Boar Taint - it's a thing!

A friend of mine sent me this! (she lives in a different province so can’t buy our pork)

YES, this is what we call Boar Taint (Boars are in uncastrated males)

It absolutely is a thing but not everyone can smell it. Women are more likely to smell it than men.

What is boar Taint

It is an unpleasant odour and taste found in meat from some (not all) entire male pigs.

Male pigs produce andosterone, a male sex hormone, and skatole, a digestive by-product formed in the intestines.

The production of andosterone and skatole is responsible for boar taint,

Once you have experienced boar taint you likely won't eat pork for a long time.

Carl and I used to work in a processing plant and we occasionally got boars in. I don't know if the rules are the same but at that time any boar or ridgeling (a male with 1 undescended testicle) over 90kg (198lb) had to go for processing into pepperoni. (This doesn’t mean all pepperoni is boar meat)

The spices used apparently mask the smell but I swear I can detect it in some brands. 

The meat inspectors in the plant we worked in used to heat up a small piece of fat from any boars that came in - if it had boar taint it went with the 90kg boars.

Size is irrelevant! We once had an 80lb boar with taint - which we fed to the dogs.

We castrate all our meat pigs BUT not all farmers do - because some don't think boar taint is a thing!

Did you know that some gilts can also have taint? It's a very small percentage but it can happen.

What can you do if you get that taint?

Though you are not supposed to be able to taste it once you have that smell in your nose it is hard to stomach the thought of eating the meat. 

The only advice I could give my friend was to get her husband to cook it outside on the bbq it or smoke it - he is lucky and can't smell it.

 

Let me know if you experienced boar taint and what did you do?

The pros and cons of Breeding pigs, is it right for you?

Why do you want to breed your own pigs?

Saskatchewan winters are long and we always welcome the end of it, especially with thew birth of spring piglets!

We love having piglets around but breeding and farrowing pigs isn’t right for everyone.

If you want to breed pigs - you have to overwinter them.

This is a PRO & CON

If you want the easy way out and don’t want winter work then breeding pigs is not for you.

In colder climates like Saskatchewan, most people don’t want to keep animals over winter. It’s a lot of work and it’s extremely cold here.

Going out every day in ridiculous temperatures, dealing with frozen water troughs, hauling water and figuring out how to keep pigs warm can get old really fast!

That said for me it’s a pro! Otherwise, I would stay inside all winter and become a couch potato!

Are you fed up with trying to find piglets every year?

It can be very hard to find pig breeders who are in it for the long haul. People get in and out of pigs all the time and some years piglets can be hard to find.

When grain prices rise many people will quickly sell all their pigs and then start up again as grain prices fall.

On a year when the grain prices are high in fall you may struggle to find piglets in spring the following year.

Many start with pigs thinking they will be a good source of income and they have lots of family and friends to sell to BUT when you have a breeding pair of pigs you can soon end up with more pigs than family and friends.

The pigs will eat you out of house and home if you don’t have somewhere to sell them.

When good genetics and the traits of a certain breed are important to you, finding a registered knowledgable breeder close to you may not be easy.

In this case breeding your own is a good option.

A list of registered breeders can be found on CLRC.

Do you think it will be cheaper to raise your own?

When you calculate your weanling cost and the fuel and time to pick them up does it seem like you could raise your own cheaper? A weanling you only have to keep for a few months.

Breeding pigs means keeping them year-round. The costs also start to add up. You have the initial cost of breeding stock, fuel, bedding, labor and feed - plus maintenance and repair costs that larger pigs will inevitably cause to your infrastructure.

Pigs are herd animals so you will need at least 2. Either 2 females, if you plan to A.I or breeding pair, a sow and a boar.

You will need separate accommodation for the bred sow once she gets close to farrowing - I know I will get people saying “We never have any trouble with ours being in the same pen”

Yes, you can definitely take this risk. If you have a lot of room and the sow can take herself off to a quiet area then you likely won’t have problems.

