# Butchering a sow



## Trisha-MN (May 10, 2002)

I thought I'd read here different comments on butchering pigs such as not to butcher boars or boars over a certain age, butchering gilts or sows or sows so long after farrowing etc. Would someone mind giving me a generalized run-down of when to butcher what? I guess I'm specifically asking about when or if we can butcher a female after she has farrowed. How long to wait and/or is the meat any good? But I know having the info on males will be a good reference too.

Thanks so much!


----------



## RedHogs (Jul 7, 2006)

30 days of all she can eat *wheat*....The best pork you can get. The sows need sow time to rebuild body condition after they nurse for a month, but then they are good to go.


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

After weaning bring the sow up to condition and she should make fine eating. For older pigs I would suggest hanging them, just like with beef, to tenderize them. See this post:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/08/hanging-around.html

Like RedHogs, I find that three weeks to a month after weaning is good depending on her condition at weaning. We feed whey and cheese trim in addition to the pasture which produces most excellent meat with a delicious, sweet flavor to the fat.

Some boars have what is referred to as 'boar taint'. RedHogs has talked about his boars having this problem. I believe he has Durocs or Duroc crosses - he can tell you more on that. Our boars have not shown that at all. we've tested up to 22 months now. Our pigs are a mix of Yorkshire, Berkshire, Tamworth, Glouster Old Spot, Hampshire and maybe even a little Duroc. How you raise the animals may also have a large impact on the chance of getting boar taint. Research shows that penned boars, and even sows, are much more likely to get boar taint than those raised on pasture. I suspect that the fresh air, lack of eating & breathing their own feces filled dust and the carbon in their diet help. See [ame=http://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Asugarmtnfarm.com+boar+taint]these posts[/ame] for more on this topic.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org


----------



## Trisha-MN (May 10, 2002)

Thank you. I think we're going to have some late piglets due yet this fall here in Northern MN and won't be keeping all our sows through the winter this year.

Boar taint - I know it's a touchy subject. I hope I can ask a few questions about it though? Is it just in the meat? Is butchering and cooking the only way to find out if our lines have it? Do boars smell like say, buck goats smell? We butcher and eat meat from our intact Angus bulls up to 2 year of age and I know some people won't eat, well bull, only steers  and I know that our goat wethers are better for meat than bucks but we're new to pigs so still learning.

Thanks much!

Trisha


----------



## tnokie (Jan 30, 2007)

At the local livestock sale today a grown boar(402 pounds!) who looked in prime health sold for only .06 a pound! Is there not some way to feed the boar up or have a vet csatrate him so that he would be edible? It sure seemed cheap for 400 lbs of prime meat on the hoof.


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Trisha-MN said:


> Is it just in the meat?


It is primarily in the fat, not the lean. Boar taint is produced by a minority of pigs via two chemicals, one from the intestines and the other from the testes.

On a related interesting note, sows sometimes have 'boar taint' too in some breeds of pigs.

Fortunately, most pigs do not have boar taint and those that do have it don't normally have it show up until past market age (6 months).

If you don't want to castrate (I prefer not) and do want to eat boars then I would suggest using pigs from a line that doesn't show the boar taint. It can be bred out.

Feed also makes a big difference. I just rain across this reference:

http://www.kt.iger.bbsrc.ac.uk/FACT sheet PDF files/kt64.pdf

which fits other things I've read and our experience. I suspect that it is the fiber in the beet pulp that is making the difference and reduction in skatole levels.



Trisha-MN said:


> Is butchering and cooking the only way to find out if our lines have it?


They often test with a soldering iron applied to the fat of the hanging meat. This way the meat gets tested prior to processing. During my testing I simply slice off a small piece after slaughter and then fry it up. There is the issue that some people can not smell it as well as other people - most people can smell the taint if it is there.



Trisha-MN said:


> Do boars smell like say, buck goats smell?


I've never smelled buck goats so I don't know. I would guess that boars that do have the taint have a worse body odor. They exhale pheromones around sows in heat as well as when meeting a new boar and that is probably filled with the scent.



Trisha-MN said:


> We butcher and eat meat from our intact Angus bulls up to 2 year of age and I know some people won't eat, well bull, only steers  and I know that our goat wethers are better for meat than bucks but we're new to pigs so still learning.


A lot of the boar taint issue is mythology. Some pigs had it. The idea got generalized to all boars because people didn't want to take the risk of raising up a boar only to discover that it had the taint after they had slaughtered it.'Farming' went through an industrialization period. Pigs raised in confinement operations are more likely to have it. The result was they began castrating all male piglets.

We now have better ways to handle these issues such as selective breeding, better feeding, etc. Fortunately it's still a free country so you can pick whether you want to cut or not.


----------



## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

I normally put sows in sausage. 

I had one recently that I butchered and kept the pork chops and bacon, and put everything else in sausage. That was a mistake. The chops and bacon are very tough. The chops aren't a real problem because we always slow cook them, but the bacon is best for seasoning.

She was a couple of months past weaning, and I had fed very well. She was in excellent condition.


----------

