Keeping Berkshire Pigs

[George Collins]

[pa_friendly_guy]

I do not know much about raising pigs, or about the difference in breeds of hogs George. So when you said that you had picked Berkshires I looked it up on the net. It said that in 2008 there were as few as 300 sows in the world. WOW, you have a real piece of History there. The breed is thought to be the 1st hogs raised in England. It did talk about Japan and how they prize the meat. I know they massage their Beef to get that marbeling effect in the meat. I will be interested in hearing how you and the family like the meat, as well as how the flavor is different from the pork we all know from the store. What is your plan here George? Do you plan on selling any Breeders, or is this program more just about supper for the family?

[pa_friendly_guy]

I just read the article link you posted from Hobby Farms, I can see why you picked Berkshires. They make a very good case for raising them compared to what is commercially raised in pork factories. The Large pork operations have very different requirement from a small farm operation. I had never heard about the difference between Lard pigs and meat pigs. What most people do not know or understand in this colestoral worried world is that fat tastes GOOD. The extra fat in the Berkshire hog is the reason for its outstanding taste. Thanks for sharing your research on this George.

[George Collins]

Guy,

Combined, the two sows should produce ~ 16 - 20 pigs when they have each farrowed their first time. I will probably reserve two for personal consumption and rear them on tree crops to the greatest extent possible. Any that can be sold as breeding stock to others will be selected first to pass on the best genetics possible. The excess are intended to be marketed as meat hogs which I fatten or to others as feeder pigs to fatten as they see fit. The business model will be almost exactly that of Mitchell Family Farms but for how the hogs are fed. I believe he raises his almost exclusively on store-bought feed.

[matt walker]

Great news George, I'm glad to hear you found your breeding hogs. My friend started his breeding program just a few months ago with two Tamworth sows and a gilt. He's already at the 20 something piglet stage, and it's a lot of fun to have 'em around. Except, as you noted, for the inevitable garden raids and such, but still, they are great fun. Both sows and the gilt are "go-down" hogs. Great term! I can't wait for the pics of the piglets! Congratulations George. This is a big step.

[Lollykoko]

Before I go read the article ... Did you know that eating animal fat got a bad name because that is the repository for all the chemicals in the animal diet? If you are not using fertilizers and pesticides, or buying much commercial feed, there would be little to be concerned with. I'm suddenly remembering the pork chops I ate when I was a kid 50 years or more ago. That 1/4 inch of cooked fat on the edge of the chop was so good, I saved it for last.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I did not know that Lolly, I thought the reason that they talk against animal fat is because of Heart problems caused by clogged arteries. At least that is why they tell me not to eat as much fat and ice cream, and cake and anything else that tastes good,

[GrahamB]

I think we have all got so swept up in the food industry propaganda that we will believe anything the so called experts tell us. Take my grandad as an example. He fought in the first world war, survived the Manchester blitz in the second. Worked as a dye maker all his life, using cyanide, arsenic and a bunch of stuff we wouldn't go near these days without a hazmat suit. Rode a motorcycle all his life without a crash helmet, smoked a pipe and enjoyed a beer or a tot of whiskey. According to today's reckoning he shouldn't have lived past fifty. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of eighty six. But what he did do was grow his own fruit and vegetables, had a pig sty at the bottom of the garden where he kept a couple of pigs and hunted rabbit eight months a year. In other words he ate whole foods that never saw chemical sprays or fertilizers. He drank full fat milk that wasn't homogenized, as well as the cheese.
The pigs he had looked a lot like yours George, but I can't state for sure that they were Berkshires. I know my dad and my uncle had Gloucester Old Spots as well as a flock of psycho geese to protect the pigs from anyone that dared to go through the gate.

[George Collins]

Graham, this will be Toy Ridge Farms' (that's the name under which we will ultimately market the meat), first experience with Berkshires. Maybe they are a wimpy breed and need guard-geese for protection. If so, we're in luck because Younfblood keeps several geese on hand for use as a natural defoliant.

Having said that though, if these hogs need guard-geese, they will be the first hogs I have any experience with that needs such. In the past, you would MUCH rather go into a pasture with a pissed-off brahma bull than into a pasture containing a 700 pound boar hog.

I remember once when on a naval ship being transported to the Persian Gulf to participate in Desert Storm, on of my naive fellow Marines stated something along the lines of, "Pit bulls are the baddest animals on earth."

Several of us country boys overheard him and fell out of our boots laughing. Guys that hunt wild hogs with whole packs of pit bulls, who dress those pit bulls in armored jackets, reportedly get more than two hunting seasons out of an individual dog but rarely. After a couple seasons, they are so ripped up and broken up that they become useless.

Iffn a hog had a personalized license plate it would read 1TUFASS.

Iffn a hog had a bumper sticker it'd read, "Mike Tyson? He tasted a'ight."

My grandfather told Youngblood and Youngblood told me, "Three things on a farm you best keep sceered o'ya: yore stud hoss, yore bull and yore bo-hog. And mungst em, it best be the bo-hog if it's airy of'em."

The reason being, the bull or the stud horse are only looking to whip you. The hog is looking to eat you. You might can live through a butt whuppin. Ya can't live through being eaten.

Perhaps the single best deterrent to theft of farm equipment is to put such in a pasture that contains several sows with pigs and/or a boar. If you always drive your truck into the pasture to feed him, he will associate the sound of a truck entering the pasture as "Dinner Time!" and come a-running. Now imagine if a would-be thief drove into your pasture, jumped out to hook up to your trailer and found himself looking down the gaping maw of a thousand pounds of tusk wielding, hungry boar hog and here said thief is without a bucket of corn.

I'm not sure a goose would add much to that equation.

[GrahamB]

I don't think dad intended them to guard the pigs. They just took the job on themselves. Uncle went in to feed the pigs one day and the gander had got out of the wrong side of the nest that morning. He came at Uncle Les and before he could jump out of the way, the gander jumped him and broke Les' arm.
There was another pig field across from where we lived and it had a chicken coop in the center. These were saddle backs. We kids would dare each other to run to the chicken coop, grab an egg and then make it back to the gate before the boar got us. I was feeling cocky one day and decided to go for half a dozen eggs. I made it to the coop and had to get inside to get the eggs. When I turned around to leave, guess who was standing outside waiting for me. My buddies left me there for a while before they decided to help by drawing the boar away. I think I still hold the record for the most eggs though.