Pigs are just by nature suited to honorable agriculture . Really , human landscape painting direction for food and rankness almostrequiresthat pig be a part of the picture . Their omnivorous appetite — they’ll eat anything we humans will wipe out , and they ’ll also eat the all parts we wo n’t eat — is one of the best understanding , of course .
But pig bed reproduction and growth habit play a large character in make them priceless partners in almost any human intellectual nourishment system .
Three, Three, Three (at 3 A.M.)
Look athow they reproduce!First , the animal havea short gestation period period . Pig farmers like to say ‘ Three months , three weeks , three day … and three o’clock in the morning . ’
As such , a sow could deliver as many as three litter a year .
While such a pace of breeding may place too much tension on a sow ’s physiology , a healthy mother pig can well have two litters every 12 months . And each litter can come a XII or more piglets!At that charge per unit , a farmer canraise just as much porc as he can hustle feed for .
Read more : concerned in raising springtime piglets ? Here ’s how you could find some .
All About the Food
Which think of that , often , your pig intellectual nourishment supply is the most significant confine factor to how many bull you may raise on your homestead . What you feed your pigs ( and where it comes from ) will determine how many fuzz you’re able to prove to adult slaughter size .
Purchased , texture - based provender be money , of grade . But — so far , anyway‚they are always there when you need them . With a bought - feed dieting , you could raise out as many piglets as you have room for .
But with a farm - raised pig bed diet , or for folks who are assay to minimize the money they drop on feed , there are bound to how much pig food for thought is useable at any given time . This is when it can be a big assistance to know that pigs can be mow down at almost any size of it .
Slaughter at Any Stage
Each point in a pig ’s development is the basis of some of the domain ’s best cuisine .
Roast sucking fuzz , for example , has been a luxury sweetheart for 100 in cultures from Europe to Polynesia . When a female parent Sus scrofa begins to wean her family ( thus placing the load of continuing to feed them on the granger or homesteader ) it may be time to reduce telephone number by receive a party and roasting a pig .
Anywhere from 10 to 50 pound can be a traditional joint sucking pig .
And actually , you may roast a whole animate being of any size – you ’re limit only by the volume of your oven . Or build an oven in the yard , out of clinker blocks , and then the sky ’s the terminus ad quem . The important thing is that butcher one or more piglet now can shift the balance of provender - to - pig towards more abundance – and put meat in the Deepfreeze immediately .
Read more : hear on - farm slovenly person butchering to start process your own pork !
Then there ’s the porker , the half - grown slob of around 80 to 150 pounds , slaughtered for habit as fresh ( not salted / cured ) meat .
Think of the affectionate , juiciest pork chop you’re able to envisage , or the most voluptuous pork knock . Who could conceive it a wastefulness to massacre a half - grown pig when it smack this good ? And reducing the act of pigs on the farm at this point imply going ahead with a smaller provender measure while you enkindle larger pigs .
Meat as Herd Management
And with so many piglets in a bedding , maybe you want to consider offering your specialty meat to some prize neighbour . You no doubt know common people whose headache for whole , fresh , delicious and local nutrient is like your own .
Demands from the pig penitentiary can get excessive . recall that impudent untried pork barrel can fetch a premium cost , turning a possible liability into an asset
So by now we ’ve elevate our bedding material of piglets for several months . At each stage of the process we ’ve been able to harvest meat for our day-after-day meals and for our celebrations . Reducing the number of pig we raise has kept the feed bills ( or the demands on the garden , ley or root cellar ) from exceeding what the farm can expect .
Now just a few hog dwell the pasture or copper pen , fattening out for bacon , lard and holiday hams , pork lumbus , roasts and blimp . Truly , the hog is the crown of homestead meats , at whatever age we slaughter .
And we ’d better eat up ! Because at the pace our sow give rise piglets , there are always more coming .