I have had sows farrow in the same pen as the boar with no problems BUT I have had a boar that started a fight with a new mother and I lost all but 3 of the litter. I have also had a sow sneak up on another farrowing sow and steal the piglets - by which I mean eat them!

Farrowing disasters can happen

• Sows can lay on all their piglets,

• They can farrow anywhere if they are outside, meaning you will have to be vigilant and keep an eye on them, or provide a good, safe place for them to farrow.

• Other pigs may or may not bother piglets, yes if you have your bred sow with other pigs, they may eat the piglets.

• Sows can savage their own piglets

• If they farrow in extreme conditions, piglet survival is rare if you aren’t around to take care of them.

• If you have to help piglets by putting them on the teat, they will likely squeal, which upsets the sow and can be dangerous for you and the rest of the piglets, who will likely get stood on when she jumps up to see what you are doing.

  Do you want to be as self-sufficient as possible?

• Having your own breeding stock certainly lets you have more control over your food. You can breed your pigs year-round to fit in with your schedule.

• Having a breeding pair is a great idea for homesteaders with young families wanting to teach the kids about self-sufficiency and the responsibility of raising livestock. Especially if you choose the Berkshire breed, they are great to be around and they become part of the family.

• You don’t have to worry about finding piglets every year and a good breeding pair of pigs can last you for years. We have had Berkshire sows that produced well until they were over 10 years old.

• If you want to keep young females back then you will likely want to switch your boar out every few years, but for a small self-sufficient operation focused on meat production, this isn’t necessary.

  Finding Breeding Stock

Don’t leave it until the last minute - Gestation of a sow is 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days, so when you have decided when you want to farrow you need a boar that much in advance.

How do you find breeding stock?

This depends on what you are looking for. For registered pig breeders in Canada, you can check out the CLRC or you can go on Facebook or Kijiji where you will likely find a huge array of pigs for sale.

BUYER BEWARE - Have you seen bred sows for $250 or boars for $50? Surely that’s too good to pass up?

Ask yourself why are they selling a bred sow for $250 - it hasn’t even covered the feed costs for that pig and she would be worth more than that for meat.

Sometimes you will get lucky but often these good deals are usually too good to be true.

• Some pigs are extremely aggressive,

• Some will be terrible mothers and kill their piglets.

• Or you may have an oddball breeding, like a large pig to a small one. In this case, you could have piglets that take forever to grow.

• You can get bad production, sometimes a gilt will have only a few piglets and we always give them a second chance but some sows can be bad producers - every time!

  Finding a boar - a boar is 50% of what you produce

  You will usually have to buy one - I get asked if we rent boars - No we don’t. It is a health risk to our herd.

• You will need a secure pen for a boar. Any breeding male can be dangerous to be around. We chose the Berkshire breed because they are known for being docile and not aggressive like some breeds. We also know our genetics and the history of our pigs and don’t keep aggressive lines.

• Look for a breeding boar from a reputable breeder, rather than one that is just down the road and cheap, why is it cheap? What is it? Cross-bred boars may not produce good piglets.

• Different breeds of pigs have different growth rates.

• Selecting the right boar/breed for you and your situation is imperative, especially if you want quality meat. Picking up a wild boar kune-kune cross that will produce piglets that take forever to grow is not the best choice.

• Bringing in boars all the time can increase your disease risk. Make sure you have a quarantine area whenever you bring in new stock.

• AI - You can get fresh or frozen semen

• Fresh is easier to deal with than frozen but you need to know your sows cycling dates.

• Frozen is very expensive and harder to deal with, plus you need a Semen tank which needs to be kept charged with liquid nitrogen.

  What do you do with your old boar?

  If you choose to keep a boar sooner or later he will need to be replaced and you can not keep 2 boars together - they fight!

  Boar taint is a thing! Read more about boar taint here
  

  Breed Selection - Different breeds have different qualities.

• Do you want a fast-growing pig - one that you can buy in spring and its butcher weight by fall? This would be something like a Duroc or Yorkshire.

