# castrating a pig/ or not?



## Dreams30 (Dec 12, 2003)

We bought 2 male feeder pigs about 30 pounds each. We are gonna raise them to 200-220 pounds for slaughter. Do we have to castrate them? What would be the consequesnces if we didn't? 

Mostly we are concerned about doing it wrong.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

For the best tasting and best smelling meat, your pigs should be catsrated. The earlier the better for them and for you. Ideally I've read it should be at 3 days but at 30 pounds you are still looking at a relatively easy task.Granted I've only done it once and I was shaking the entire time. I only raise females becuas eof this castration thing. 
Simple instructions for you: Before you do this vaccinate with a tetanus toxoid. The casing is tough but with a sharp small knife and a steady hand (and someone holding the pig down) it isn't a difficult operation. Make a small incision at the base of the scrotum on each side, you have to pop the testicles through them by applying pressure at the top so they push down and out through the incision. Make the cut large enough to make that easy but small enough so that they'll seal quickly. Pull all the white stringy stuff attached to the testicles through and out- they'll stop coming out at one point. Spray an antibacterial/ antiseptic solution on the cuts and let the piglets go to their clean area. The consequences of not castrating are a stinkier, tougher meat at 200. With my pigs, I can't deal with the stench of the male after 30 pounds. I think my wild pigs are smellier than domestics but I wouldn't want to be within a block of a table with pork from any uncastrated pig


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Sorry Tango, I'm going to disagree with you all the way down the line. The castration (or barrowing) of pigs is an old fashioned and out-moded concept which puts unnecessary stress on the pig and knocks back it's growth - especially when it has reached 30lb in weight. You are quite right when you say that they should be down at 3 days of age - in fact they should be done within that time frame and certainly not as old as they will be if they've reached 30lb.

If your porker boar as never worked, been fed well and had a good life his meat should be as sweet as that of any sow. And before you cry me down on that one, I've bred pigs for over 30 years. 25 years ago I began to realise that it was all a bit of an old wives tale and stopped barrowing the boars and continued to sell as many pigs as I had ever done. My breeding boars would be in the vicinity of 450lbs and the only time they smell is when they are near or with a sow on heat.

To relate a little story. About 6 years ago a lady rang wanting a pig for Christmas but it had to be a sow and if it wasn't she would know the difference. My thought was "you silly cow" and as I only had boars available, that's what she got. Her taste buds were so brilliant that she rang two months later complimenting me on the beautiful pork and could she order another. All up she bought six pigs from me and only one was a sow. She didn't know the difference.

So in other words Dream, do nothing with your boars. They are too big to be castrating without vet assistance, you will only knock their growth back in the doing so and at the end of the day they are going to taste the same. 

This is only my opinion, garnered through experience.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## Horace Baker (Nov 22, 2004)

I always castrate. We've had that boar smell/taste come through even on 30 lb. suckling pigs. I don't like castrting a 30 lb pig, but have done so and didn't notice a setback.
I will qualify the above statements though... we don't feed free choice, no soybeans, and it takes us a year to finish a 200 lb. hanging wt. pig.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Ronney said:


> Sorry Tango, I'm going to disagree with you all the way down the line. The castration (or barrowing) of pigs is an old fashioned and out-moded concept which puts unnecessary stress on the pig and knocks back it's growth - especially when it has reached 30lb in weight. You are quite right when you say that they should be down at 3 days of age - in fact they should be done within that time frame and certainly not as old as they will be if they've reached 30lb.
> 
> If your porker boar as never worked, been fed well and had a good life his meat should be as sweet as that of any sow. And before you cry me down on that one, I've bred pigs for over 30 years. 25 years ago I began to realise that it was all a bit of an old wives tale and stopped barrowing the boars and continued to sell as many pigs as I had ever done. My breeding boars would be in the vicinity of 450lbs and the only time they smell is when they are near or with a sow on heat.
> 
> ...


No argument here Ronnie- if that is your experience I can't argue. It isn't my experience though. In tact boar meat stinks to high heaven due to the presence of hormones not found in castrated males: "Androstenone (14) 43, skatole and to a lesser extent indole 44 45 are responsible for the unpleasant smell of cooked boar meat 46." Boars
In my boars, I can smell the androstenone, which has a urine/ammonia odor on their breath. In my experience, even little ones at 25 pounds who are still partially on mother's milk let off a slight stink that is unappetizing to me. The stink is even more pronounced upon reheating the pork.


