Term Definition Porker A pig reared to pork weight, normally about 60kg live weight, rather than to bacon weight. Usually achieved between four and six months of age, depending on breed. Baconer A pig being reared for bacon rather than pork, and which will be slaughtered at 80kg - kg live weight, at about 8 - 10 months of age. Cutter A pig between pork and bacon weight, raised to produce larger joints. Weighing pigs You can estimate the liveweight of your pig using the following method: Measure the length of the pig from ears to base of tail in inches Measure the girth behind the front legs in inches Multiply girth x girth x length and divide by to get the weight in kg or to get the weight in lbs.
Slaughtering Pigs Preparing for slaughter At the abattoir. Pig photos. At the abattoir, pigs are unloaded from the trucks on arrival and walk down ramps into pens.
In lairage, pigs are allowed time to relax and rest. They stay within their farm groups for traceability. Here, pigs have access to plenty of:. Good lairage practice is to move pigs off trucks and into pens with the minimum of noise and without sticks and electric goads.
Pigs generally settle quickly and stay rested until they are processed between two and 24 hours after arrival. If they remain longer than 24 hours, they are provided with food. Pigs are checked for complete unconsciousness before being slaughtered quickly and painlessly with a sharp knife.
While pigs are unconscious, they do not feel pain. They are then bled out, dying humanely without regaining consciousness. Some abattoirs further process the pigs after slaughter. Processors can also be stand-alone enterprises. Butchers are an important part of our pork supply chain. They act as a representative between our industry and consumers. A whole or half carcass is broken down to meet customer requirements. De-boning and marinating particular cuts can add more value to the meat.
Stages of pork production. Share this page via. Copied to clipboard. On this page. But she seemed to prefer a more rustic environment, piling a heap of pointy branches from a cedar tree I cut down. Piggie was worried about. Early one June morning I found her next to her brush pile in the early stages of labor. I was in graduate school at the time, so I sped home to check on her between classes and each time found a few more piglets squirming around with their eyes closed.
When I got home at the end of the day I was lucky enough to see number 10 be born. Piglets are tinier than you would imagine and the birth of each one happens surprisingly fast — with a single grunt the whole thing squirts right out.
Number 10 was an auburn-striped runt that reminded me of a little chipmunk. I decided then and there that this one was too cute to become bacon. I named him Red. So I wanted to try to handle the piglets as much as possible from birth in hopes they would be easier to approach later. That was definitely not going to happen. The piglets would squeal bloody murder every time I came near their nest, and if I got too close Ms. Piggie would let out a roar.
After she charged me a couple times I decided to keep my distance. A couple months later I was walking through the herd when a few of the pigs started squabbling over food about 50 feet away. At that very moment I happened to be walking right by Ms. She turned and bit me on the leg, which felt how I imagine a one-ton vise would feel if someone clamped it down onto your calf. I sprang over the fence like an Olympic pole vaulter, and later, while sitting in the shade sullenly icing my bruised calf, I realized there are some valid reasons that pig farmers prefer to purchase weaned piglets minus their mothers.
My pigs ate lots of acorns, rooted in the earth for grubs and worms, hoovered up mulberries, persimmons and other wild fruits that fell to the forest floor, and slurped up the whey left over from my goat cheese endeavors.
I brought home garbage cans full of day old bread from a local bakery, and struck up a deal with a nearby natural grocer to haul off all their discarded produce. I also fed them organic pig feed in order to fatten them up quicker, but also to make sure they were getting the proper balance of nutrients and minerals.
By the time my pigs approached slaughter weight they were eating several hundred dollars of feed per month. You can do the math, but by the time you factor in ancillary costs — slaughter fees, vet fees male pigs sold for meat must be castrated, and I was not prepared to attempt this myself , the original purchase of Ms.
Piggie, fencing supplies, diesel to go pick up organic pig feed that is only available at one location in the entire state, etc. The biggest lesson I learned about raising pigs is to take out a loan to build bomb-proof fencing before you even think about bringing one home. The head of a pig is built for digging into the earth and is strong enough to uproot small trees, boulders, and almost any fence they can get their snout under.
There is special fencing designed to contain pigs, but I decided to pass on the thousands of dollars it would have cost to enclose my 5-acre paddock, which was already fenced, albeit flimsily. Once Ms. Piggie escaped out the back of my property and gorged herself on the corn that my neighbor put out for deer. A policeman happened to drive by as I was coercing them back onto the property, but he was nice enough to get out and help, rather than write me a ticket.
They also turn over anything with water in it in order to make a mud bath, making it difficult to provide them with a fresh, clean supply for drinking. There were more mornings than I care to remember when the sound of oinking outside my bedroom window meant the pigs had once again torn through my latest efforts to reinforce the fence and were tearing up the yard.
Years later I still have nightmares about it. I could see making a modest living at it had I taken out a second mortgage on my home to scale up the business, but I had other interests that I wanted to pursue. I had pork roasts, ribs, and sausage coming out my ears, but the nearest USDA-licensed facility I could find that actually made bacon was more than a two-hour drive from my farm. The price they charged to cure such small quantities of pork was almost as much as buying bacon at the store.
Plus, I learned that my pigs hardly had enough of a belly to make bacon, despite how much I fed them — bacon is made exclusively from pork belly, which only develops on such young pigs if you stuff them with corn-based feed. Brian Barth is a contributing editor at Modern Farmer. He used to raise goats, chickens, pigs, and other critters on his farm in Georgia.
But now he just writes about farming. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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