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Post by Alan on Aug 18, 2011 20:48:56 GMT -5
For those who missed it I recently posted pictures of my pallet based hogshed over at homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com I've got pictures now of the fence since it's finished and will get them up in short order and just finished a secondary hogshed project......anyhow, this is only slightly related.
Do any of you raise heritage hogs? If so what kind and why? What do you find is best adapted to your climate and why? Do you pasture them?
We recently aquired three potbelly types (yes, I know, in this country they are unfortunately regarded as "pets" but all PC bullshit aside they were the Asian heritage hog). 1 male and 2 females. All are siblings. The females are relegated to one pen and the males to others as my plan is to find either a male guinea hog, KuneKune, or cross (My friend Bill maintains a nice 1/3 russian, 1/3 guinea, 1/3 potbelly mix I'm hoping to aquire) and to aquire a female KuneKune, Guinea, or cross for the male potbelly. This should give me a good genetic base for a small 100-150 lb homestead hog. Yes, they are short on bacon (nearly non existent) but deliver the goods in all other departments (including lard to be used for soap making) but their small size makes them easy to handle live and for butchering purposes. They are also increadibly active foragers. We plan on raising a few acres of Amanda Palmer every fall to fence off with electric fence and let them run on (makes more sense to take them to the corn than the corn to them) and fatten up the babies for butcher (while also clearing crop residue and refertilizing and plowing the land). Our secondary use is in selling breeding stock to others.
We hope in time as well to run them in fields in between our fruit and nut trees to clean up windfall fruit.
Thoughts to share?
(for those wondering, yes, I'm slightly OCD about this landrace genetics thing when it comes to everything I do, be it livestock or seeds, I have seen the effects of line breeding and pedigree breeding and how poorly those types perform in my production system, and intrinsicly throughout 10,000 years of aghistory others have agreed with me while producing in a self sustainable system)
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 18, 2011 22:07:27 GMT -5
I agree with you about pedigree breeding in livestock 100%. The beef cattle folks are about the only conventional livestock raisers that are rational about genetics and the use of outbreeding/crossbreeding.
Our milk cow is a Jersey/Highlander cross. She grows a wooly coat in the winter, sheds slick as a jersey (almost) in summer, has always calves without assistance, never had mastitis or any other medical problem, and has never shown the least sign of milk fever at calving. And she stays in excellent condition on mediocre but improving pasture and really crappy hay. The only grain she ever gets is bribe grain in the milking stall to keep her content till I finish and excited about getting milked.
In regards to your actual post. Those pigs sound pretty cool. How did you convince a Pot Belly breeder to sell you some for meat? I've actually seen people say online that Pot Bellies are inedible! LOL.
I've thought about using a PB but most of the ones I see for sale on Craigslist are going for ridiculous prices.
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Post by castanea on Aug 18, 2011 22:28:06 GMT -5
If you have chestnut trees, foraging hogs are great at gobbling up any leftover nuts.
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Post by DiggingDogFarm on Aug 18, 2011 23:25:20 GMT -5
I've raised heritage hogs for several years. Yes, they are short on bacon (nearly non existent) You don't necessarily need the belly to make good bacon, the jowl makes an excellent bacon, as well as the shoulder. Poor Man's Bacon..... diggingdogfarm.com/?p=51  |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 19, 2011 7:46:02 GMT -5
To heck with the bacon! I LOVE your bio char processor!
