Boy, how they grow

[arizona98tj]

Do you render lard? Looks like it has a good layer there.

 

[Alan W.]

Are you using all bought feed or feed and whatever from the garden.
I hope to be able to raise a hog or two myself this next year.

 

[TnAndy]

Are you using all bought feed or feed and whatever from the garden.
I hope to be able to raise a hog or two myself this next year.

We buy commercial feed from the local Co-op, (Couple bags of 18% 'starter', then move to 16% 'grower', finally 14% 'finisher') plus they get excess eggs from our chickens, garden leftovers, and this time of year, lots of apples they really love. In addition, they will go thru a couple 4x5 round bales, and I have them on a 50x200' pasture lot of clover/fescue.

Housing can be very simple.....my first ones many years ago, I simply turned up a few pallets with some sheet metal over the top. Later built a hog house with wood floor with hinged top can be raised to clean out between occupants. I'll throw couple bales of hay in for the new piglets to burrow in, and by the time they are grown, they will have eaten all of it.

Later added a small shed at their lot to hold four 55gal drums for feed plus a trough made of hunk of PVC sewer pipe split in half. Makes it handy to store feed and feed without getting in the lot.

The result is meat you can't come close to buying, and pigs that have a great life while they are here. Hope you get the chance to raise some !

 

[cqaigy2]

Nice setup!

You are right, the absolute best pork i every had, was grown in our pasture! We dipped ours in hot water and scraped the hair off. Rendered the lard, processed a number of hams, pork chops etc. Fried the skin in lard.

 

[Jstpssng]

Do you free feed, or give them a set amount each day?

 

[TnAndy]

Set amount each morning. I watch the feed trough.....if they haven't cleaned up from the previous morning, cut it back a little.....if licked clean, add a little more. Here at the end, was feeding about 3 gallons (dry measure) a day between the two.

 

[Jstpssng]

Set amount each morning. I watch the feed trough.....if they haven't cleaned up from the previous morning, cut it back a little.....if licked clean, add a little more. Here at the end, was feeding about 3 gallons (dry measure) a day between the two.

I'm feeding 50 lbs every two days, and mine are about 50 lbs smaller than yours. They do clean it up though, and if I feed less start looking for more.

 

[STx]

Our Duroc crosses always POPPED at about 50 pounds,going from 50 to 100 in what seemed like a week. Our Duroc sow was one of the sweetest, most docile pigs we had. She punctured a back leg on something in a wallow at about 700 pounds and got an infection in the bone that we couldn't clear up. She wasn't able to bear weight on that leg and was essentially immobile so we had to euthanize her, it was a sad day as our breeders are more like pets.

Try getting your fat to almost frozen and running it through the meat grinder before rendering it. I found this to allow it to render faster and more completely but, you don't get the larger cracklins this way. I would load my fat into a cast iron Dutch oven and put it into the oven at 215F, this was just hot enough to boil out any water but not hit enough to burn the lard. I'd ladle the lard out hourly and add more fat. I liked to filter my lard through 5 or 6 layers of cheese cloth, my leaf lard would come out pure white and odorless.

 

[TnAndy]

I'm feeding 50 lbs every two days, and mine are about 50 lbs smaller than yours. They do clean it up though, and if I feed less start looking for more.

Ours get apples/excess eggs/hay and pasture as well, so that helps on the feed amount.

 

[TnAndy]

Our Duroc crosses always POPPED at about 50 pounds,going from 50 to 100 in what seemed like a week. Our Duroc sow was one of the sweetest, most docile pigs we had. She punctured a back leg on something in a wallow at about 700 pounds and got an infection in the bone that we couldn't clear up. She wasn't able to bear weight on that leg and was essentially immobile so we had to euthanize her, it was a sad day as our breeders are more like pets.

Try getting your fat to almost frozen and running it through the meat grinder before rendering it. I found this to allow it to render faster and more completely but, you don't get the larger cracklins this way. I would load my fat into a cast iron Dutch oven and put it into the oven at 215F, this was just hot enough to boil out any water but not hit enough to burn the lard. I'd ladle the lard out hourly and add more fat. I liked to filter my lard through 5 or 6 layers of cheese cloth, my leaf lard would come out pure white and odorless.

:thumbsup:

We use several crock pots and basically the same process.....ladle out and filter thru cheese cloth.