Feeder Pigs 2017

Latestarter said:

Even better! The neighbors have them in their yard! 6 pigs is going to fill both of your freezers pretty well!

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Exactly. Plus they already had the fencing so we are both in it for a lower cost. We are hoping to feed the pigs out to 250-300lbs and my hope is to be in each pig for $2 a pound butchered. I work in a skilled nursing facility with two kitchens and will be getting green scraps from them every day. Part will go to my chickens and part to the pigs to keep feed cost down.

Baymule said:

have you already picked a Kune Kune breeder? Are you going for registered stock or just for "farm" pigs?

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I would like to get registered stock so I can promote the breed. I go to New Zealand fairly often and might be able to ship some stock from their once in a while ($$$). I know I will have to do a good deal of driving to get things going as I will be looking for my gilts from the east and the boars from the west (or maybe I will get crazy and switch it up). Also, I will need to make sure they do not have a real short snout as I live at a little over 5,000 feet and do not want to deal with breathing issues.

Here they are. It dropped from 70s to high 40s here in Indiana so they are a little cool. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow.

Mike Todd said:

View attachment 31780 Here they are. It dropped from 70s to high 40s here in Indiana so they are a little cool. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow.

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They are tiny little babies!! Baby pigs are so cute! Then, just like human children, they grow into the pig version of teenagers and they aren't so cute anymore. Fortunately, with pigs, we can eat them.

@HomeOnTheRange you go to New Zealand? How cool! You could pick your pigs and ship them! Or maybe just put a baby in your carry on bag and tell them it's your anti-anxiety service animal and it keeps you from slobbering and biting people. I am sure they would let you bring it on the plane! They would probably give the piglet your seat and detain you for questioning.

Mike Todd said:

Exactly. Plus they already had the fencing so we are both in it for a lower cost. We are hoping to feed the pigs out to 250-300lbs and my hope is to be in each pig for $2 a pound butchered. I work in a skilled nursing facility with two kitchens and will be getting green scraps from them every day. Part will go to my chickens and part to the pigs to keep feed cost down.

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As a butcher i charge 50cents a pound cut and wrap (hanging weight) then 1.50 a pound for smoking. Almost every pig cost the customer about 300bucks for butchering. We get a very good deal on feed and it usually cost us about 300 bucks to feed them to butcher weight. Im very curious to see if you end up at 2 bucks a pound all cut and wrapped. Unless you are doing the butchering yourself i dont think you will. Also every pig I've done that was raised on kitchen scraps end up fat. Very good way to keep cost down just dont feed them to much.

Thank you for the insight. The local butcher we are going to is a good friend of our neighbors and has already quoted us a lower price. They do not cure meat but I do so I will be doing my hams and bacon. Bulk sausage is also included in the main price and is not extra. Their normal butcher cost for a 250lb hog is $156 slaughter/cut/wrapped with no extra cased sausage or patties. The feed we are getting is $10 for 50lbs from the local feed mill and is antibiotic free. We will also be picky about the kitchen scraps we give in order to not have as mich fat.

Ya thats about right on butcher cost. You do your own cures, nice! Do you have a chamber? Thats a good deal on feed. We are 50 bucks for 350 pounds of grain, thats like 7 dollars and change per 50 pounds. Im still betting when you get all your meat back you will be 3 bucks a pound all said and done. Thats going on the actual amount of meat you get back from a 250 pound hog not the hanging weight. But my fingers are crossed for ya!

I really appreciate the input and your experience. $3lb won't be bad, I am just always trying to get the max I can. I will be building a larger smokehouse this year. I use both a vertical smoker and an adapter for cold smoking. I haven't done it on this large of a scale but I am up for the challenge. Any tips or advice on curing would be great!

Mike Todd said:

I really appreciate the input and your experience. $3lb won't be bad, I am just always trying to get the max I can. I will be building a larger smokehouse this year. I use both a vertical smoker and an adapter for cold smoking. I haven't done it on this large of a scale but I am up for the challenge. Any tips or advice on curing would be great!

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Bacon cure for me is 1 gallon maple syrup, 2 pounds fine sea salt, 2 pounds brown sugar, 2 tbs pepper. Then add water till bacon is covered. This is a great bacon cure. I go minimum 5 days soak. Then a good hot smoke. Works good on ham too but isn't the best. Does make the best bacon in my opinion. Im working on a better ham cure but im starting to think aged is the best. So im getting everything together to build a curing chamber. My only advise would be to smoke with apple and maple wood. I find it has a perfect smoke flavor with those woods. And make sute you hit your temps. What is your wood of choice?