Improvest

We have two sows and a boar. The boar is probably around 400 lbs. He eats a lot. The sows were bred and if they don't come back into heat in about 20 days then they're probably pregnant, right?
So I was thinking it'd be cheaper to slaughter the big boar and buy a male piglet for the next round of breeding.
I was trying to do some research on how to castrate a full-grown boar so that we wouldn't end up with the taint. So I ran across this stuff called improvest. Has anybody tried to use this stuff? If so can it be given to a full grown boar? I can only find information on giving it to a weaned piglet . But that doesn't make any sense to me because it's supposed to be temporary. Apparently it's been being used in other countries since 2011 and started being used here in 2013 . And it's FDA approved. If we can start using this instead of having to castrate piglets then we can breed with boars that we later eat once they get so big that they're no longer cost effective to keep. How long after it's given do I have to wait to slaughter?

@Ferguson K @misfitmorgan @Pamela

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I've never heard of that product. We butchered an 800 lb boar last winter and processed all the meat into sausage. My husband and sons love it. I will eat it, but I don't 'love' it. It is very good for meatballs or Italian dishes. My husband and a friend seasoned the meat themselves using our own dehydrated herbs.

Also, I believe a male piglet has to be at least 10 months old to be an effective breeder. That's a long time to wait for another batch of piglets.

Boars can and will breed as young as 4-6 month its just not really common typically no one breeds that young. We generally aim for 8 months for boar to breed.

Personally i think i would much more concerned about giving a vaccine to the boar right before slaughtering then worrying about boar taint. We have castrated adult boar up to 500 lbs or so without issue but expect a lot of bleeding. We have not had a problem with boar taint, is actually genetically related and only roughly 50% of US pigs have it. On top of that only roughly 50% of humans can smell or taste boar taint. So you have roughly a 25% overall chance of ever comming across it. I can tell you that if you butcher a boar and find boar taint dont use any of his relatives in your breeding program if your breeding for no boar taint. Maybe smaller breeders have bred out boar taint on their farms so never worry about it.

We get a new boar every 2 yrs or so because we dont let them get over 350lbs, to much feed and fat for us. We also keep them on maintenance feed, 5lbs of 17-18% per day and a bit of table/garden scraps as well as all the hay/pasture they care to eat. The result is very slow growth, pumping them up with protein is what makes them grow so fast.

I have also never heard of Improvest but i doubt i would give it to any of my pigs. I did look into it for you and it is intended to give at 4-6 months of age or older and has no withdrawal time for slaughter. FYI this same injection/drug works on people...If a human accidentally gets stuck with it they will have the same things happen to them. My concerns aside it may prove to costly, in a large operation the only cost info i can find is $5/head but there is some sort of software you have to have so the certified person who injects the boar can record and monitor their progress. Improvest is given in 2 doses 2 weeks apart and the temporary effect lasts for 10 weeks. So if you gave it at 4 months you would be able to raise the intact boar for 6.5 months before being concerned about boar taint.

This is from Improvest's website:

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION:
Pregnant women should not administer IMPROVEST. Women of childbearing age, as well as men, should exercise extreme caution when administering this product. Exercise special care to prevent accidental self-injection because of negative effects on reproductive physiology in both men and women. However, there is no risk associated with consuming pork from animals administered this product. IMPROVEST should not be used in female pigs, barrows, or male pigs intended for breeding.

For me, I am against artificial chemicals in my food and I sure wouldn't use a product like that. Walter Jefferies, links below, is my go-to-hog-guru.

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2007/08/12/hi-tech-vs-boar-taint/
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2012/03/23/have-your-pig-and-eat-it-too/

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2006/03/28/boar-meat/

I also found this info when looking more into it:

Some producers are breeding out the taint and avoiding the few breeds of pigs that are high in taint. Yorkshire, Hampshire and other lighter colored pigs are known to be particularly low in the androstenone based taint while Duroc pigs are high in the taint. When pigs are raised on pasture in a rotational grazing system, similar to cattle, goats and sheep, the skatole based taint does not occur because the pigs are on fresh ground and not inhaling and eating their own feces.

These number contradict the earlier numbers of 50% of boars having taint...neither has a cittation:

About 25% of consumers cannot detect the taint chemicals and about 80% of boar pigs do not have taint. Selecting pigs for breeding that do not have taint and managing on pasture virtually eliminate any chance of boar taint and have been successfully used at many farms.

This as well:

Yes, boar taint is real, and when present, it makes the meat smell and taste awful: about 75% of consumers can detect and taste boar taint (meaning 25% of you all are off the hook though!), but 75% is a pretty good reason to eliminate taint one’s pork. However, hold the scalpel: taint is present in only about 20% of boars and male pigs. This means 80% of male pigs are being castrated unnecessarily. Taint is also differentially present according to breeds: Durocs seem to have the highest levels if incidence, while lighter colored breeds like Landrace and Yorkshire have it less. This is the genetic basis to boar taint. There are also management factors, which have to do with what causes taint. Regarding skatole, and noticing the root of the word, “skat-”, clues you in that this has to do with feces. Skatole can be produced from pigs inhaling or ingesting their own feces, which is prone to happen with pigs raised in cramped conditions. Turns out, raising hogs on pasture virtually eliminates the risk from skatole taint, a combination of having more space as well as access to high-fiber vegetation. Even after just two weeks on pasture, a hog previously with skatole will no longer have it afterward. While skatole can be present in barrows and gilts (female pigs) as well as boars, steroids produced by the boar inhibit the breakdown of skatole, so they accumulate more of it.


So basically i gather that if you pasture raise a light skin colored pig breed....there is about no reason to castrate or be worried about boar taint. I did not know speicifc breeds were predisposed to taint thats interesting. Also...as far as i know if your boar doesnt stink you can be pretty sure they dont have boar taint...when they do you KNOW.

Wow, I didn't know they would breed so young. That has not been our experience at all. We've tried to breed a little younger (we didn't really know what we were doing at that point) and the boar couldn't get the job done. Now we just figure on a year old.

Pamela said:

Wow, I didn't know they would breed so young. That has not been our experience at all. We've tried to breed a little younger (we didn't really know what we were doing at that point) and the boar couldn't get the job done. Now we just figure on a year old.

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oh yes...it possible but as i said its not common. Its rather the same thing as male goats they can breed at 4months old but its not common much more common at 6-8 months. Sometimes they need a lot of "practice" and may not succesfully breed until they are older but will perform all the other actions. I think mostly those that would breed so young would be of the quick grow variety and fed a high protein diet to grow quickly but i have never really looked into it. We keep our boar off the young gilts until the gilts are at least 6+ months old depending on their growth and size. Our boars are kept separately from them, we split the sexes at 5 months generally.

We left a boar and two gilts in together until they were 10 months old. We saw a lot of action, but there was no result. Later, and with a different boar, we were able to get piglets out of one, but never the other. She made fine bacon though.