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## Siryet (Jun 29, 2002)

we also got some Boar Meat and we could not stay in the same house when my wife started to cook it. Dogs loved it. LOL

Our pigs are already castrated when we buy them at 3 weeks old. Don't know how old they are castrated at but I will ask this year when we pick up our new ones.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

Sorry, Ronnie, but I have to agree with the others. Even meat from a young boar stinks and I always castrate the male pigs. I drug my feet on a couple once and didn't castrate until they were about 65 lbs. and they never slowed down.


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## RedneckPete (Aug 23, 2004)

Castrate them, and do it NOW.

Trust me, I waited last summer, and ended up doing it when the poor sucker was about a hundred pounds. Never again.

Check out the thread below for more info....

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=52017

Pete


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## VApigLover (Oct 6, 2004)

I'm just another success story I guess, I've slaughtered three boar hogs in the past and could not tell much difference in the quality of meat. Sort of the difference between a Buck & Doe in terms of venison quality, a little different yet the taste was quite exceptable. Maybe flavor of the meat is tainted in a boar hog if the process does not go so well, i.e get it's blood boiling to the point it bleeds testosterone! otherwise the ones we have done are simular to what Ronnie is refering to, I guess I tend to agree with him with the exception if I can get the pigs cut at an early age I do it unless I plan to use him as a breeder.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

:yeeha: I agree with Ronnie too....I have never heard of anyone here castrating boars, when they are raised so quickly to killing weight. It's the same with goats, they dont castrate bucks they are raising to kill at around 16 weeks. One thing that is done here though are the bottom big teeth are pulled or hacksawed off. But I am sure they would have been done on your piglets before you bought them Dream.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

I find this thread very interesting. Obviously there are some differences to account for. Not sure if it has to do with my pigs being wild swine since others who raise domestic swine have said the same. Can anyone share the breeds they raise and how long it takes to get them to the weight you butcher at? As for mine, the stench is there before weaning (they wean naturally here, I don't take them off of mom, mom takes them off when she is tired of them). I wouldn't wait to butcher a male piglet getting close to 20 pounds though. That is the upward range of the start of smelliness. About the goats though Shazza; they do not share the same hormones swine do. Male goats stink because they urinate on themselves and it is hard to keep that smell off of the meat. One can butcher a buck until he starts that behavior. My 15 month buck has yet to urinate on himself.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

VApigLover said:


> the taste was quite exceptable. Maybe flavor of the meat is tainted in a boar hog if the process does not go so well,


No it isnt the taste of the meat- it is the smell. The meat tastes fine.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Ronney said:


> If your porker boar as never worked, been fed well and had a good life his meat should be as sweet as that of any sow.
> Ronnie


Just checking Ronnie but, is the smell is fine too? If I had no sense of smell I would not notice a difference between boar meat and barrow meat. The taste is about the same.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

Marcia...pigs here in a piggery don't get castrated, they would reach 60 kgs by 16-20 weeks (remembering they cannot move around like our free range)...some or most of them would be to supply the local market....so people all over australia are eating boar pork...I dont hear people say their pork roast tasted yummy but boy did it stink. Maybe it's the skin of a wild pig verse a white or landrace or tammorth or duroc...dont know.

Oh...that other disgusting thing bucks do you would think would taint the taste and smell of the meat more than urinating on themselves....


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## rwood (Jan 15, 2005)

Shazza said:


> Marcia...pigs here in a piggery don't get castrated, they would reach 60 kgs by 16-20 weeks (remembering they cannot move around like our free range)


Shazza, 

I'm from Australia too. Last night i cooked up a pork stir fry, and I was sure there was a smell about the meat. The colour of the meat was darker than normal. 

I wouldnt have thought twice about it until reading this forum. I could definately smell a difference. I cant be sure however if it was the gender or the slaughter technique 'cause it was store bought.

Do you pasture all your pigs? How many do you carry per acre? Im planning the livestock side of my farm now and am extremely interested in the statistics. 

