Heritage Hog Breeds

[Bigshooter]

I have a few questions that I hope someone on here can answer for me.  I have only ever raised standard market breeds for butcher.  I have been doing some research on heritage breeds and everyone says that the heritage breeds are better eating.  So here come my questions.

1.  Has anyone ever raised and ate a heritage breed hog?  Do you think it taste better than other hogs you have raised?

2.  What would be a good heritage breed to buy and raise for butcher?  I want a larger breed, I want it to be able to grow large enough to hang at 200lbs.

3.  How slow growing are heritage breeds?

4.  I am leaning toward berkshire, should I look at something else?

Thanks,

[Whitpirate]

I had good luck with Berkshire gains and raised a pair of Hereford hogs three years ago.  Currently looking at some large black stock.  Gains are slower and fat content much different from standard commercial breeds but it you utilize the whole hog and not just the big money cuts it makes for a pretty good experience.  That said I've got 4 Yorkshire/Landraise hogs going now finishing in first week of March.  I want a 220-250 pig if I can get then.

[Bigshooter]

Do you think the berkshire taste better?  I have some hamp/york cross that are going to be ready come February.  What is the difference in taste, muscle, and fat between what I have and the berkshire?  Why do you want to try the large black breed? 

Thanks,

[Whitpirate]

Berks have more intramuscular fat and are a darker color.  Looking at large blacks for a ham experiment I want to do.  The pigs you got are going to be great but more white meat than dark if you look at it like poultry.  I do a feeding program and not a breeding one so I raise what peaks my interest.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Hmmm bacon talk. 

[nwwanderer]

Lots of individual variation, more than from breed to breed.  Berks are pretty main stream now, a little slower to start but finish will.  Crosses of any background, max three breeds, will thrive better than pure bred.  Breed a York/landrace sow to a berk and get a good chance at great growth, 5 months to 300# is possible, outstanding carcass, not so much fat you need three deer to use it up and a feed bill that is manageable.  Recently saw a large black cross with 4.5 inches of backfat, a three square inch loin eye and a $250 feed bill, yikes!

[Boss .300 winmag]

I bet that made some good cracklins! 

[KFhunter]

I'm crossing a registered/purebred large black hog sow with a purebred tamworth boar


I haven't butchered any yet, but I've got high expectations.  The person I bought the sow from kept back some gilts from her and the boar she was using got injured, so I got a young proven breeding sow with 2 big litters on the ground and zero losses if the person was honest with me.

I'm thinking about keeping the LBH/Tamworth cross gilts and breeding to a berk boar. 


I'm going to be eating *A LOT* of pork until I get this down juuuuust right  hahah

[Whitpirate]

What's the weight on your boar (estimated)?  One of the reasons I have avoided breeding programs currently is the maintenance cost on feeding boars and lactating sows. 

Also playing with a fodder growing system this spring and sprouting barley and oats.

[jasnt]

Some of our best hogs came for berk/york or hamp /berk mothers and duroc boar. The berk/york mothers are great milk producers and often have more teats as well. The duroc are my fav for eating. The 3way cross gets them growing fast and seem more hardy. For our butcher hogs we feed ground barley and a protein /mineral supplement. Best meat we've ever grown!!

[jasnt]

Some of our best hogs came for berk/york or hamp /berk mothers and duroc boar. The berk/york mothers are great milk producers and often have more teats as well. The duroc are my fav for eating. The 3way cross gets them growing fast and seem more hardy. For our butcher hogs we feed ground barley and a protein /mineral supplement. Best meat we've ever grown!

  the hamp /berk mothers always seemed to have the largest litters. 21 being the biggest I remember with 19 weaning.

corrected breed names above. I always forget the name duroc  

[KFhunter]

What's the weight on your boar (estimated)?  One of the reasons I have avoided breeding programs currently is the maintenance cost on feeding boars and lactating sows. 

Also playing with a fodder growing system this spring and sprouting barley and oats.

I figure he's 400+ but he's growing now that I have him, I can't starve a boar like other hog farmers do I guess. 

He's getting one coffee can per day of feed and all the oat hay he wants.   I'll use him one more time in April then he's gone, I'll either sell him or sausage him.


I've asked my bro's when they come visit if they'll help neuter him to prevent boar taint...they shake their heads and say I'm crazy wanting to tackle that boys' boy's.

[Birdguy]

If he is at all friendly it can be done pretty easy. We did several up to 800#s growing up. Dad had a piece of 3/8" cable that had loops in each end. He ran one end through the other and put it in the boars mouth behind his tusks on his top jaw while he was eating. He then took the other loop and ran a chain through it that was already hooked to a tire (no wheel) that was chained to a tree. When the boar backed up and realized he was caught he just pulled straight back on the chain. The tire provided a litte buffer for them but they stood pulling as we cut them and threw a few stitches in for good measure. It took several people to move the board forward far enough to unhook the chain. We left the cable in his mouth and it fell out after a few minutes of him walking around with no pressure on it. Primative but effective.

   I later had a friend that was a vet tech that came over and gave the last board a shot to slow him down and we used the cable in the mouth just tied to a tree as we were in the field for that one.

I bet if Dad were still here he would drive all the way over to give you directions.......another thing about the guy I miss everyday.

[KFhunter]

I've been thinking on it and it needs to be a one man operation,  so I'm going to hook the cable to the tractor bucket and lift - cut - then drop and roll the bucket forward so the cable falls off the bucket with a little U latch I have.

I'll have a pair of ear muffs on and use a havalon 


They also use this method to saw the tusks off, he's cutting my sow a little on the rumps when he's wanting to mount.

[jasnt]

I've been thinking on it and it needs to be a one man operation,  so I'm going to hook the cable to the tractor bucket and lift - cut - then drop and roll the bucket forward so the cable falls off the bucket with a little U latch I have.

I'll have a pair of ear muffs on and use a havalon 


They also use this method to saw the tusks off, he's cutting my sow a little on the rumps when he's wanting to mount.

we've been thinking about a building a squeeze shoot for hogs for just this reason.  Those tusk's can get pretty sharp.