meat bags) in 1 1/2 lb. portions. We also made up 45 lbs of breakfast sausage, about 15 lbs of Italian sausage, and have about 15 lbs left in the fridge to be finished into something or packaged.
Day 4: I spent several hours in the morning brining roasts/hams and rubbing bacon with cure. The brine is the same as previously used. The bacon is based on last years recipes- some is just a simple brown sugar and salt mixture. Some has the addition of maple flavoring. I’m solely using the ziplock method- no dry rubs this year.
Day 5: (after brining and bacon curing is done)- packaging and some slicing of brined roasts and bacon.
If we had pushed hard to do it all, it would have been done (except for packaging the bacon and brined roasts) in 2 solid days.
Packaging
For packaging this year, we wanted to try something more substantial than ziplocks for longer than 6 months of storage. I purchased shrink bags (we used some in our first chicken processing venture this fall) in 6×11,7×14, and 11×16 sizes. I had picked up a heat bar sealer (Dazey seal-a-meal) at a yard sale. That worked fairly well to seal the tops of bags- if it was wiped clean inside. There’s also a bit of a learning curve. THe longer it’s on, the hotter it gets, so you have to be quick on the seal or it melts a hole in the bag. But if it’s too cool, it won’t seal. As long as there’s head room, a twist tie or zip tie will suffice on the shrink bags. For bone edges, I cut up a white t-shirt to use for bone pads.
pork cuts shrink wrapped in the freezer
Ground pork and sausage in commercial ground meat bags. The 1 lb packages can hold 1 1/2 lbs 😉
italian sausage, breakfast sausage, and ground pork
Bacon was shrink wrapped in 1-2lb chunks and we’ll slice it as we open it to use- so it keeps better.
Once packaged, a small slit is made in the bag, then it’s dipped in a pot of hot water (170-190 ish) for a couple seconds. I used my jar lifter for canning, but you can also use a dip basket. There is some bubbling/splattering as the air escapes the bag as it shrinks. Then dry, put a piece of tape or a freezer safe label over the hole, and label it for the freezer. Even if it gets a hole, it doesn’t open back up to allow air exposure to as much surface area of the meat. It’s user friendly, requires little for extra materials, and is reasonably priced in comparison to freezer paper, vacuum packaging or even ziplocks (depending on where you buy and in what quantity).
We packaged some of our meat in ziplocks to be used sooner. If the bags end up failing miserably in the long run, I’ll have to update, but here’s some comparison pictures after 2 1/2 m0nths.
pork ribs (above) and boneless pork chops (below)- shrink wrapped vs. ziplocks at 2 1/2 months
Costs
Our feed averaged about $23 for a 100 lb bag (including tax) this year, so $300 of feed.
Piglet prices were about $70 each for piglets (although we traded for these), so $140
$440 for 225 lbs in the freezer = $1.95/lb.
Plus packaging (although when I buy at the store I still have some packaging costs), scraps, electric, water, time for their care and processing, seasonings and spices for the sausage, bacon, and brined roasts, wear on the pig pen, wormer (didn’t use this year), etc.
Wegman’s (where we would probably buy otherwise) club pack price is currently priced at $2.98/lb for boneless pork chops, $1.49 for bone-in shoulder blade roast, $2.79 tender loin, $1.99 whole loin, $3.49 for country style ribs, $4.49 for bone in chops, $3.99 for ground pork or jimmy dean sausage, $4.99 for bacon. I usually stock my meats when I find them on sale, so I wouldn’t often pay most of these prices, but it’s a comparison none the less.
See my previous posts from last year to learn more about our pig tractor, specifics of what we did for sausage, bacon, and brined roasts/ham.
Pure and Simple Life 