• Do you want a fat/lard pig, the health benefits and flavour that we get from the lard from our free-range Berkshire pigs is why we choose a lard pig breed.

• Do you want a small carcass? this would be something like a kune kune.

Check out the different breeds to see what suits you and your situation.

You need to find a vet

We have a Herd Health and Welfare check every year. In Canada, you need a Vet if you ever need any medications. You can not buy them over the counter they have to be prescribed.

If you want a healthy herd of pigs and ever need any medications you will need a vet.

This sounds easy! Not all vets will work with pasture-raised pigs, so start calling around before you consider breeding pigs! If you have a sick pig your vet will ask you for a pigs temperature when trying to diagnose an illness.

How are you going to take the temperature of a pasture-raised, free-range 600lb sow?

When you start breeding pigs you will need to focus a lot on herd health and feeding quality food for the best reaults.

You also need to bear in mind that pigs require different medications than horses or cows, I often see people on Facebook advising new pig people to use pour on cattle or horse wormer on pigs - Ask your vet what he thinks about this!

Piglets need castrating, otherwise you run the risk of boar taint in the meat. Read more about boar taint here

BUYER BEWARE - If you do come across a good deal and you see a pig advertised as a certain breed - RESEARCH that breed, if it’s a white pig advertised as a Berkshire pig - IT’S NOT A BERK!!

Some of the issues you may get with breeding your own pigs may just be because you don’t know what you have bought and have bad genetics.

This is why we choose registered pigs, we know a lot more about our breeding stock because we have the papers and the history on our pigs.

Happy piggin!

5 things you need to know before buying a side of pork

5 things you should know before buying a side of Pork!

When you want to know how your food is raised it just makes sense to buy direct from a farmer.

Usually this means you have to buy in bulk and have to buy a half an animal.

Dealing with the farmer is usually the easy part.

Dealing with the processor can be intimidating - the terminology is weird and you don’t know what you don’t know!

It is totally different than going to the store and buying a pack of pork chops.

1. What is a side of pork?

2. How is it sold

3. What does hanging weight mean?

4. What is cut and wrap?

5. How much meat is half a pig?

Even with over 25 years of experience farming & working in the meat industry (both here in Canada and back home in the UK) I have seen so many differences between processors and their charges.

Many have additional charges you didn’t know you needed to ask about - I joke with my processor and ask when he will be charging a smiling charge lol - at the moment a smilke is free!

1. What is a side of pork?

This is half a pig. (Not to be confused with side pork which is pork belly). Sometimes it is called a half hog,

2. How is it sold?

This varies from farmer to farmer. Some will give you a set price but most sell based on hanging weight.

Then cut and wrap is usually done by a processor and costs extra - many farmers let you deal with and pay the processor.

(We differ from most farms - we talk to our customers to help them get the cuts that are right for their families and we talk to the processor on their behalf so there is nothing lost in translation.)

You will notice a huge difference in hanging weight prices from farmers - this is because every farmer has different input costs.

3. What is hanging weight?

This is the weight after the animal has been dispatched and gutted. It is sometimes called rail weight.

The farmer and processor both usually charge on hanging weight.

Some processors will weigh the animal with with skin and head on.

Some hanging weights are skinless.

This can make a huge difference to the price you pay for the product you get back. Depending on the size you could be paying for and throwing 50lb away

4. What does cut and wrap mean

There are hundreds of variations between each processor and often you don’t know what to ask or expect.

We have experienced many extra costs that we didn’t know we needed to know. E.g packaging types, labelling, boxes, de-boning, outdoor raised pig charge, carbon tax - I am still waiting for that smiling charge lol

The processor will - or should cut and wrap your pork how you want - some will do a standard cut and you get what you get - they may even automatically de-bone everything and even throw the fat away - which is a crime for us as that is a ton of flavour they are throwing out.

