Advice on piggies please

[su]

We've 3 Gloucester old spot pigs (Sausage, Bacon and Daisy) and raised them outdoors in about half acre of willow grove. We bought them at 10 weeks old and they are now 27 weeks old. For the past couple of months we've fed them on a mixture of finishing pellets, barley, fresh fruit and veg and obviously they've grazed and foraged their little bit of land.

Neither my hubby or myself know when the right time is to turn Sausage and Bacon into er Sausage and Bacon. Can anyone give us any advice please???

[Stonehead]

We've 3 Gloucester old spot pigs (Sausage, Bacon and Daisy) and raised them outdoors in about half acre of willow grove. We bought them at 10 weeks old and they are now 27 weeks old. For the past couple of months we've fed them on a mixture of finishing pellets, barley, fresh fruit and veg and obviously they've grazed and foraged their little bit of land.

Neither my hubby or myself know when the right time is to turn Sausage and Bacon into er Sausage and Bacon. Can anyone give us any advice please???

Now!

Depending on breed and sex, we slaughter ours between 20 and 26 weeks. Boars are killed younger as you can get boar taint to the meat once they're sexually mature. Also, boars tend to grow faster so they're bigger sooner.

Baconers are usually taken on to a larger weight, but you may have a problem finding a butcher prepared to take a larger pig. Both of our butchers will not take carcass weights over 55-60kg (which is bang on the money for a cutter or a modern commercial pig).

For pork, you want your pigs around 65-70kg live weight, which will give around 45-50kg carcass weight. This depends on breed, though, as heavier boned breeds give heavier carcasses but less meat while lighter-boned breeds may have lighter carcasses but more meat.

Baconers are slaughtered between 80-100kg live weight to give 60-75kg carcass weight.

In between the two, you have cutters, which are general purpose pigs (pork, bacon or ham) and come in at 70-90kg live weight and 50-70kg deadweight. We tend to do ours as cutters because it gives the big chops that most of our customers want as well as allowing us to make our own bacon from time to time.

Note that these terms are increasingly seen as old-fashioned by the industrial operations (not by my butchers!), who tend to aim for a carcass weight of 55-60kg as it standardises everything for efficiency.

We aim for cutters delivering a carcass of between 50 and 60kg. I check my pigs my eye and feel, with the aim being to be able to just feel the knobbly bits along the spine. If you can't feel the bumps, they're too fat (and butchers loathe fatty pigs). If they feel bony, they're too thin.

We aim to have between 0.5in and 0.75in back fat, more than is fashionable at the moment but it gives more flavour when the meat is cooked properly. More fat than that, and IMO you start moving from tasty to greasy.

As for your three, I'd suggest getting them slaughtered ASAP as they must be fairly big by now at 27 weeks. Make sure you have the heads removed and the carcasses halved at the abbatoir - I can carry a 55-60kg whole carcass with head on my shoulder but it's hard work and anything over that is going to require serious muscle to move. So, get the heads off and the carcasses halved!

[su]

Thankyou for that advice Stonehead - I read an article of yours earlier which prompted me to work out the age of the pigs - that's why I asked!

I was given a chart this morning - measure the girth of the pig around the heart and it gives you the weight. According to the chart, if it's right - Bacon (the boar) weighs 95kg and his sister Sausage weighs 94kg, we're keeping Daisy for breeding.

I shall get hubby on the case tomorrow and sort things out as soon as possible - once again thank-you.

[Stonehead]

A few tips:

Remember not to feed the pigs for 24 hours before they go for slaughter, but allow them plenty of water. This cleans them out (and also makes them more likely to go into the trailer if you throw a small amount of feed in).

Find out the quiet times at the abbatoir. I like to take my pigs in during the quiet times as this means they get unloaded, walk through to their pen, get checked and then go straight in for killing. No waiting, no stress and no other squealing pigs.

Find out when the busiest day for picking up meat is. I never collect mine on a Friday as that's when the semi-trailers are backing in and out collecting for the supermarkets, food factories and major butcher chains. Thursdays are when the smaller trucks and vans tend to collect.

And make sure you (or hubby) can reverse a livestock trailer in a confined space, around sharp corners and up steep ramps! Scotch Premier in Inverurie where I get my pigs done is easy - drive past the ramp, then reverse back to it and bingo.

But Rhinds in Elgin (where I take lambs) requires some very nifty manoeuvring, then backing up a ramp which is actually too steep for many trailers. It looks easier than the Inverurie set-up with what looks like plenty of space, but it's very tricky unless you're in a lorry with lots of ground clearance.

Finally, make sure the pigs are properly tattooed or ear tagged (metal tags or heat proof plastic tags); make sure all the paperwork is in order with multiple copies; and make sure the pigs are reasonably clean with no injuries or lameness. I keep ours indoors on straw for at least a day or two before they go for slaughter so they're both clean and easily checked for health issues.

Good luck and enjoy your pork and/or bacon.

PS If you're making sausages, get the butcher to bone the meat out for you and mince it. It takes a very, very long time to bone, skin and hand mince 40-50lb of pork!