Pigs back at Stonehouse Farm

[farmertrappe]

I made arrangements to get two pigs early this year a few weeks ago when it was 70 degrees. I had to pick them up today on a cold wet blowing day. I finished up getting the pen ready last night with Squirrel Wackers help.
Someone is not much help, but good company.

[farmertrappe]

They have not found the feeder yet, but will soon. They were hunkered down in the straw in the little straw bale house i made for them, seem happy.
The idea is to get these up to 180 pounds by first/mid June for the farmers market and then finish out another dozen for the fall.

[pokeyjeeper]

Man I miss living on the farm good looking pigs farmer

[farmertrappe]

This is the Pig Double bed set up I made with Squirrel Wacker's help to get these po' cold pigs thru till warm weather.

[farmertrappe]

They were buried deep this morning when I stopped by to give them some water to spill.

[mdtreehugger]

There to cute! I need to come visit, I am already going threw pig withdrawals. Although Im glad its you not me who has to deal with there water in this cold weather. 

[farmertrappe]

Mar 16, 2017 8:25:19 GMT -5 mdtreehugger said:

There to cute! I need to come visit, I am already going threw pig withdrawals. Although Im glad its you not me who has to deal with there water in this cold weather. 

Please see the February STORM thread.

[farmertrappe]

Looking good, nice and long and lean. I see some nice chops in the future,

[pokeyjeeper]

Hogs looking good farmer

[farmertrappe]

I did not take any pic's, But Poncho & Lefty are gone. Loaded up without tooo much trouble and came right out of the trailer at the butcher shop. Gonna call my local farmer about 10 or a dozen more to get in the pen asap. Need to do some repair work in pen first. But in my future is: scrapple, ham steaks,small smoked hams, boneless chops, thick chops, regular chops,feet, smoked hocks, loin roasts, rope sausage in hot and sweet Italian, regular sage rope sausage, Maple Finger Links, regular brats, onion and pepper brats, Chesapeake brats.

[shawn]

So the next time we'll see Poncho or Lefty might be in the "What's for supper" thread, I gather. Man, I wish I had the location to raise my own but, I have to rely on others for that. I just buy them on the hoof and go from there to the freezer, without paying a butcher. It is already in the plans for this fall again.

[farmertrappe]

Most of this will be marketed, and that is why I need to use a USDA inspected facility. But I will get my share. Got ten 50 pound feeder pigs ready to be picked up next week.

[mdtreehugger]

I can't wait to come visit the little piggies when they get here!

[shawn]

Nice Farmer. If you wouldn't mind, how much does a 50 pound feeder go for in your neck of the woods?

[lawoods31]

Nice farmtrapper what breed of pigs u use I'm thinking bout getting me a few!

[farmertrappe]

Jun 22, 2017 9:06:07 GMT -5 shawn said:

Nice Farmer. If you wouldn't mind, how much does a 50 pound feeder go for in your neck of the woods?

Shawn, sorry I missed your question. These just happen to be the most expensive feeder pigs I have ever bought. I get my feeders from one of two farmers. One I use their trailer to move my hogs so I prefer to deal with them. But they only have new born's and would take too long to get to the butcher shop.
The other fella has nice pigs, long and lean: LandRace is the major influence. He sells to me based on the price paid at the Auction he attends every month. This just happened to be the 4th of July Holiday auction. All the "BBQ" buyer show up and buy the piglets for butcher that week and sell for BBQ pigs for the grill. Drives the price WAY up, piss poor planning on my part.
So the short answer after a long response is $85 for 50-60 pounder's.
I usually spend about a $1 a pound.

[farmertrappe]

Jun 22, 2017 10:13:04 GMT -5 lawoods31 said:

Nice farmtrapper what breed of pigs u use I'm thinking bout getting me a few!

These are the new piglets, they are a long and lean pig, they have a lot of Landrace in them. They do not have a excessive amount of fat, sausage can be lean some time due to that. A "Chuffy" hag has a rounder belly and not usually as long, but have more fat for lard ect.

[farmertrappe]

Besides having on demand feed and water, I have been giving them three small feeder tubs of feed with water mixed in with it every evening. They hammer down a pound or two a feed each and get a good drink out of the deal. I'm hoping it will stimulate weight gain and happiness in the hogs. They seem to enjoy it and I get to spend more time in the pen, which can come in handy later when I need to convince them to go somewhere they don't want to.

[pokeyjeeper]

Good looking piggies farmer they look happy

[farmertrappe]

Made a appointment to move the first two hogs next week. That should give me pork for the last three weeks of my market and a Fall festival. Time to turn the cash flow around.........