Their last week is here and everything appears to be in place for the pigs trip to the abattoir on Sunday. There are just 2 main tasks left to complete before they head off.
We need to ear tag them as required by the regulations and register the animal movement from our holding to the abattoir. Both of these seem to be fairly straight forward (if you don’t mind sticking a metal tag through a pigs ear with a set of pliers) but I’ll be checking things again ahead of time just to be sure I’ve not missed anything.
I’m still not sure that we’re completely clear about how much pork will come back from these two pigs but hopefully we won’t get sick of eating pork anytime soon!
One interesting aspect for me is that I am not (yet) quite as upset as I had expected especially given that these pigs have been such characters and were absolutely no bother to look after. They have certainly enjoyed their home in the woods and we have got a great deal of entertainment from watching their antics as they settled into life here.
There is no room for sentiment though, we got these animals to raise for meat and this is all part of the process. If any distraction is needed then there is always the thought of getting a couple more weaners next year to repeat the whole exercise.
The 28 week weigh-in
The usual calculation has been repeated yet again with the expected minor increases in their overall dimensions…
Twirly
Heart Girth (measuring around the body just behind the front legs) = 0.96 m
Length (measured from between the ears to the base of the tail) = 1.02 m
This means that the approximate weight is: (0.96 ² x 1.02 x 69.3) = 65.1 kg
No Tail
Heart Girth (measuring around the body just behind the front legs) = 1.04 m
Length (measured from between the ears to the base of the tail) = 1.08 m
This means that the approximate weight is: (1.04 ² x 1.08 x 69.3) = 80.95 kg
Conclusion
The measurements and weight calculations have been more regular in recent weeks but are still only a rough guide. The difference between the two pigs is very surprising to me and I will be very interested to see what feedback (if any) we get from the abattoir people.
We have now got a great electric mincer/sausage stuffer which we have tested out on some pork from the butchers. The resulting sausages were very tasty although perhaps not as visually appealing as I might have liked. Practice will help with that in future I hope…
One lesson learned – I would not recommend the cheaper manual mincers and I’m happy that the price of our new electric machine will be money well spent in the long run.