# Which is better?



## CornerstoneAcre (Mar 10, 2011)

When buying a piglet to grow up for the freezer is it better to get a girl (a gilt I think) or a fixed boy (a barrow I think)? Does a male generally grow faster than the female (as in goats)?


----------



## Slick (Jan 27, 2012)

Neither get a boar he will grow faster and not have as much fat and if butchered around 220 to 230 he will not have taint meat. 

I haven't raised many hogs but I have raised a few gilts, barrows and boars. I like the boar for a meat hog the best.


----------



## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

I prefer the castrated males.


----------



## happymainepigs (Jul 19, 2011)

I always find it interesting when people come to buy piglets from me. Everyone has a different opinion. Some like the girls, some like the boys, some say the white ones don't taste as good as the colored ones LOL, on and on. We castrate all of the boys..there are lots of different opinions there too. We have never delt with taint for this reason, but likely wouldn't anyway since we butcher at about 6 months old. We have raised several gilts and barrows for the freezer and we find no significant difference between the two.


----------



## happymainepigs (Jul 19, 2011)

Here is a photo of the 6 I raised from my fall piglets. They went to the butcher 2 weeks ago at exactly 6 months old. 3 were gilts and 3 were barrows. I taped them before we took them. The four largest all taped at 250 live weight and were 2 gilts and 2 barrows. They all were pretty close as far as hanging weights and I can't tell the difference from the meat quality or looks. It's all delicious.

Photo was taken 1 week prior to the trip to the butcher.


----------



## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

happymainepigs said:


> Here is a photo of the 6 I raised from my fall piglets. They went to the butcher 2 weeks ago at exactly 6 months old. 3 were gilts and 3 were barrows. I taped them before we took them*. The four largest all taped at 250 live weight and were 2 gilts and 2 barrows. They all were pretty close as far as hanging weights* and I can't tell the difference from the meat quality or looks. It's all delicious.


What were the HCW of the pigs? Were you able to compare backfat depth of the carcasses?

Jim


----------



## happymainepigs (Jul 19, 2011)

The tape said the live weight was 250, 250, 250, 250, 227, 200. The actual hanging weight of all 6 were 210, 200, 198, 196, 188 and 178. 
The smaller 2 were a girl and a boy-smallest was a girl and she was the smallest from the start. I didn't think to get a comparison of backfat on the carcasses.. We had the backfat reserved for lard, the butcher said there wasn't much fat compared to the other pigs he has done this winter. He said our pork was "meatier". Don't know if that's good or bad. Depends on your preference I guess. Here is a photo of pork chops from the largest (3 left in photo) and the smallest (2 on the right) of the 6 pigs. We kept the largest and smallest for ourselves and the other 4 went to customers. I know this photo does'nt mean much, not knowing exactly where in the loin they came from. 
We are picking up the smoked stuff later today so haven't seen the bacon yet.

The main reason I taped them all is because I was interested in the accuracy of the tape measure weight.


----------



## mink (Feb 10, 2005)

dawn your pigs look nice , i was wondering if you kept track of the grain used to raise the 6 of them?


----------



## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

I would say pick the largest and most vigorous looking one in the litter you're looking at. I've found the bigger ones in a bunch remain the bigger ones as they grow, all else being equal. The barrows do grow a little faster, I believe. I don't think there's much temperment difference between them. They both seem to act about the same. No difference in meat. I've picked based on which one has the neatest color if they all looked good. That said, I think barrows are like most castrated male animals: somehow they innately know they've lost their true purpose in life and are happy to be alive and just want somebody to pet them. They're OK with being a little dopey, just hanging around, maybe having a job to do, but maybe not, getting beat up by the girls sometimes. (I've felt a little that way myself since my visit to the urologist.)

Healthy, without issues is really the biggest thing. No hernias, deformities, healthy environment, etc. Don't get the runt. Get them at 40 - 60 pounds if you can. They're past the delicate stage, should be well weaned, a little more resilient. Some people wean really early and sell them too small before they're really ready. If it's going stratight outside and it's still cold, try to get one that's living in that environment already. A confinement pig living in a 75 degree barn and then put outside below freezing could have issues.