BTW, this forum is awesome for people like my wife and I planning a move to a rural life next year. The information weve gained off this sight has meant our plans for our farm are extremely well thought through. We would have made heaps of mistakes and learnt the hard way if I hadnt stumbled across this sight 5 months ago. Looking forward to all the hard lessons to come too.

Thanks 
Raphael in New South Wales


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## leaping leon (Jun 10, 2004)

Ronney writes: 
To relate a little story. About 6 years ago a lady rang wanting a pig for Christmas but it had to be a sow and if it wasn't she would know the difference. My thought was "you silly cow" and as I only had boars available, that's what she got. Her taste buds were so brilliant that she rang two months later complimenting me on the beautiful pork and could she order another. All up she bought six pigs from me and only one was a sow. She didn't know the difference.

Isn't Ronney bragging about lying to the "stupid cow"? I try not to debate anything with anyone who brags about lying. It's like trying to nail down jello.

I intend to castrate when I have pigs, and also excess buck goats.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

Raphael..Yes home grown pork has a distinct smell, but not a stink like I think other people are talking about. I haven't cooked store bought pork for a very long time. Most pork I see in the shops is very aenimic (?) looking compared to our pork, which is quite dark. We are really 'over' pork at the moment, there is only so much you can eat...next time we will make sure we do one when we have done a steer or a lamb so we can mix up the eating better. Also depends whats easier to get out of the freezer  
We have one pig per paddock and a paddock...where the buck lives...between the boar and the girls. They each have a house...three sided shed...with a gate to close off when they have piglets.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Shazza said:


> Marcia...pigs here in a piggery don't get castrated, they would reach 60 kgs by 16-20 weeks (remembering they cannot move around like our free range)...some or most of them would be to supply the local market....so people all over australia are eating boar pork...I dont hear people say their pork roast tasted yummy but boy did it stink. Maybe it's the skin of a wild pig verse a white or landrace or tammorth or duroc...dont know.
> 
> Oh...that other disgusting thing bucks do you would think would taint the taste and smell of the meat more than urinating on themselves....


Well, I'm perplexed about the boars. In Cuba, my family would castrate because of the smell of boar meat also. Since so many others have exerienced it, while others don't, I wonder if it is something else? The hormones which cause the stink have been isolated and identified- so the stink is real.
About the bucks, LOL. I was told that their meat would be fine until they were about a year old. They don't start doing any of the "buck" things until about that time- on average- I think. Itis defintiely somethin gthey are doing to themselves. I don't castrate my bucklings.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

It has certainly made one question why something is or isnt done. 
But I know if I rocked up to the Ballarat Saleyards with a load of piglets (boars) and said to the selling agent ...they are all castrated...I know they would all pi** themselves laughing. I have a friend who works at a local piggery and tommorrow I am going to ask him why we don't do it here.


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2005)

Well I'll have to tell my story too! Last March my oldest daughter received two little piglets. She said she would give me one in return for raising them. At 31/2 months old I butchered the smaller of the two which happen to be female and the male we left to process later. We never did get around to casturating it. Finally at 6 months I told my daughter that her pig was big enough to take to the processer. Her mother refused it cause it wasn't casturated yet. There were no females around to arouse the guy so I didn't figure castration would be needed. So a cuz and I done the painful job to him. It took the pig about 2 or 3 weeks to heal and another couple of weeks for the processer to work it in the schedule. The pig weighed in at 296 and my daughter got back some of the best tasting homegrown pork that I have ever eaten. Now I don't think that fixing him approximately 30 days before he was processed is what made him taste so good. I think the reasons was 1. he was never around any females. 2. he was in a small pen (very little exercise). 3. His water trough was cleaned out everyday and filled with fresh clean water. 4. His diet was supplimented with lots of left over pastries from the local bakery. What a animal eats will have a lot to do with how they taste.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

OK...spoke to my friend Fred tonight and he told me that the practice of castrating pigs has not been done here for a long time. And when they did they would do it when piglets, at the same time as the teeth were getting pulled. Because the name of the game is to get your pig to the required weight as quick as you can there is no need to castrate, the pig will be in the freezer way before he knows what "working " is. So right across Australia people who buy pork at the super market dont know whether they are eating boar or sow. And either will you. Once your pig is over 100kgs all it is doing is putting on fat....so the ideal killing weight is around 60 to 80kgs. If selling at that size it is the max. priced pig at a market. 
As far as the smell...I think any home grown pork has a very distinct smelll when cooked. Quite stinky really...and our first one we ate was a sow.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Shazza said:


> I think any home grown pork has a very distinct smelll when cooked. Quite stinky really...and our first one we ate was a sow.