You may have wrapping choices

• Brown wrap

• Double wrap - cellophane around the meat then brown wrap. - this is what we choose because the product lasts longer

• Vacuum pack - this is great but the bags tend to blow, especially if they vac seal bone in products - then you have to use the meat quickly or it will freezer burn - this also usually costs more - we have been charged anything from 10c/lb on the meat put in the vac pack to $1/lb hanging weight (additional to cut and wrap charges ) - again it depends on the processor

Your processor should label the packaging for you with what is in the package - they don’t all do this.

5. How’s much meat do I get? Is a side too much?

Even though we are just a 2 person family I don’t find a side of pork too much meat. Our pigs are around 200lb hanging weight so a side is 100lb which will give us 70+lb meat the way I get ours cut and wrapped.

Having a good selection of pork at my fingertips means I can create an awesome dish any night of the week and I often substitute pork for beef.

Your meat yield will depend on the cuts you choose.

If you choose everything boneless you will get a lot less weight back than the original hanging weight. Plus you are losing flavour.

Sometimes you can get back the offal - liver, heart and kidneys - though this is not usually in the hanging weight because it is removed before weighing. You would have to check with your farmer and the processor.

An e.g of one of our sides of Berkshire Pork is

100lb hanging weight @ $6.85/lb including processing fees.

The way we cut and wrap ours we get about 70lb meat back

At our todays prices that’s $685 for 70lb pork (bacons, ham and sausage processing is extra)

If you would like more information about our Berkshire Pork feel free to get in touch

or

Join our mailing for priority ordering opportunities, updates and recipes.

If you found this helpful and would like to buy me a coffee that would be greatly appreciated!

When is the best time of year for free range pigs? Autumn!

We really only seem to have 2 seasons in Saskatchewan, Winter and Summer! Summer comes and goes so fast!

We have been extremely lucky this year and not had a massive dump of snow - yet, and at the beginning of November it actually feels like Autumn - or Fall as the Canadians call it.

The pigs are taking full advantage of the milder weather and getting in some extra rooting time!

Check out our super short video on YouTube!

4 things to consider when you buy piglets for your home raised free range pork

Raising your own pork can be very rewarding but wading through all the adverts for weanling pigs in spring can be a nightmare.

Of course, I am biased and am going to say look for Berkshires but it’s not always an option.

In your search, price and location will likely be deciding factors but beware of what looks like a really good deal - especially if you are new to raising pigs.

Piglets raised in pig barns, uncastrated males and very young pigs can usually be found cheap but could be costly in the long run.

Consider these 4 things when you are buying your pigs.

1. AGE Piglets should not be weaned until they are at least 6 weeks old. Don’t buy them any younger. The longer they are with their mother the stronger and healthier they will be. You want piglets that have had a good start in life.

2. PROPER WEANING - Adverts will usually say piglets or weanlings. Weaners or weanlings are young piglets that have been - or should have been taken from the sow (their mother).

   Hopefully, you will find a farmer that actually weans the piglets and doesn’t sell them straight off the sow.

   Piglets straight off the sow and not weaned are fast and feisty. If you have no choice but to take these you run the risk of them escaping, never to be seen again - Your pen needs to be like Fort Knox when you unload them - or even leave them on a livestock trailer until they get used to you feeding them.

   If they get away from you they are just going to run as fast as they can looking for their mum and you will be lucky if you catch them.

   We wean ours at 6 weeks old then we have them in a pen for 2 weeks - this allows them time to get used to people feeding them and they are less stressed when they go to their new home.

3. AVOID BUYING BOARS (uncastrated males) for meat.

   Buy barrows (castrated males) or gilts (females). Boars have what is known as boar taint when they get older. This is an awful smell that will put you off eating pork for years.

   Women seem to notice boar taint more than men and I have seen numerous social media posts saying it’s not anything to worry about - I can tell you from experience it is! We worked in abattoirs that processed hundreds of boars and you can definitely smell it.

   With the price of feed right now it’s not worth the risk of raising boars that will almost certainly lose you clients when you sell them stinky inedible pork.

   You do have the option to get them castrated but this will be a costly vet visit.

4. LOOK FOR PIGLETS RAISED OUTDOORS - If you want free-range pork look for weanlings that are raised outside. Avoid pigs from a commercial, climate-controlled barn these piglets will not be hardy.