A healthy pig plus good diet will have the biggest impact on the overall success. Some other small factors apply, but a good start and good food make good pork.


----------



## happymainepigs (Jul 19, 2011)

mink said:


> dawn your pigs look nice , i was wondering if you kept track of the grain used to raise the 6 of them?


Thanks. Yes I did keep track. They ate about 4200 lbs of pig and sow grain. They also had cooked whole corn for the last two months of their life(winter) about 1lb each per day.They were weaned and then put into my garden when they were little where they ate all of the extra corn, pumpkins, chard tomatoes, sunflowers, beats, peas etc. After they had cleaned that all up they lived in pasture with lots of grass growing and a small pond. They ate a ton of apples as it was a great year for them here and about twice a week they were given a couple of 5 gallon pails of goat milk and whey from my mother in law's goats. They had hay but were not hungry enough to eat much. They also had whatever household food scraps and waste we collect in a pail each day.
I figure it cost about $175 each to feed them, not counting the extra I planted in the garden with them in mind.


----------



## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

A good healthy pig on good feed is what you want. You will never see enough difference raising a few to matter which you pick at normal butcher weights. If I was pushing them over 300 lbs I would take a gilt, they will stay a bit leaner then a barrow. Genetics and feed will play a bigger part then sex overall.


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

The study I read out of Australia showed that:

Boars grow about 10% faster than
Barrows which are fattier and grow about 10% faster than
Gilts which are the fattiest of the three.

They also said that the boars were the most efficient at turning feed into meat.

This matches what we've seen in the hundreds of pigs we've taken to market. We stopped doing barrows years ago - they seemed pretty comparable to gilts in growth and fat. Boars definitely grow faster and bigger.

Note that there are exceptions, a female who grows faster than a male litter mate, however our biggest boars are easily 150% to 200% the size of our biggest sows. I have one particular pair right now, Happy(F) and Speckles(M) which very clearly demonstrate this. They were both the fastest growers of their litter and cohort. He is twice her size.

All that said, my favorite meat is the Boston Butt steaks from one of our big sows. Tender, juicy and wonderful flavor. Last year we had some eight year old sows which were spectacularly delicious.

However, the market calls for finisher pigs of about 250 lbs or so. The steaks from those sows were huge and would not have sold well in the general retail sales because they're outside people's ken. I do have some customers that reserve long in advance for big sows. Its a specialty market.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop


----------



## happymainepigs (Jul 19, 2011)

Might as well show you the bacon. Quite a difference between the largest of the 6(barrow) and the smallest (gilt)


----------



## CornerstoneAcre (Mar 10, 2011)

Well, thanks for all the info. We did two gilts this year. Personality wise one was a real jerk and I was glad to sell her!! This was our first year with pigs and the two largest in the litters we bought from were girls. I think they did okay, but we just didn't have anything to compare them to. The Amish fellow we bought them from had his own thoughts on color. He said don't buy one that is completely black - they don't grow nearly as well. It's funny to hear those tidbits of "knowledge" are everywhere. 
BTW those are some nice looking chops and bacon. The one we kept is heading to the butcher next week. We used the weight tape formula as well and she weighed out at 165# (yes we are butchering small - I'm tired of the big pig). We'll see how close we are.


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Careful which tidbits of "knowledge" are not. Many are myths.


----------



## Fineswine (Aug 25, 2011)

I just killed 3 hogs last weekend,2 gilts and one barrow,all littermates,all fed exactly the same.This time as well as all others too,the gilts always hang leaner than the barrows wich I like and is why I dont regularly raise any barrows or boars.They grow slower than the barrows,and barrows always put on more finish(fat) in the last stage of growth...all of these are from my experience.Also there are some bloodlines that do carry taint when males are left in tact to mature regardless of what some people think or might say about "there" pigs.


----------



## CornerstoneAcre (Mar 10, 2011)

highlands said:


> Careful which tidbits of "knowledge" are not. Many are myths.


Yeah, I realize this....still interesting to hear them.


----------