If the smell you are speaking about is similar to the smell of a dirty public restroom- then I wouldn't eat pork in Australia.  I don't think it is that bad though  It is however that nasty with a boar. Remember I don't castrate my boars. I butcher them all before they reach twenty-five pounds.At thirty pounds the smell is already apparent and these are little guys, still sexually immature; still kept with thier mother and still partially nursing. I grow out gilts to about 60 pounds because I butcher by myself and we are a very small family. there is absolutely no nasty smell to that pork. Oh well, I guess this will have to remain a mystery. I wonder what Dreams30 has decided?


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## Dreams30 (Dec 12, 2003)

Aquiring 2 females and having only one pen at the moment made our decision for us. We castrated the smaller male and not the larger one. 

I guess that we will see for ourselves what comes of it. We will raise the smaller male for meat and the larger one for breeding.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

What does your boar smell like? Alive...I am presuming you have a boar? Ours does not smell at all...our pigs do not stink!! We regularly give ours scratches etc and sure there is a pig smell but not a stink of any kind. Here is Porky pig...he is 3 yrs old now...LAndrace/Large white









Freckles...younger of the 2 sows.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

The first pic didnt work so am trying it again


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Nice porkers Shazza- looks like they clear your place  Let's be clear. This discussion is interesting but I don't want assumptions being made about my manner of keeping. My pigs are clean animals. They do not stink. There is no stink from a healthy, live pig be they male or female. Actually we have less flies than anyone I've met raising domestic pigs. BUT get close to my boar's breath and you will know what hog's breath is all about. That smell is what the lady pigs like- it comes from the hormone Androstenone and it smells like ammonia (on the breath of a clean, healthy boar). When you butcher a clean healthy boar- in a clean area, with clean utensils,the smell of the meat gives off that ammonia/urine smell as it is cooked. I think the distinction being made is that one can raise domestic male pigs by themselves and butcher before they become sexually mature and the meat smells the same as that of a sow of the same age. I've never raised a male domestic pig by itself and butchered before sexual maturity. Maybe that is the only difference we can get from this discussion, in which case I can't tell you since I've never done it. As for wild pigs, not even sausage can cover up the stink from the cleanly rendered carcass of a CLEAN and healthy 30 pound piglet.
Dreams30 you are wise to have had him castrated if he's going to be around sows. Good luck with your pigs.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

Dreams30 said:


> Aquiring 2 females and having only one pen at the moment made our decision for us. We castrated the smaller male and not the larger one.
> 
> I guess that we will see for ourselves what comes of it. We will raise the smaller male for meat and the larger one for breeding.


  I wouldn't do that for too long Dreams30...from 6 mths he will work, or earlier if it's in his face.  

Tango...I was not having a go at your pig keeping....but I have no idea of the smell you are refering to. Porkys poop and wee corner doesnt even stink, so I think there are differences not only in whether intact or not when killed I think what is fed and the ground they are on and where they are kept adds to the difference. Also maybe what breed of pig they are too.
My point still is though that there is no need to castrate a male pig that is being raised to butcher as he will be butchered before the age of being sexually active and working.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

I searched the internet to find out what it is we are discussing exactly. It wouldn't be surprising to find that what someone considers normal pork aroma in one country is something someone else raised in a different country would consider less than ideal. Cleanliness, as alluded to Shazza, does affect flavor and smell but that is not what I am discussing at all. I am only discussing the effect of andosterone on the smell of the pork - barrows don't carry that hormone. My search yielded information that Australia is moving toward castrating pigs. Maybe you guys haven't noticed a difference in the smell because you've lived with it. Maybe with your advanced methods of raising in tact males, you've learned to minimize the production of andosterone. But if there were no difference between boar and barrow meat, there would be no move to implement a castration program in order to compete outside of your domestic market. Peple in other countries do notice the difference. This article explicitly states that aroma is improved in the pork of a castrated male. Here's the link Barrows The article brought up certain other interesting ideas whch I had considered throughout this thread, such as injections to minimize or slow down hormonal changes in boars.


