By Tim
A dirty snout is a happy hog. This is our fourth season raising hogs -- and we just love it. They are very social animals that are a joy to watch and interact with. Watching pigs race around the pen, burrow in the unmowed brush, or wallowing in the mud will make you laugh. They love attention and a good neck scratching. And it is always sad day then we transport them to Alleghany Meats for processing.
But boy is the pork delicious! What other animal can give you the diversity of tastes and cuts? (Sorry beef and chicken lovers) Nothing compares to ham, bacon, various sausages, pork chops, pulled pork, lard -- all from one happy animal.
But boy is the pork delicious! What other animal can give you the diversity of tastes and cuts? (Sorry beef and chicken lovers) Nothing compares to ham, bacon, various sausages, pork chops, pulled pork, lard -- all from one happy animal.
While they are fun to grow, hog-raising has to be profitable to make it sustainable. For Taproot Farm, the economics of hog raising is -- and always has been positive. Farmers have labeled hogs "the mortgage lifter", because they contribute cash to slim farm incomes. We buy our weaned pigs (feeder pigs) from a couple of local farmers at about 8 weeks old. The males are castrated before we accept them to avoid the foul taste called "boar taint". These "barrows" can be raised with the female "gilts" -- and we generally get 2 or 3 pigs at a time at a cost of $50 to $65 each.
Josh makes new friends by sharing his apple. For those interested in the nitty gritty of hog-raising, here's how we do it:
Feeder pigs weigh only about 35 to 45 lbs when they arrive at Taproot. We grow them to "market weight" of about 250 lbs -- which takes us about 20 weeks. Their weight gain is modest for the first couple of months, but really picks up speed the last 4 to 6 weeks.
Hogs are omnivores (like us) so they can eat grains, meats, dairy as well as fruits and vegetables. We purchase hog mash (16% protein) from Hotts AG Services, an independent feed mill in Franklin, WV. And we supplement this standard feed with plenty of our table scraps and damaged garden produce. Plus we allow our hogs to root in the ground for tubers, grubs, worms and, of course, roots -- inside electric fencing on pasture.
Feeder pigs weigh only about 35 to 45 lbs when they arrive at Taproot. We grow them to "market weight" of about 250 lbs -- which takes us about 20 weeks. Their weight gain is modest for the first couple of months, but really picks up speed the last 4 to 6 weeks.
Hogs are omnivores (like us) so they can eat grains, meats, dairy as well as fruits and vegetables. We purchase hog mash (16% protein) from Hotts AG Services, an independent feed mill in Franklin, WV. And we supplement this standard feed with plenty of our table scraps and damaged garden produce. Plus we allow our hogs to root in the ground for tubers, grubs, worms and, of course, roots -- inside electric fencing on pasture.
Chowing down -- side by side! A 250 lb hog, once eviscerated, results in a carcass of about 188 lbs (75%). Once boned and butchered, the "package weight" results in about 140 lbs (75%) of pork. There are lots of different ways to cut-up a hog but a rule of thumb is: 20% is ham, 20% is shoulder, 10% is sausage, 10% is bacon, 16% is chops or loin, 4 % is spare rib, 13% is fat and 7% is bone. We process our hogs in a variety of ways -- sometimes we get a whole hog made into sausages and other times we'll get the butcher to cure the hams, jowls and bacon. Our specific instructions are spelled out on the "cut sheet" we drop off with the hogs.
The feed conversion on a hog is about 4 to 1. Four pounds of feed will develop 1 pound of hog. So to grow a 250 lb hog, we need to feed each hog about 1,000 lbs of feed. If the weather is too hot or too cold, this feed conversion can be negatively affected. So we house our hogs in a shady area with plenty of straw bedding and clean water. This is NOT how most hogs are raised here in America -- most are raised by the thousands in confined, indoor pens on hard slatted floors so that the manure can be washed into huge waste lagoons. No sunshine, fresh air or freedom to run or wallow.
We are proud of our pork process! Here are some of the happy hogs we've raised here at Taproot Farm.
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