   Happy Piglet hunting

A Beginners Guide to Raising Happy Free Range Pigs

CA$20.00

Small Pig Farmers Guide to Pork Processing

CA$25.00

If you found this helpful and would like to buy me a coffee I would greatly appreciate it!

This blog post was written in participation in a Blogging Bee--an online gathering reminiscent of the quilting bees and sewing bees of days past when women would bring their work together to create art. If you enjoyed this post with the theme of “Four,” take a look at these posts from other farmers, small business owners, homesteaders, and creatives.

The Easy Cut Flower Garden by Brooke Fraser Slack

Top Four Reasons to Shop Farm to Table by Jessica Haberman

More Blog posts on raising pigs

For more tips on raising free range pigs check out my e-book or book a consultation

Pork processing - 3 questions you should ask your processor.

There is nothing like home grown food.

Raising your own pigs is usually the easy part, it’s enjoyable and relatively stress free - you are in full control of their feed and how you raise them and you will have a freezer full of delicious, nutritious pork that will feed your family for months.

It is really difficult saying goodbye to our pigs and I get very upset when our pork doesn’t come back as expected. I find this the most stressful part of raising our own meat. We are no longer in control and have to trust a processor to cut our pork for us. In an ideal world we would have our own place to process the pork.

Carl and I both worked in processing plants, both here and the UK and we have dealt with over 15 different ones over the years. You would not believe the things we have personally experienced and been told by other farmers.

You don’t always know what you need to ask. If you are new to dealing with processors Here are 3 questions to ask your processor.

You should find a processor early

Some places book a year in advance. Many prioritize wild game in hunting season, so you may want to try and avoid these busy times.

The longer you have to keep your pig, the heavier and fatter it gets.

Most processors charge on hanging weight and you will pay processing on all that extra fat, you will need to clarify if you want the fat trimming and if you want to take it home. It’s a valuable part of our pig and we always render it for cooking..

If you are selling pork to customers they may not appreciate pork that is too fatty. You may also find 5 things you need to know before buying a side of pork helpful

Questions for your processor

1. Do they give you your own meat back and all of your own meat? This is the number 1 question I ask.

   e.g of when you may not get your meat back:-

   Sausage making - Some will mix pork trim from other customers animals to make ground pork or sausage.. Or they may add beef into sausage… which you will have to pay extra for.

   Bacon or hams are they yours … some will take your pork and give you some that was made earlier of similar weight.

   Offal, fat and bones. Many customers don’t want these back so your processor may be in the habit of throwing them away. You need to clarify with them if you want to take these home.

2. Do they cut and wrap to your specs. This is really important to us… if they have a standard cut and wrap that they do you may have roasts ground or cubed that you didn’t expect, or everything deboned.

   Is your product labeled - yes believe it or not some do not label the cuts of meat, so you have a lot of brown packages and your supper is pork surprise.

3. How much does it cost. There is nothing worse than having a 200lb pork quoted at $1/lb cut and wrap… and your bill is $350

Extra charges you may come across

• Bacon and ham curing and smoking

• Sausage making

• Grinding

• Slicing

• Deboning

• Stew making

• Packaging/wrapping

• Freezing

• Boxes

• Enviro or disposal fees

• Gst

• Free range or coloured pig charge

Tip - if you do plan to get bacon ham and sausage made try some that your processor has already made - if you don’t like it you may be able to find another processor to make those products for you.

If you have had any strange experiences with processors I would love to hear from you.

For more information on raising free-range pigs check out my e-book - it’s packed with time and money-saving tips based on our experiences raising free-range pigs.

A Beginners Guide to Raising Happy Free Range Pigs

CA$20.00

Small Pig Farmers Guide to Pork Processing

CA$25.00

If you found this content helpful and would like to buy me a coffee that would be greatly appreciated!

Berkshire pigs can be free ranged even in the cold Saskatchewan winter

The Berkshire pig breed is an old fashioned breed that is well suited to being raised outdoors - even in the extremes of the Canadian climate.