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## GoldenMom (Jan 2, 2005)

I don't normally participate in this forum, but I noticed something in one of Shazza's posts. Shazza says that pigs in Aus. are butchered at 60-80 kg. That's only about 130-175 pounds. If my recollection is correct (my dad raised pigs many years ago) here in the US our pigs are more like 250 pounds, right? Maybe the Aussie pigs just aren't as mature and don't have as much of the hormone? I know Tango posted that it can be detected at 30 pounds, but I have no experience there. Dad always tried to castrate early and I was pretty young then anyway. Just an observation.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Hi GoldenMom, nice to see you here  My pigs definitely have ample hormone production early. Maybe that is because they're European crosses, aka Piney Woods Rooters, razorbacks, etc. Still, what I've been told by my family, read on this forum, from USDA, and Florida Dept. of Agriculture tells me there is a noticeable difference between pork from barrows and boars in domestic swine. It seems that can be minimimized by butchering early and keeping males together and away from females- I wonder how that compares to barrow pork? Interesting . The above site I linked to shows Australian market swine at a pre-sale weight of 110 kg; market boars at just under 250 pounds. the article also shows their interest in maintaining a lean carcass so that's 250 lean pounds.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

Marcia...Interesting site, I think it will depend of which and whom each piggery has its selling contracts with...obviously ones with export contracts may change to castration.

At our saleyard market days of pigs the optimum selling weight is 80-100 kgs...after 100kg the price goes down...because after a pig gets to 100kgs all the pig does is put on fat not meat. At our local market which is held weekly, we would have on average 2000 pigs per sale, from piglets to great monster boars and sows....not one of them would be castrated. 

I think on a forum like this where we will have different nations giving their different opinions I think we have to accept the differences, as there is no right or wrong.....just different reasons.


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## Dreams30 (Dec 12, 2003)

This all makes me wonder in which other areas of farming practices we differ...It is very interesting. Is there an international farm conference?


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

That's fine Shazza, we are working with different methods to achieve common goals. With this thread, I can understand why some people on this forum say there is a smell while others say there isn't. As for my pigs, well they apprear to be on hormone overdrive early. We butchered the first in tact boar at about 50 -60 pounds and the smell was overwhelming; we gave that pork to the dogs- from then one we started to butcher the males before they reached 30 pounds. Once I read a story on the rabbit forum about a breeder selling to an African man. The customer only wanted the larger, older rabbits whose meat would obviously be tougher. The breeder kept trying to convince the man to try the tender meat of the market fryers. The customer kept refusing so the breeder gave him a dressed young fryer to try. When he came back the breeder asked if he was going to buy fryers from then on and the customer said he hadn't liked it- it was too soft  live and learn.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

Yep, and if I lived down the road by the time we were on the second cuppa we'd have it nutted out...


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Just a comment here; 
I grew up where it was customary to cut piglets not kept for breeding. The price of an intact boar on the market was next to nothing, and still is here today. 

However;
A neighbor grew up here and with his father raised many market hogs. Once on a field trip a visiting swine expert from our state U. told him "Mr. G; there is not a lot I can tell you about improving pig production"--the old man knew his stuff. 

He liked mountain oysters; he often let his pigs get up to 60 or 70 pounds before he castrated. When he did, he made one slit in the bottom of the scrotum, pulled out that testicle and removed it. He then made a slit in the membrane between the two testicles and pulled the second out thru the one hole in the scrotum. 

That I have never seen done, have you?

Second question; I have eaten mountain oysters from beef and lamb, but never pork. Have you?


Ox


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## VApigLover (Oct 6, 2004)

On my larger boar hog we slaughtered once, on a dare I fried up some of those big ole puppies.... Found them quite bland actually, do not recommend unless you like soft, pliable, gooshy, spongy meat looking substance. At that point I may have had enough libations that I could not smell an odor, but I do remember enough to not have the desire to do that again! Anyone have a good recipe? Maybe I did not cook them correctly. 

