Promised Land Homestead

Butchering Day

Today was butchering day and DW and I woke up at 6 a.m. to start loading animals.  We were hoping to get done and have milked the cow before breakfast.  That didn't work out so well.  Hence, there will be no pictures of butchering day.  I was way too busy to think about pictures.

I had already backed the livestock trailer up to the pig pen so we could just open the gate this morning.  The idea was to lure the pigs into the trailer with food and shut them in.  It worked great last year with our other pig.  Well, we got one pig in no problem.  Ham, our Berkshire pig, is very friendly and followed us right in.  Bacon, our Hampshire, is more skiddish.  She wanted nothing to do with the trailer.  She would follow the food right up to it, and refuse to go in.

Obligatory head scratch....

Well, now what?  We tried to corner her a few times so we could get a rope on her.  I'm sure you can figure out how well that worked.  Pigs are surpisingly nimble and fast when they're freaked out.  There's a reason it's so entertaining to watch kids try to catch a pig at the rodeo...YOU CAN'T CATCH THEM!  Ok, so what now?  By this time it was 7:30 and the kids were up.  DW went in the house to get breakfast ready while I tried in vain to throw a loop around her neck for 45 minutes.  You can't properly rope a pig unless you're behind it.  She wouldn't ever let me get behind her because she wanted to keep an eye on me.  Ok, so what now?  We contemplated just taking her in later, but it's a 25 mile trip to the butcher, one way.  That's a lot of gas.  We tried one more time with food.  DW went in and got a bucket full of watermelon rinds, egg shells, and milk.  Pigs love milk, so it was worth a try.  I regained her trust by letting her eat a little of it, then I lured her towards the trailer.  She still refused to go in, so I threw some food on the ground right next to it.  Lucklily there was enough space between the trailer and gate for me to close it while she was preoccupied.  Then she was trapped, and had no choice but to go into the trailer. 

By this time it was 8:40.  The butcher said we had to have the animals there by 10:00 to have them processed that day.  I drove the trailer around to the cow pen and loaded Meatloaf, our Jersey steer.  Luckily, he went in the trailer much easier.  I ran inside to suck down some breakfast, and made it to the butcher by 9:50.  Whew!

These pigs are a month younger than our pig last year, so they're smaller.  That's good though, because our friends and family didn't want to buy as much pork as we had estimated, so it should work out fine.  We may not need to buy another pig next spring.  We'll see.

It was funny to see how much smaller Meatloaf was compared to some of the beef steers that were already at the butcher's.  They were probably close to the same age, but dairy steers just don't grow as fast or as big.  Plus, he was getting very little grain.  Next year's calf will probably be bigger because it is an Angus/Jersey cross.

So in a few days we'll have all the beef and most of the pork.  In 4-6 weeks we'll have the cured hams.

THIS YEAR'S LESSON LEARNED:  I read another person's blog that their pig pen has a smaller pen in it next to the door that includes their feeder.  The pigs get used to going in this everyday to eat, so the day before you take them in, close the gate at feeding time and they're trapped in the small pen.  This makes it much easier to load them into the trailer if they turn out to be reluctant.  Sometime before we get our next pig, I will build one of these.  It sure would have come in handy today, but all's well that ends well.

butchering day

5:18 PM, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

What great stories. I felt like I was there with you! Wish I could've helped.
Nannie

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9:57 PM, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 .. Posted by heritagehill

This reminds me of our hog loading experience......we had 2 to go to the butcher. It took us all day in the rain to get 1 loaded, hubby took it in and made an appointment to take the second one in the day he picked up the meat from the first. For the second one, we parked the trailer in the pen and fed it inside, this worked out fine.
Memories.............

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4:03 PM, Friday, August 22, 2008 .. Posted by Regina

You left out the part about you wanting to SHOOT the pig, just to wound it, of course. You also forgot to mention that someone was skeptical about your plan to get them into the trailer easily. I didn't question you too much, though, because I knew you'd figure it out and you did!

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9:40 PM, Friday, August 22, 2008 .. Posted by Derek

Somehow I thought the butcher would frown upon me bringing in a pig with a gunshot wound. But, it did cross my mind.

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2:36 PM, Thursday, September 4, 2008 .. Posted by homesteadinthemaking

We just bought our first pigs and are learning all we can!! Thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Trixi