Post by prairiegarden on Sept 25, 2016 23:15:38 GMT -5
If you can find them , Red Wattle hogs are wonderful. They do well outside, although admittedly ours generally got supplemented with grain once a day. The meat is FABULOUS, never had a tough bite of pork and the favour is superb. They are on the Ark of good taste along with the Berkshire I believe.
Ours were really easy going, the boar who got to be fairly huge, loved to get his back scratched with a barn broom. Shortly after we got them, some of a recent litter from a York got underneath the fence and went to visit, when I found them there a 4 mo old gilt had laid down and was trying to nurse them, the others were paying no attention.
I had to compare that behaviour with a pen of Yorshire pigs in an auction house where a recently bought pig was put into a pen with a bunch of stranger pigs..the ones there first proceeded to attack and then start to eat him, he couldn't get away and his screams echoed through the auction house and nobody paid the slightest attention. Yorkshires are good producers but the one York sow we had was a bit dangerous to be around when she had young, she taught me pigs can bark and that meant " I'm telling you for the last time, get out NOW!! "
The RW you could go in any time and they would just grunt hello and keep on doing what they were doing. At least until you picked up a baby and they screamed, they'd get a little anxious then.
Red Wattles are super hard to get now though In Canada, I know of only one breeder and they won't sell live animals. There are a number of breeders scattered around the U.S. but I think the breed is rated at least as endangered, possibly critically so. The butchers don't like them because of the red skin and hair, and they carry more fat than the Yorks do. I doubt it would be easy to find better pork and bacon though, admittedly I haven't tried the Berkshire yet. There are quite a few of those around.
Ours were really easy going, the boar who got to be fairly huge, loved to get his back scratched with a barn broom. Shortly after we got them, some of a recent litter from a York got underneath the fence and went to visit, when I found them there a 4 mo old gilt had laid down and was trying to nurse them, the others were paying no attention.
I had to compare that behaviour with a pen of Yorshire pigs in an auction house where a recently bought pig was put into a pen with a bunch of stranger pigs..the ones there first proceeded to attack and then start to eat him, he couldn't get away and his screams echoed through the auction house and nobody paid the slightest attention. Yorkshires are good producers but the one York sow we had was a bit dangerous to be around when she had young, she taught me pigs can bark and that meant " I'm telling you for the last time, get out NOW!! "
The RW you could go in any time and they would just grunt hello and keep on doing what they were doing. At least until you picked up a baby and they screamed, they'd get a little anxious then.
Red Wattles are super hard to get now though In Canada, I know of only one breeder and they won't sell live animals. There are a number of breeders scattered around the U.S. but I think the breed is rated at least as endangered, possibly critically so. The butchers don't like them because of the red skin and hair, and they carry more fat than the Yorks do. I doubt it would be easy to find better pork and bacon though, admittedly I haven't tried the Berkshire yet. There are quite a few of those around.