New to hog buying

[OpenSights]

Hello all,

As stated, I have never done this before. Live near red deer and I'm looking for a farmer who would sell me a hog that i could deal with on my own.

Ideally they would let me kill and gut it on their property since I live in town and people frown on that in back alleys around where I live.....

I don't know if this is the right time of year for doing this.

I want the meat for BBQ season and the trim for sausage making.

Any help to push me in the right direction would be appreciated.

[buckbrush]

I'm thinking your best bet would probably be to order a pig from a farmer that sells cut and wrapped pigs. See if they would be able to sell you a whole pig slaughtered and cut into quarters. Its not hard to do yourself but a farmer can't legally sell to you and let you butcher it there. Lots of people will try and skirt around this but the rules are pretty straight forward.

I would look for a Berkshire or Berkshire mix for best meat quality. Its a little more expensive and has more fat but the meat is amazing.

Also ask about the diet. You can ruin a Berkshire feeding commercial feed and taking a commercial hog and feeding it the right grains with grass will make good tasting meat with nice color.

When I'm looking at pork for quality I like to see a hard, white fat. I also like the marbling that the Berkshire's have. A pastured pig will have dark colored meat, I'v has chops before that alomost looked the color of beef.

I prefer my hogs on the heavy side. I like to butcher just past 300lbs. Some growers don't grow that long because feed efficiency dropps lots after 200 lbs. This will give the meat a better flavor but might but you have to trim more fat off.

If majority of your meat is being made into sausage you might want to just concider a commercial hog if you can buy one whole from a butcher. It would be a cost savings and you probably wouldn't notice a difference in the sausage anyhow.

All of this is just my opinion, Let me know if you need to know anything else.
I'm a pretty big fan of pork.

[xxclaro]

Buckbrush, do you know anyone who sells Berkshire weaners?

[buckbrush]

xxclaro- I do but I don't have any weaners available at the moment, sorry.

[xxclaro]

Ok thanks. Any idea when you might have more, or know someone who might? I have a guy to call who sells weaners but no idea what breed they are,or if they are just a mix.

[buckbrush]

Pm sent xxclaro.

[MOUNTAIN MICKEY]

The Real Canadian Wholesale Club sells pigs goats etc. frozen if you cant find a live one.

[PartTimeHunter]

Originally Posted by OpenSights

Hello all,

As stated, I have never done this before. Live near red deer and I'm looking for a farmer who would sell me a hog that i could deal with on my own.

Ideally they would let me kill and gut it on their property since I live in town and people frown on that in back alleys around where I live.....

I don't know if this is the right time of year for doing this.

I want the meat for BBQ season and the trim for sausage making.

Any help to push me in the right direction would be appreciated.

Like buckbrush said - a farmer can not sell an animal to you and allow it to be slaughtered on the farm. It is illegal to sell uninspected meat and that is the way that particular scenario is viewed by those that write up the charges. The next best thing would be to purchase a hog, take it to the slaughter house for inspection and killing then take the carcass to cut up your self. Check with the closest Hutterite Colony for a hog. Some are licenced to slaughter (I think Warburg is)

[NCC]

If you're going to buy a hog from the hoots you may as well buy pork from the store. I would check on Kijiji and if you can't find any send me a pm and I can check around for you. I know two guys around Leslieville and one at Valleyview raising free range hogs.

[fatboyz]

Give Rocky meats a shout in Rocky Mountain house. They kill hogs every Tuesday and they're inspected. You just ask for a whole hog. It will be split into two sides. I do this about twice a year and cut it at home. My next one I'm going to try home smoked bacon.

[Xbolt7mm]

This is kind of off in a bit of a different direction but Earl at Hog Wild I'm sure will just sell you a pig and his prices are very close to market price for domestic stock, maybe he would sell you a weaner good, good meat, just a suggestion

[lund17]

I know the Viking Hutterite Colony sells pigs to the public. They will process it how ever you want. A co-worker got a hog that was killed, cleaned, hung and 2 days of chilling, picked it up. He than did his own processing. I think he paid $2/lb. on the rail.