Pigs

i plan on buying a hog to slaughter before long, now that i have a freezer to put it in. i can get a 200lb hog for $100-125. good price?

 

Now thats cheap for those pigs. That 72 lb pig I cooked for thanksgiving cost me $ 162.00.

 

If you are going to get a hog slaughtered the ideal weight you want is around 250 pounds. Most butchers want it live so you need to find a way to get it there. That is who it is in Iowa anyway. We pay around $100-$125 here fir that size hog. Guess we have a abundance of them or something. LOL

Go to this site for more info on selecting a hog.

www.iowapork.org lots of great info and some pretty good recipies too!

 

Feeder pigs are always more expensive for obvious reasons.
We used to process our own from start to finish, but we just got to busy to do it. Now we have it processed locally, but cure and smoke our bellies and make our own sausage. We give the lard to the Amish (we live maybe 1/4 mile from a large Amish community) and they make lye soap and give us a few bars. They also make their own cheese and give us a block or 2 every year. The Swiss cheese they make is NASTY!!!

 

All the Amish folk around here cook and grow the most wonderful products available.

I can't imagine an Amish product that wasn't done to the utmost of their ability.

 

I don't know how they live in your neck of the woods, but here they aren't the cleanest people in the neighborhood. They are great folks to have near, but their living conditions aren't anything like you see on TV or in a touristy place. Hygiene is not one of their major concerns. That being said, I will not eat most of the stuff that comes from this sect.

 

while we are on the subject. LOL There is a amish community down by our lake house and they are nasty stinky people. Very rude too. They have their little bake sale stands at the entrance to our lake and sel cream pies and such sitting out in the 100 degree heat. EEEEWWWWWW They are not very clean, I just dont understand them.

 

Is it true they live like theres no modern times. I mean like back in the 1800 hundreds.

 

There are different sects with different ideals. Here we have old world Amish and Amish Mennonite. The Amish drive buckboard buggies And do everything without the aid of electricity, phones, heat and air, etc. Mennonites drive cars, use phones and electricity, but don't have radios or TV's. The Amish around me don't even have covered buggies like they do back east. They do not pose for pictures either. They work together to harvest by hand and horse, and if it's to much to do, they sometimes will hire a farmer with modern equipment to do it. They also make their own wine and grow their own tobacco for cigs.

 

Ya know I guess that would be ok to go and visit for the weekend. But im not to sure about being that way all the time.

 

The folks I am referring to around here are actually Menonites. All I can say is if you guys think these folks are not worthy for some reason I am sorry. Maybe the ones around you are dirty, or weird or whatever? The ones that I am acquainted with are hardworking, diligent, slightly different :roll: , type of folks, and I like them. I bought 300 ears of the best sweet corn you have ever tasted from a Menonite farmer this spring. I buy catfish from another Menonite. I have a brother in law that could never make a profit from his chicken farm until he let the Menonite's handle the operation.

Don't mean to rant or be obsessive about the subject, just don't want to see everyone judged by one group.

 

I have a person that I know that has a few old sows that he is going to butcher. He claims that the meat is still good and that they are too big for the slaughterhouse. Do you think this is still good meat?

 

The Mennonites around here are very clean too. The old world Amish are not, but are great people to have. I wouldn't trade them for modern neighbors. EVER!! They are the hardest working I've ever seen. It's the most awesome site in the world to watch these folks put up hay without the aid of modern machinery. They do it barefooted even. Imagine being in a hay field without shoes. They bust the soil behind with a horse drawn single bottom plow. I bust mine with a 6 bottom plow and a 250 horse tractor and have problems getting stuck in this rocky Ozark soil. They are very helpful in this community. If it were not for them the idiot across the road would have lost a hundred acres from building a brush fire in the wind. Every fire department brush truck got stuck in the soggy part of the field. About 40 Amish men raced over with rakes in hand and contained it to maybe ten acres. And they didn't have to be dispatched from 911 either. They saw smoke and came to help.
Almost the only traffic on my road is horse and buggy. That's cool, even if the driver hasn't bathed in a while. When you live the way they do, bathing is not high on the list of priorities. Most of them have a wash tub under the eves that they use for baths. But when your in a drought situation, and water from a shallow hand dug well has to used for livestock, you are forced to make a sacrifice or two. I had to go a week without a shower because nobody here had electricity to run their wells after the ice storm. The Amish didn't have a clue the electricity was even out.
I don't have a problem with the way anybody lives. I just won't eat any body's food. But out here, we coexist together. And we depend on each other. I can promise you this too; there are things I do that they don't approve of either, and I guarantee they discuss it.

 

Ideal weight is around 250-275. Any more than that any they start to get fatty. Pending on what cuts you are after could be a good deal. Butchers around here charge $75 to cut them up and freeze them.

 

ballagh thanks, I was kinda thinking that I may grind it up and mix with my salami. The price he tells me will be right. Not sure what that means but we will see

 

CajunSmoker Ive never been around any of them. As far as I know theres not any around my area, but I could be wrong just havent seen any around here.

 

Cheech-

I am not a pig expert but from what I remember from my childhood. Old sows were not supposed to be fat because they developed alot of problems, like dieses and such.

Supposidly the meat gets more stringy as they get older and have lots of pigglets, but that could be an old wives tale.

I can't imagine why a slaghter house could not handle a pig they are smaller than cows.