# How can one person castrate a pig?



## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

I have about 20 piglets to cut but lack help. Has anyone come up with
a one person castrating procedure?
In the past a hired hand has helped but he up and quit two weeks ago.


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## Siryet (Jun 29, 2002)

Here is the answer:

poke here


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

There are plans for a simple castrating cradle on one of the university sites. I think you could google "pig castrating cradle" & find them.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

http://www.countryhorizons.net/hog_supplies.shtml
Item #HC0109 about half way down the page
This simple holder works OK
Farther down the page is 
#HC0112a which is the ideal means of holding but the price of the product is too expensive.
Remember, you can do more harm holding the pig than you can by castrating him. Make the incisions low so that when the pig is standing the cut can drain using gravity.


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## robin f (Nov 26, 2007)

ok if they are 3 weeks, its easy,
the pig has to be back up, tummy down, between your legs, back legs to your front, clamp the pig with your thighs, if your right handed, put the knife in your right hand, run your left hand under his belly, bring up one testicle until its tight to the skin, cut the skin and the testicle, pull the testicle out with left fingers and cut testicle off the cords, repeat for the other one
if they are 3 or 4 days old, hold them upside down head under your left arm and with your left hand push the testicles till the skin is tight and cut skin and testicle and cut cords.

i found its best to do, teeth, tails, and testicles at one day old, useing side cutters for the teeth, they are so easy to handle at that young of an age, and it dont seem to bother them at all, they go rigth to nurseing as soon as they are put down

if you get a male that has a rupture, (one testicle looks a lot bigger than the other) this can be casterated by the same way of holding, but you have to be VERY careful when cutting JUST the skin, you then pop the testicle out (but NOT cut) i take that fine white cord/ string that is used to fasten feed bags with, and tie it around between the testicle and the body, tie it REAL tight, cut off the extra string, then you can cut the testicle off and the cord / string will pervent the guts from coming out 

pig ........ cord/string ......... cut this side of string.

i hope this helps
peace my friend


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

... or you can do what I do - nothing! No castrating, no tail clipping, no teeth clipping. And if your going to do any of these procedures, it is adviseable to do them within three days of birth. Easier to handle and much less stressful on the piglet.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## robin f (Nov 26, 2007)

casterateing. if you ship hogs here in canada that are not casterated, they will be down graded in price to boars, not worth feeding at the price you get from the packers,

teeth clipping. i have seen little pigs with thier faces all scared up from fighting to get to the nipple, mainly because they have been biting the sow and the sow is not happy with them and not letting her milk down which causes more fighting more biting, much safer to clip teeth, 

tail clipping, well i guess that is only revelent if you have had a problem with hogs nibbleing at others tails, but once you do, its too late to stop it apart from taking out the offenders, and not everyone has room for this, so i tail clip, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, to me

peace my friends :1pig:


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

Here's the simple cradle I mentioned earlier:



http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/6289.pdf


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

Ronney said:


> ... or you can do what I do - nothing! No castrating, no tail clipping, no teeth clipping. And if your going to do any of these procedures, it is adviseable to do them within three days of birth. Easier to handle and much less stressful on the piglet.
> 
> Cheers,
> Ronnie


Ronnie, 
What weight do you process them @ and do you separate them from
the gilts? We raise them to 350 lb for process into individual cuts for
retail. 
The age and size will cause problems with the girls


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

agmantoo said:


> http://www.countryhorizons.net/hog_supplies.shtml
> Item #HC0109 about half way down the page
> This simple holder works OK
> Farther down the page is
> ...



Hi Larry,
This design can easily be applied to my needs with two rods
holding the little fella down. In my situation a one man operation is the
only way with help being so unstable especially when the piglet is in
the 20 - 30 lb area.

javascriptpenAnyWindow('images/HC0112.jpg',%20'remote',%20320,%20311,%20'none');


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## PlowGirl (Nov 16, 2005)

You can easily make one of those castration cradles by taking a sheet of expanded metal and then heating and bending it to form a vee shape. Weld or bolt brackets to hook over a fence to make it hands free. Two rods (small diameter rebar works well) are used to hold the piglet on his back in the vee trough and confine his legs. Total cost is less than $20. I made one of these myself before I quit castrating my boars.


