Meet my pigs.

[quattro]

The streaky bacon is delicious and I normally do not like streaky bacon . View attachment 1011682

Can’t remember exactly where but drove down a twisty bit of road and there were outdoor pigs either side of road, not big no’s
it was your sort of area , any ideas who’s?

 

[Hilly]

Can’t remember exactly where but drove down a twisty bit of road and there were outdoor pigs either side of road, not big no’s
it was your sort of area , any ideas who’s?

Both sides of road ? No idea , I have a few near road outside big shed .

 

[Woolless]

Can’t remember exactly where but drove down a twisty bit of road and there were outdoor pigs either side of road, not big no’s
it was your sort of area , any ideas who’s?

It wasn't over this side of the country, near the east coast?

 

[quattro]

It wasn't over this side of the country, near the east coast?

We came into Hawick abit after seeing them, seem to think it was in abit of a valley

 

[Woolless]

We came into Hawick abit after seeing them, seem to think it was in abit of a valley

Ah right, I don't know over that way too well. There's a bit as you describe near here.

 

[Hilly]

Had some pigs butchers , o think its looking good

 

[ritchiekirkland]

Where do you get them killed and butchered ?
We had a few done a couple months ago and where very disappointed by the butcher. Got some fit to go in the next month and want to try somewhere else

 

[vantage]

Duroc is a very good terminal sire.

Reminded me of when I was a student in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, farm ran Durocs over Line12(?) sows. Used to enjoy the outdoor pigs a lot.

When I was working for PIC we had taste tests for our contract to supply waitrose farms and Duroc came out on top every time.
They still went for Berkshire in the end, because they felt it was a more appropriately named breed for what they were doing. Awful pigs in a commercial sense, overfat, lazy boars, tiny carcases once the fat was trimmed.....

A friend who had a few when he was farming in Herefordshire, gave us some sausages as a present. Absolutely the nicest I’ve ever eaten.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Reminded me of when I was a student in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, farm ran Durocs over Line12(?) sows. Used to enjoy the outdoor pigs a lot.

A friend who had a few when he was farming in Herefordshire, gave us some sausages as a present. Absolutely the nicest I’ve ever eaten.

A local processor persuaded me a few years ago to do about 80 Berkshire sired finished pigs per week. Definitely the best tasting pork that I've ever eaten, unfortunately nobody would pay the processor the premium that was needed to cover costs and after very fair notice the project came to an end.
That gentleman sadly doesn't own the plant anymore. We did the deal on a handshake and he stood totally by it even when he was losing out on it.

 

[thorpe]

A local processor persuaded me a few years ago to do about 80 Berkshire sired finished pigs per week. Definitely the best tasting pork that I've ever eaten, unfortunately nobody would pay the processor the premium that was needed to cover costs and after very fair notice the project came to an end.
That gentleman sadly doesn't own the plant anymore. We did the deal on a handshake and he stood totally by it even when he was losing out on it.

i luv the look's of berkshire's , proper pork pigs. darn't risk it, bought some welsh instead, just abought ready to kill and i am looking forward to some proper pork . if i see some berkshire weaners in mktfor a tenner i'll take a risk

 

[celtis man]

Would you like to see my friends
Pietrain x saddleback

 

[som farmer]

pork from your own feeding, cannot really be beaten, we have just made 160 kg of sausages, 1840 apparently, and pretty well all gone.

A word of warning, the previous 2 pigs, thought it was about time they went, actually thought it was past time, a 10 week waiting list, they were both over 120kg hung up, 65 kg went into sausages, they soon went, chops were best described as 'sharing' chops.
To get a slot, to kill for xmas, probably too late.
there are simply not enough small abattoirs now, red tape is killing them.
It's absolute stupidity, just to 'satisfy' some idiotic, civil servant, who knows ###all about the job, just thinks he does.

 

[Hilly]

pork from your own feeding, cannot really be beaten, we have just made 160 kg of sausages, 1840 apparently, and pretty well all gone.

