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I used to raise pigs, but I found it much cheaper to simply buy them at the sale yard. The last few years I have been buying all of my slaughter hogs at the sale yard, I buy the oversize sows in the 400# to 500# range usually for around $115 to $150 a piece. This last sale all the sows were running 600# plus so were going for a bit more and I had financial constraints as well as weight constraints on hauling them home. I wound up not buying any sows last sale. I was very tempted to buy a couple large boars though, one went for $5.00 weighing in at 785 pounds the other went for $6.75 weighing in at about 675 pounds.
I figured at those prices I really can't go wrong but all I had that day was my 1/2 ton truck with the canopy on it for hauling them... along with 400 pounds of child weight and 350 pounds of grocery weight not including my weight and the wifes of another 350 pounds. I decided to wait on buying anything until next sale and go ahead and set up my long flatbed trailer, I figured even my two horse trailer would not have enough room with three to four hogs of these sizes.
At that price I cannot go wrong on the meat, but I could go wrong not anticipating potential challenges with this.....
My first concern was with having intact boars mixed with sows in a trailer driving down the highway, I don't know if there would be any problem or not but I certainly wouldn't want to take the chance. I figure I will build four separate pens on the long trailer with gates so that I can separate the hogs into their own little 5ft x 7ft areas.
I have built some very heavy penning here at the ranch that should easily hold up to this size hog.
With that all figured out, back to the potential of boar taint..... My wife had a pig growing up that they used for breeding that they slaughtered and ate at about 1,000 pounds, she said he didn't taste any different than Petunia the sow did. Her uncle Mark and his wife just slaughtered their breeding boar last year at just over 1100 pounds and he tasted just fine.
What are your experiences with large hog/transportation, slaughtering and processing? I hate surprises, especially when they cause me trouble or cost me money........ am I missing any potential surprises here....
I figured at those prices I really can't go wrong but all I had that day was my 1/2 ton truck with the canopy on it for hauling them... along with 400 pounds of child weight and 350 pounds of grocery weight not including my weight and the wifes of another 350 pounds. I decided to wait on buying anything until next sale and go ahead and set up my long flatbed trailer, I figured even my two horse trailer would not have enough room with three to four hogs of these sizes.
At that price I cannot go wrong on the meat, but I could go wrong not anticipating potential challenges with this.....
My first concern was with having intact boars mixed with sows in a trailer driving down the highway, I don't know if there would be any problem or not but I certainly wouldn't want to take the chance. I figure I will build four separate pens on the long trailer with gates so that I can separate the hogs into their own little 5ft x 7ft areas.
I have built some very heavy penning here at the ranch that should easily hold up to this size hog.
With that all figured out, back to the potential of boar taint..... My wife had a pig growing up that they used for breeding that they slaughtered and ate at about 1,000 pounds, she said he didn't taste any different than Petunia the sow did. Her uncle Mark and his wife just slaughtered their breeding boar last year at just over 1100 pounds and he tasted just fine.
What are your experiences with large hog/transportation, slaughtering and processing? I hate surprises, especially when they cause me trouble or cost me money........ am I missing any potential surprises here....