Finishing pigs for xmas

[Plopper]

I have a couple of pure old spots that im wanting to send to butcher week before xmas , they are about 55kg just wondering best way of feeding them to get them to slaughter weight would you ad lib or feed once / twice day? cheers

 

[d williams]

I have a couple of pure old spots that im wanting to send to butcher week before xmas , they are about 55kg just wondering best way of feeding them to get them to slaughter weight would you ad lib or feed once / twice day? cheers

As lib

 

[Andyt880]

Unless you are going to kill them at fairly light weights they won’t be ready the week before Christmas. It’s only approx 30 days until they would be going. To get them to around 100kg live weight they would need be doing a LWG of 1.5kg per day average. You won’t get anywhere close to that with traditional breeds.
They would need to be indoors in a warm shed and fed a good quality ration ad lib to get anywhere close to killing weight for Christmas. Ad lib feeding may cause excess fat on traditional breeds? I have no experience of finishing the likes of old spots

 

[Old Boar]

A lot depends on what sort of condition they are now. If they are on the skinny side, you could bring them in and feed them ad lib for the next few weeks to get a "finish" on them. If they are now well covered you are not going to alter the overall end result in the time available.
Personally I would forget Christmas and continue to grow them slowly until they are bacon weight. You get better meat and more of it for your input.
And unless you have already booked the abattoir, I doubt you will get a space at this time of the year. I used to have to book the extra pigs for the Christmas market in September at the latest, and I had a weekly slot.

 

[Pan mixer]

A lot depends on what sort of condition they are now. If they are on the skinny side, you could bring them in and feed them ad lib for the next few weeks to get a "finish" on them. If they are now well covered you are not going to alter the overall end result in the time available.
Personally I would forget Christmas and continue to grow them slowly until they are bacon weight. You get better meat and more of it for your input.
And unless you have already booked the abattoir, I doubt you will get a space at this time of the year. I used to have to book the extra pigs for the Christmas market in September at the latest, and I had a weekly slot.

It is surprising though how many years the abattoir wants extra pigs just a few days before Christmas - never any problem when they want them.

 

[Plopper]

I want them to be 70 kg ish , I just want some nice joints for over xmas , have always killed rare breeds at this weight and never been disappointed , can only imagine a 100kg old spot to be as fat as shi*t. no problem getting booked into the abattoir as owner long time family friend.