Winter is my least favourite time of year. If I didn’t have animals to care for I think I would just hide away for winter. Unlike our Berkshire pigs I am a complete wuss when it comes to the extreme cold Saskatchewan temperatures.

They love winter and their hardiness amazes me. They thrive in the extremes of the Canadian climate - which is why our passion is raising pedigree Berkshire pigs and keeping their hardy genetics alive.

Water

This is usually one of the things that stops people keeping outdoor pigs over winter. Yes it freezes!

We have a heated water bowl for the cows and horses and our pigs have a little step they can stand on so they can drink out of it too.

The last 2 years this has frozen up on us.. even though it is heated so we use our water hydrant - we can either have a water trough right under it, or we haul pails of water to where the pigs are.

If you are putting in new water lines put them close to your animals if you don’t want to carry pails for the winter months…. It is a good work out though lol. I have hauled water from the house before which is it fun!

Food

We feed ours extra grain on the coldest days or if we have bad storms forecast - that way if we have issues getting to the feed bin at least we know they have had extra the night before.

We don’t give ours hay as a main part of their diet but they do eat it and love rooting around in the bales looking for tasty treats and alfalfa that the cows and horses drop on the ground.

Pig Shelters & Straw

Of course we do have lots of shelters for our pigs and we put plenty of straw out for them. They move freely around the shelters and they always know the best one to be in.

They can stand the cold, wind and rain/snow but not all at once blowing directly on them.

We use old grain bins for shelters and we have a metal calf shelter which they - and we prefer. They haven’t destroyed it like they do wooden buildings. We also have a pigloo - which is a damaged water tank - this is perfect for the younger pigs. We even put heat lamp in it one year when we had a pig farrow in it.

It doesn’t always look pretty but we use whatever we can for windbreaks over the entrances - tarps, rubber matting, old blankets, comforters and old carpets - then we put straw bales in front of the shelters for additional windbreaks.

They will pull straw from the bales and carry in their mouth to their bed. They will do this for hours and make a straw bed to bury themselves under. We usually help them as we can move straw quicker than they can but building their own bed is what they do naturally.

Then the pigs will all snuggle up together under the straw keeping each other warm. There is the occasional squabble for the best spot but they settle down quickly.

Some farmers manage without shelters and put lots of big round straw bales out and the pigs bury under those for winter with no problems.

Berkshires are an old fashioned lard pig & their extra fat helps keep them insulated,

This fat gives us delicious pork and juicy marbled meat lacking from the modern, factory farmed, leaner breeds of pigs - these don’t need a natural fat covering because they are raised in climate controlled barns - this is why store bought pork doesn’t have flavour like outdoor raised pigs.)

The extra fat is never wasted. In fact I generally don’t have enough! We render it all into lard.

A Beginners Guide to Raising Happy Free Range Pigs

CA$20.00

Add To Cart

For more in depth information on raising free range pig you can check out my e-book - A beginners guide to raising Happy Free Range Pigs.

If you like this content and would like to buy me a coffee that would be greatly appreciated!

This blog post was written in participation of a Blogging Bee-an online gathering reminiscent of the quilting bees and sewing bees of days past when women would bring their work together to create art. If you enjoyed this post with the theme "More About...” take a look at these posts from other farmers, small business owners, homesteaders, and creatives.

Everything You Need to Know About Wreath Season ‘22 by Megan Rudroff

Herefords: Why We Chose This Breed of Cattle by Jessica Haberman

Finally we got a Piggy Cam

A Christmas pressy to myself this year - a Piggy Cam. Well not really - we got it for the house but the dogs and cats kept unplugging it or knocking it - so had to rethink the one for the house.

It has so far worked great as a piggy cam so we don’t have to disturb the pigs when they are farrowing but can keep a close eye on them.

Here’s a short video of Edith making her bed and her new piglets born on a day when we had an incredible amount of snow- it was so much easier not having to get all my winter gear on and run out every 4 hours.