A word of warning, the previous 2 pigs, thought it was about time they went, actually thought it was past time, a 10 week waiting list, they were both over 120kg hung up, 65 kg went into sausages, they soon went, chops were best described as 'sharing' chops.
To get a slot, to kill for xmas, probably too late.
there are simply not enough small abattoirs now, red tape is killing them.
It's absolute stupidity, just to 'satisfy' some idiotic, civil servant, who knows ###all about the job, just thinks he does.

I agree , the shortage of small abattoirs is Unreal , such a shame things have gone the way they have .

 

[Hilly]

Where do you get them killed and butchered ?
We had a few done a couple months ago and where very disappointed by the butcher. Got some fit to go in the next month and want to try somewhere else

Wishaw glasgow , butcher has a cutting room at the Abattoir.

 

[lou]

View attachment 1064027Had some pigs butchers , o think its looking good

Hope mine turn out looking as good as that!



How much food did they eat?

 

[Pigken]

Wishaw glasgow , butcher has a cutting room at the Abattoir.

Are costs pretty similar where ever you go with them?

 

[ritchiekirkland]

Wishaw glasgow , butcher has a cutting room at the Abattoir.

Ours got killed there too but butchered elsewhere

 

[som farmer]

pigs seem to play an important part in farmers lives. At any mkt, there always seems to be a crowd watching the pigs being sold, about 10 watching, to 1 buyer.
As l grew up, pigs were more important than the dairy, we had 150 sows, fattened all the offspring to heavy hogs, 360lb.
But they all went, old sheds, not enough profit, disease etc, like so many other producers.

We had mainly saddlebacks, a few gos x tamworths - they looked 'pretty ! All put to LW or Welsh boars.
They carried to much fat, so requirements changed, so we kept s/back x LW, blue and white sows, and carried on, till they carried to much fat, so back to white sows, the only constant breed, as is still the same, was the LW sire.

A local farmer got a contract, to supply a customer with a steady supply of GOS pigs, he had about 30 sows, everything done free range. The first problem was too much fat, the second problem, was stopping them putting the fat on. The only way to do that, is to reduce feed, the result, basically making the pigs live off the 'free range', with very little bag food.

Which then meant the pigs took to long to finish. Boar taint was beginning to creep in, but the other problem, was the meat was 'stringy' and not what the customer wanted. We all know, you need some fat to get the best 'taste', but the consumer didn't know that, and the job packed up. A pity really.

What it does explain, is why all the 'rare breeds', cattle/sheep as well, became rare, they all evolved in a time, when fat was the easiest, and cheapest form of energy, which the working man had to have, to supply it. As heavy manual work became less, so the need for 'fat' declined with it, to such an extent, fat is now seen as BAD by the consumer, and breeds of some 'old' breeds developed into breeds, that didn't carry fat, ie angus or hereford, for cattle, and LW in pigs, and new breeds x's imported in.

And rare breed meat, is now seen as a delicacy, which it is, but if those breeds had evolved into something, that matched consumer requirements, they wouldn't be rare today.
It also shows, that everything we produce, has to meet the consumer demand.

Going back to child hood, used to kill one of those heavy hogs, for the freezer, the belly pork, was basically a slab of fat, 2ins thick, with a few pink bits, covered with crackling, and used to stay in the bottom of the freezer, till a sort out, when it was 'discarded'. Now, as we make sausages, you need a lot of fat in them, so they taste great, cook nicely and sell like hot cakes.
I wonder what they put in 'shop' sausages, to replace the fat element. Because, l know what sausages, made with little/no fat, don't taste 'right'.

 

[Hilly]

Ours got killed there too but butchered elsewhere

Hope mine turn out looking as good as that!

View attachment 1064189

How much food did they eat?

Alot ! Ive tried everything and cant make a penny out them best i can do is break even…. When the last have gone thats it no more …

 

[Hilly]

Some of my sausage i collect tomorrow ., mmmm