Bacon

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Well, Joe, maybe I have a solution. A coworker and his father have a pig farm and they sell "feeder piglets" very reasonably. I am planning on at least two next year but what's one or two more?
Feed is relatively inexpensive and the major expense is butchering. There are several services in the area which will pick up the pig from your dooryard and call you when it is ready to pick up all flash frozen. (They obviouisly keep all the offal and stuff most of us would not use) You specify how you want it processed and it comes packaged and weighed. Sooooo, you could have your ribs, belly and butts cut to your specs as well as hams. They will also cure and smoke hams if you are not up to it.
ORRRR, we could work out a deal to give you more butts and belly or whatever and I would take raw hams for cure and smoke. Still have a fridge to convert which would be excellent for hams. I am about five hours north of your location.
Basically you would participate in the grow out by sending a feed check once in a while. I would do the care and feeding.
The only decision you would have to make would be the type of feed. I would send pictures regularly!
And here is the time schedule; buy piglets in April, send to abbatoir in late September and pick up in first week of October. (Hmmnnn! Fall foliage peak in this neck of the woods!)
Cheers!
Monty
 
Monty you are the best of the best, The wife is at work and we'll have the talk about this adoption and we get pictures too. Sounds good to me. Are we talking a hanging weight of 85 to 110 lbs? What would be the start-up cost? <I'll know she'll want to know this> I'll get back to you later tonight after I have the talk wiith her, I'll tell her she can even name the pig. <kidding> This would also give me a year to convince her that I need a larger smoker <grin> but, I'll get her hooked on the pig idea first and then hit her with the larger smoker after.. hehehe

Joe
 
Joe, watch for a PM. I will put it together and we'll go from there!
Cheers!
Monty
 
And you can also pick up cherry. maple, alder, and apple while you are here!
Cheers!
Monty
 
Cool, watch for a PM also, I'll give you my e-mail addy


Raising a tall one,

Joe
 
Hey Monty, Due to an illness in the family we've had li'l time to talk about the piggies. She likes the idea but haven't had time to get the green light yet as of yet. How soon ya need to know and I'll giver her a jump start.

Thanks Brother,

Joe
 
Heya, Brother Joe! Nothing is going to happen till next spring. So take care of family business first. My prayers are with your family!
Till whenever!
Cheers!
Monty
 
Thanks Bro, I'll be getting a large freezer soon, meaning I'll have to clean the basement area.. yippee more work for me .. laugh



Thanks again,

Joe
 
If I may make a recommendation I would recommend a chest freezer larger than 10 cubic feet. Generally Sears and other major retailers sell that size for under four hundred dollars.

The biggie is that you can take advantage of in season goodies and save a whole pantload of bucks in dong so.

I hunt and fish and my property is loaded with berries of all types. (That helps the hunting!) And my freezer is invaluable. I have a 13.5 cu ft Sears chest type freezer. And in this neck of the woods a chest type is recommended because of frequent power outages. I have a generator but I also work long hours.

Anyway, NUFF SED!
Cheers!
Monty
 
Sounds about right Monty, We've been thinking about a freezer chest for the basement. We usually take a trip to NH and take my mom out picking, blueberries, strawberries and right about now I know the corn is ready, We may take a trip up to see her today and grab some corn on the way back. When my kids were young we had a chest freezer and use to shuck the corn, blanch it then freeze it as well as many outher veggies. In the spring I use to tap maple trees and make maple syrup <50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup> Those were the days when I was yoing and foolish and now I'm old and foolish <laugh> some things never change.

Bottoms up,

Joe
 
Joe, you can't go wrong with raising your own pork or in this case, sharing in the cost of raising one. We used to raise our own hogs growing up. Nothing wakes a young lad up faster that having to slop the hogs at 5:30 in the morning before catching the bus to school. My younger brothers always wanted to name the little piggys-Dad said it was alright as long as they named them all "FOOD". :D
 
Actually, Dutch, in this case I will number them. But not until they go to the butcher. The service will then package them with the critter number on the labeling so you know what came from which!
I have butchered my own pigs in the past but his way is sooo much easier!
And, Joe! Have a great time in NH. Berrying is one of my favorite things to do! Great stuff FREE!
Cheers!
Monty
 
Boy, what I know about butchering hogs. We used to have a custom built 40' kill truck that we used for onsite butchering for beef, pork and sheep. It had a 25K generator, hot and cold pressurized water with a 150 gal. fresh water tank and a refridgerated storage unit that would hold 10 head of beef. Very state of the art for it's time.
 
If the right person had a rig like that in these parts he, or she, could make a killing! Pun intended!
Cheers!
Monty
 
I know if my brothers and I still had that truck around here we would make a killing. The State is making it harder to do custom kill-(person hired to do the butchering vs. doing it yourself). They are really enforcing the "4 hour danger zone". A couple of times a month we get calls from an old customer that needs stock butchered.
 
The only thing I raised and killed were chickens <nasty birds they are> As far as naming the pigs we can name them "Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner" Looks like the trip to NH is off, The wife wants to clean the house today so maybe next weekend. I still have a gallon bag of blueberries from last year in the freezer. So today I'll get to smoke something, Maybe we'll do a beer can chicken and some pork ribs. We also got some hot peppers yesterday at the market and those have to be smoked as well. Opps almost forgot maybe some corn on the cob too. So it looks like a Beer and BBQ day :)

Bottoms up,

Joe
 
4 hour limit is from the time of kill to gutting and processing the meat?

Joe
 
Sounds like a relaxin' day to me! Be sure to stay outta your wife's way if she is in the "cleaning mode"! I learned that one early on! Right now I have a pork butt and a fattie in the smoker. Am trying for the first time Jamison's "Southern Succor Pork Rub". Mixed up a double batch 'cause they also recommend it for chicken and other things. Stay cool!
Cheers!
Monty
 
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