Otherwise I cooked the boar hog for a group party (Boar hog roast). They ate it till it was gone. My mother-in-law would not eat it (she knew it was a boar hog), but everyone else did not know and they seemed to love it. I don't recall if I could smell anything on this one, for the same reason as above. Generally after cooking a pig twentfive or so hours my sense of smell is destroyed by the smoke (and libations).


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## milkstoolcowboy (Sep 13, 2003)

Ox, I've cut some big ones. One time I cut some 300+ lb boars for a neighbor, he told me he was too embarrassed to tell anyone he hadn't cut them yet. They are much easier to cut at about 15-20 lbs.

I've seen guys make one cut horizontal across the sack on very young pigs, but I've always made two cuts, one for each nut. 

I've had the pig oysters, in my mind you're not missing much. The beef oysters are better.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

There were some very interesting studies done in Brazil on this topic. The conclusion was they didn't need to castrate if the boars did not become sexually active.

I have eaten young boar (e.g., uncastrated, 3 month old) which was very tasty. All of our guests loved it. There was no boar taint.

Studies say that boars grow 10% faster than barrows (castrated males) and 20% faster than gilts (unfarrowed females). I have observed this to be approximately correct. The boars are also leaner and the gilts are the fattiest with the barrows falling about midway between. Feed conversion is supposed to be better in the barrows than gilts.

Some of my customers want to buy barrow piglets because they want the faster growth. Others want the gilts because they don't want to deal with the idea of the castration (which we do for them). A few want boars for breeding. I've never had anyone ask for a boar for eating.

Archie, who is a farmer near us and lends us his boars, has been raising pigs for 30 years. He says that the meat will only smell if the boar is around sows or gilts. Archie says to keep the boar separate from them for a month and then the meat is fine. This Fall Archie did a boar we'd borrowed from him and he said it topped out at 1,062 lbs before it got too large to breed. Last time I saw the boar it had testicles the size of basketballs, maybe bigger. Archie said the meat was fine.

I have castrated them at 3 days, 3 months and 4 months of age. It has made no noticeable change in their rate of gain. I've read that it should put them off feed. Perhaps my sample set was too small (26) and if I studied a large enough group I would see a small difference.

I learned to castrate from Archie. One person holds the hind legs folded toward the chest with the pig on it's back on their lap. The other person uses two fingers to pull the testicles forward, or nuts as Archie says, and then using a razor blade nicks the distended scrotum. The testicle pops out and is gently but firmly pulled outward. The cords snap off. If necessary he makes several small nicks when castrating a larger pig to induce clotting. There is very little bleeding. Iodized salt is then poured on the wound (ouch!) and the piglet put down. It goes back to eating and we do the next one. He says to only do it on a sunny day, never an over cast day or you'll get infection.

Final though, we all might want to be mentioning what breeds we're dealing with as that may have an influence as well as how they were kept and raised. Archie and I both have large white / Yorkshire pigs. I raise ours on pasture. He raises his in pens. Mine eat a lot of hay, milk, some bread and a little pig feed. His eat pig feed. He keeps his separate from the sows and gilts. Ours are right near by separated by woven wire and electric. More data to digest.

There is some theory, some studies and some experience with boar meat on both ends of the spectrum. You mileage may vary and your tastes probably will too...  Chew it over and see how it tastes.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mtn Farm


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## Boleyz (Sep 7, 2004)

Hi Guys! 
Interesting discussion. I've raised hogs commercially and I know that market hogs MUST be barrows (castrated males) and gilts. Castration is not an option for a commercial operator if he wants to get top $$. Boar hogs bring the lowest price of any hog. There's a reason...they're considered by meat packers (IBP, Oscar Meyer, Seabord farms...etc) to be unfit for human consumption. Their meat is used mostly for pet foods (ever wonder what the meat by-products are in Alpo?) When I last sold an old breeding boar which had gotten too large to use, he brought only 5 cents/pound. His asexual barrow male offspring was bringing over 50 cents/pound.

The point is guys, that the market ALWAYS reveals the fact about anything it deals in. The fact is that the highest quality pork comes from Barrows and Gilts. If it were true that there was essentially no difference in taste/quality between barrows and boars, then the market would not reflect such a distinction and the demand/price for barrows and boars would be the same. All you boar-eaters are welcome to indulge in your preferences, but it's ridiculous to insist that castration has no benefits. The market proves that it does.


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