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Post by Alan on Aug 19, 2011 8:10:36 GMT -5
Luckily here in Pekin and Southern Indiana in general there aren't a whole lot of "pigs are pets" people and those that were here can no longer afford them as pets, which means that theres a ton of other rednecks around (who realize that pork is pork) who have bought up breeders left and right and sale the babies cheap $25-50. I got mine from a friend who gave them to me to save himself some money on feed. That said, finding a cheap guinea hog, kunekune, or russian is going to be a pain but there are wild russian hogs that run through this area from time to time, so the possibility of trapping is not out of the question. I agree with you about pedigree breeding in livestock 100%. The beef cattle folks are about the only conventional livestock raisers that are rational about genetics and the use of outbreeding/crossbreeding. Our milk cow is a Jersey/Highlander cross. She grows a wooly coat in the winter, sheds slick as a jersey (almost) in summer, has always calves without assistance, never had mastitis or any other medical problem, and has never shown the least sign of milk fever at calving. And she stays in excellent condition on mediocre but improving pasture and really crappy hay. The only grain she ever gets is bribe grain in the milking stall to keep her content till I finish and excited about getting milked. In regards to your actual post. Those pigs sound pretty cool. How did you convince a Pot Belly breeder to sell you some for meat? I've actually seen people say online that Pot Bellies are inedible! LOL. I've thought about using a PB but most of the ones I see for sale on Craigslist are going for ridiculous prices. |
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Post by Alan on Aug 19, 2011 8:11:37 GMT -5
Yep, I'm a fan of "jowl bacon" and turnip, collard, or kale greens and will be putting it and the shoulder to use as well! I've raised heritage hogs for several years. Yes, they are short on bacon (nearly non existent) You don't necessarily need the belly to make good bacon, the jowl makes an excellent bacon, as well as the shoulder. Poor Man's Bacon..... diggingdogfarm.com/?p=51 |
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Post by Alan on Aug 19, 2011 8:12:31 GMT -5
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Post by mjc on Aug 19, 2011 9:22:11 GMT -5
Not 'heritage' and not for a few years, but...
We used to run hogs, mostly for FFA/4H, while my wife's siblings were in school. Pretty much a similar set up. Electric fences are ESSENTIAL. A good solar charger is the best thing in the world when it comes to keeping hogs contained. We had a Duroc boar that was very well contained by a simple two wire fence that was electrified. (he topped out at nearly 1000 lbs...but he thought he was a big puppy...another story)
I'm wanting Ossabow or Guinea pigs, myself...the Ossabows are actually easier to get here. Yeah, I know, the Ossabow is more or less a 'dead end', it being an isolated, island hog, but it fits the niche, at least on paper, for my pig requirements. I wouldn't be adverse to throwing a Guinea boar in with an Ossabow sow, though...maybe a little something else, too.
The funny thing about hogs, though, is most of the breeds that are popular today are actually 'heritage' breeds...except they are just a small, very inbred line of that breed. And mostly bred for 'lean'. The old-fashioned lard or all purpose hog has been replaced with a nearly anorexic version of that particular critter, but it is still considered the same 'breed'...
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Post by steev on Aug 19, 2011 13:31:36 GMT -5
Thanks for that link to Windridge Farms; truly thorough and clear information. As for the "hate mail", aint laughed so hard since the hogs ate Grampaw, white cane and all.
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Post by Alan on Aug 21, 2011 22:05:34 GMT -5
Picked up a four month old male potbelly this past Friday. My farmhand showed up with him in the back of his truck (you'd have to know this guy to understand how funny the following statement is about to become, definite backwoods long hair, beard, no shirt, always drinking type of fellow) but I traded him a bottle of wine for the new piggy and he was on his way to a David Allen Coe concert; only in Pekin Indiana could such a transaction ever take place.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 22, 2011 8:58:47 GMT -5
Considering the quality of your wine, I'd have to say that was a pretty decent deal.
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Post by gabriel on Feb 20, 2012 19:03:49 GMT -5
I raised Yorkshires and Tamworths. Got them from a confinement breeder and they were surprisingly slow about learning to scuffle for themselves. I threw them a pumpkin on day one and they watched it break open, sniffed it, looked at me and said "uh... where's the corn?". They ended up doing very well on pasture though. One thing, don't let them farrow in a building where the walls slope all the way to the floor. They like to lay down by leaning up against the wall and scratching their side on the way down. That will crush any piglets in the way. So if you give them walls, just put studs far enough away from the wall so that the piglets, who also like to lay against walls, will be out of the way of the sow.
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Post by olddog on Feb 20, 2012 21:27:40 GMT -5
Alan,
We raised Wild Russian hogs for a couple of years, and they tasted absolutely wonderful, and were easy keepers, and in the fall we fed them apples and acorns. I believe that breed is actually just wild hogs from somewhere in Europe that escaped when the Europeans came and brought them to California, maybe someone here may know more about them. We bought them from a local breeder. They were very gentle, only problem was that it took like a whole year and more to slaughter size, not just a few months like the usual breeds. Very costly.
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Post by cortona on Feb 12, 2015 10:46:12 GMT -5
mangariza, i've just discovered that breed and i know you folk in usa have it too, it ia a greath bred considered the best european breed for meet quality!
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