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

PlowGirl said:


> You can easily make one of those castration cradles by taking a sheet of expanded metal and then heating and bending it to form a vee shape. Weld or bolt brackets to hook over a fence to make it hands free. Two rods (small diameter rebar works well) are used to hold the piglet on his back in the vee trough and confine his legs. Total cost is less than $20. I made one of these myself before I quit castrating my boars.




Plowgirl,
Why did you stop castrating your boars and how do you manage
your herd? Do you keep them on open pasture & woods or pen them?


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## dogo (Dec 3, 2005)

You can use a PVC pipe get one that is just big enough to put the pig head first in pipe Leaveing both his hams out at the edge. which you can secure the pipe at an angle of I would think 45%. You just have to play with it till you get the right angle you are comfortable with. Use bungee straps or some type of velcro to secure pipe and or legs while you surgical remove his privates. I use lard bacon grease and turpentine or I have use kerosene in hot weather. But for sure they have got to be low enough for drainage.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Sorry Faith Farm, I missed your post - and it's also interesting to note that Plowgirl has stopped castrating her boars.

Now, I've got to stop and think about the weight conversion here but I think we kill ours a little lighter on weight than you do yours. We don't have the facilities to weigh our pigs live so they are carcas weighed - head off, feet off, gut out - and they are between 65-70kg which is about 145-155lbs so I'm thinking live weight would be around the 200-250lb mark. This is what we (NZ'ers) call porker weight. For a baconer we take them through to about the 350lb mark. 

No, I don't separate gilts from boars. We kill out at between 5 and 7 months and have yet to have that horrible experience of finding a gilt in pig. If taking them through to baconers, yes they are separated to avoid any accidents.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## PlowGirl (Nov 16, 2005)

Faith Farm said:


> Plowgirl,
> Why did you stop castrating your boars and how do you manage
> your herd? Do you keep them on open pasture & woods or pen them?


So sorry not to have replied sooner. I quit castrating because I thought it was unreasonably cruel to do without an anesthetic, and completely unnecessary in the long run. I DON'T process my boars at an early age. They're generally around 325 and up before I like to have them done. They make much faster gains than gilts and barrows, on less feed/forage. I raise Tamworths and have not had a single "tainted" hog yet. The last ones that were processed out were around 2years and had bred gilts/sows. 

The pigs are kept in wooded paddocks. They're on feed and also get to do some foraging and normal pig activity. I do have to confine the weanlings until they're heavy enough for the the electric fence to shock them well. I try to keep the same sized boars together, or at least keep their herdmates consistent. It cuts down on the infighting. I have several paddocks that I stock concurrently, so that each breeding quality boar is in with several gilts and sows. The non breeders/culls house together. Though I have several junior boars, they are all destined for the packing house once I determine that they are finished to my liking. 

One really neat thing I've noticed is that the boars are easily the best tempered, most social, and friendliest of all the pigs.


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

Thanks for the tips folks, I think the twenty or so little guys will stay
intact. We will set up a few paddocks for the boys to stay together
until process weight of 350# or so. I'm always up to try something new
if it works for me. The little guys thank you all.


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## mplatt4 (Mar 24, 2007)

you know if you leave them intact and plan to sell them they will bring alot less I am sure you can find someone close to do them all for a piglet or the mountain oysters or just to be nice and help out


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

I've always sold my sows and boars that are porker weight on a per kg. (or lb) basis and I get exactly the same for both.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

This is not New Zealand and you are not located in an area where there will be a market for the intact animals. You are IMO putting too much at risk! Rethink your position if you value my opinion. If you do not want to do the castrating sell the male pigs to individuals as feeder pigs and do not feed them out. How far exactly is it from your place to mine? Possibly I could drive to your place and do the task. Regards.


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## RedHogs (Jul 7, 2006)

In my area boars are not bringing the cost of diesel to take them to the buyer.....KEEP in mind in NZ _Improvac_ is legal....*here in the states it is not*. Although we can get it from Mexico....and it is a wonderdrug!!!!!


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

Thanks for the advice and offers of help. This is an unpleasant business but 
a necessary one. I will reconsider my plan not to cut my boars, so I will
experiment with a few which will be kept with my breeder boar hogs on
another farm I rent. The responses I am receiving has persuaded me to 
reconsider and just experiment with a small number.
Tomorrow I will build a castration table that one person can work on, then
commence cutting the smaller ones and leave the larger 3 or 4 intact.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Agmantoo, I'm not the only person on this site who doesn't castrate boars, I just happen to be the only one who lives in NZ so where I live is immaterial as I have to presume that all those who don't castrate boars have a market for them. When I sell a porker, that is exactly what I'm selling. I'm not selling a boar or a gilt, I'm selling a pig of porker weight at x amount per kg. In 30 years I've had no come-backs and that includes a woman who told me not to give her a boar because she could tell the difference. She got a boar because I had no gilts but I didn't tell her that. She rang back and asked if she could order another three! So much for being able to tell the difference between a boar and a gilt.

