Pig talk

[Bird]

Bird, You have to keep going, you are one of the few folks on here that I look to having posted something on a thead that interests me. The reason is, you talk sense, and there is not too much of that about these days.

There are a few more old timers about, will not list them because I am surre to forget somebody, but just like you to know, I appreciate your input from a foreign land. Foreign info (as in USA and other places) is always a lot more beneficial than local info.

Thanks, but don't want you to make my head swell up until my hat won't fit.

 

[Bird]

Yes, there is no tooth fairy, and pgs do not ssweat like a human.

I'll never forget learning that pigs don't sweat. My paternal grandfather had moved into town several years earlier when he took a job hauling the mail between the Post Office and the train station. But he still had the farm, and when he sold it, he had 2 registered Berkshire sows that had been bred. I was 8 or 9 years old and he told me he'd bring those sows to our place and he'd buy the feed if I'd take care of them until they had their little pigs. He said he'd then sell the two sows and give me half the pigs or half what they sold for. Unfortunately, it was a warm day when he got those sows loaded onto his truck and brought to our place. One of them got too hot and died. The other sow only produced 5 pigs, so my grandfather sold 4 of the pigs and gave me half the money, and gave me the fifth pig. And that's how I got into the 4-H Club and got started raising hogs.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

We would feed our pigs ground corn and add water to it, in a trough. been many yrs since we raised them.

 

[Bird]

We would feed our pigs ground corn and add water to it, in a trough. been many yrs since we raised them.

Many years? Yep. 1948 to 1954 in my case.

 

[ultrarunner]

I did not realize pigs could be so heat sensitive... I thought it was just a problem if too much sun.

Pig Louie was sure in Hog heaven when I took a mister and sprayed him down at the Fair...

I only did it because she likes it... didn't know it could be beneficial too... it was just real hot in the covered barn where the pigs were kept.

My niece was so happy a farmer bought her to breed... they went to visit today and Louie seems content and has made a friend... the accommodations were not quite as spacious as what she was use to having a entire barnyard to call her own... but she seem please...

I chided my brother for buying a Registered Berkshire but I guess it was money well spent.

 

[EddieWalker]

Funny about the heat. Mine keeps cool in the pond, but some days he will sit in his house and just scream about the heat before getting off his but and walking the 50 feet down to the cool water. Then in the winter, when temps drop into the teens, and we sometimes get snow, I get dozens of comments from people on FB making sure I keep him indoors and warm. I tell them he loves the cold, but they relate him to a dog. Oscar loves the cold. He will roll in the mud at the edge of the pond when there is snow on the ground. He becomes much more active in the winter months. At 600 pounds, I was still surprised to drive by and have him run after my truck. He maintained a 12mph speed for close to 400 yards. He's even faster on short burst!!!

 

[sea2summit]

So don't go shooting with them loose, turns out they have no fear of the noise and they think the brass is a snack:shocked:

 

[crash325]

A question or 2, maybe 3.
When did all pork, bacon & ham have to be water injected< up to 30 percent????
Coming across the south many years ago, there were smoke houses all along the hwy. Honey cured & so on.
Many years ago you bought bacon still on the pig skin. Now all the skin is cut of of the hams.
If I wanted water in my ham I would add it myself. At the price of ham, it sure makes water expensive.
Thanks for your input.

 

[Redneck in training]

I was working on a job in Russia many years ago. One time we bought a pig from near by village for a party. We knew that local people fed them mostly clams harvested from near by river so the meat would be fishy unless cleaned up for few weeks. So the pig was penned and fed scraps from the cafeteria. First few days it would eat only meat and wouldn't touch anything else. Therefore we removed all meat from the scraps before giving it to them. The pig didn't eat about a day but then just inhaled the rice, potatoes or whatever we gave them. We had pig kill and wild party with great results two weeks later.
Farmers in Czech Republic feed pigs beer with expired shelf life and malt they get for free or very cheap at local brewery. I guess most pigs are alcoholic there. Like a lot of people there. :drink::laughing:

 

[2LaneCruzer]

When I was raising my Berkshire, I kept half of a 55 gallon barrel outside the pen where I would put grain and water. My Dad ran a sand dredge nearby, and a lot of the "empty" RR cars had contained grain of different kinds, and sometimes had a couple gallons of wheat or oats or some such. I also fed him corn. The barrel eventually began to ferment over time, not enough to make him staggering drunk, but enough to where you could smell that it was alcoholic. He loved it!

I was told that you could always tell the difference between a corn fed and a peanut fed hog by the bacon. Supposedly bacon from the corn fed hog was firm, and the bacon from the peanut fed hog was very limp. Any testimonials out there?