This becomes even more humorous (to me) in light of Red Hogs post. I knew so much about _Improvac_ that I had to go and do a quick search to find out what the hell it was. So no, I don't use it.

Faith Farm, experimenting is possibly the way to go because it really is the best way to find out what works best for you and your clients. 

In the meantime, all of you have a Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Ronnie, I did not intend my response to be directed directly to you and I regret that you thought it was. I was simply stating that different areas have different expectations and perceptions. The area where Faith Farm resides is no different than where I also live. Simply stated, there is no market for intact male hogs. If I were to sell a hog to someone and told them the hog was a boar they would refuse it. If I did not tell them it was a boar and they found out they would spread the word that I was unscrupulous. Most people living here state they do not like to eat venison even though they have never even tasted it. My neighbor (with 6 children) even refused to accept a quarter from a baby beef stating they did not eat such meat. I asked him what they ate and he responded "the type of meat you get at the supermarket".
Faith Farm is selling into a fickle market. Possibly she could pre-sell to some client that is more open minded and eventually develop a market for intact hogs. However, if the client was not satisfied she would be expected to reimburse the client and that could be a substantial risk for no additional reward. My response was to caution Faith Farm and to help her if needed.


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## robin f (Nov 26, 2007)

Ronney, here in canada, if you have a boar, the packers give you next to nothing for them, to be honest it hardly pays the shipping cost, i'm not talking a full grown worked boar, i'm talking a boar that would be between 230 and 250 lbs, live, even if the boar was ruptured i have to either (1) casterate it, (2) try to find a buyer who would even look at a boar for meat, i do know one person who will take one, but at a discounted price, apart from me ( 3 ) knock it on the head at birth.
last year we had one that the testicles were not evident, they were up in the body cavity, at the plant, it was marked down as a boar, we got $17.38c for a pig weighing over 230lbs live, it cost $12.00 to ship it, wow a whole $5.38 for 5/6 months of feeding and work, thats the way to get rich, lol

Faith, you raise your hogs to 350 lbs, i hope you get a big price for them, we found after 240 /250, the feed to meat ratio goes down steeply, thats why "baconers" are not so popular here in canada. and a two year old hog is way past its prime, do you honestly make any money at this, i know if you are running them outside you dont have the expence of buildings, but keeping a hog more than twice as long as it should be kept, ( to reach this weight) to me does not make financial sence


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

Robin, I have about $350 into the hog @ 350 - 400# wt which includes feed
processing and transport. I usually bring a few cows and 4 hogs to process
so my transport cost is less per animal. The retail dollar is about $700 - 800
pending on cuts per hog. The 350 lb. hog provides almost 40# of additional
meat via sausage, larger chops or a larger rib @ $5.50 - 7.00 a lb. We take
them about 11- 13 months of roaming the woods, hay supplement in winter
and a local mix hog feed. I have used a 1 ton feeder for 30 hogs of various
sizes 60# - 350# refilled every 12 - 14 days. I'm down to 15 growers of 250
- 350#, 4 @ 150# 24 piglets, 2 pregnant sows, two open sows and 2 boars.
I'v been feeding the growers 100# a day and piglets 50# a day lately and 
just maintaining the boars and a sow. 9 of the piglets are still on mom but
roam the yard eating grass, rose bush, whatever is left @ our chicken 
processing shed and have about 25 acres to scavenge.
The tainted meat from a boar can be a problem but if they are kept
at a separate location with all males, the taint should not be there. I will
experiment with a few to see if it works. By next fall I plan to have a Duroc
and a Tamworth boar to replace the current boars and if the market 
permits, sell a breeder. I believe there are several options available for 
heavy boars and if the meat is tainted the loss will be limited. Pet food is
a growing market with us. Folks are buying most of our wasted meats
for their pets and saving us from loss. ( Pork liver, back bones, tongue,
broken packages, old stuff or what ever doesn't move).
So much fun!!!


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