Buying a Hog Direct from the Farm

[Prawncrackers]

And my point is, if you want to get the benefits of a "whole hog" you need the skin, feet, head, fat, everything, and cut it yourself.

I would heartily second this statement. For me the point of buying a whole pig is to butcher it yourself, it's great fun.

[Chris Hennes]

And my point is, if you want to get the benefits of a "whole hog" you need the skin, feet, head, fat, everything, and cut it yourself.

I would heartily second this statement. For me the point of buying a whole pig is to butcher it yourself, it's great fun.

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While I agree that is true to get the full benefit of buying a whole hog (if you value the act of cutting it up yourself, of course), my position is a little different: I am simply have no other reasonably-priced source for high-quality pork (the alternative is Niman Ranch). For me, the fact that I get a whole hog is almost incidental: the point is to get high-quality pork. So even without the skin I am getting a good deal here.

[budrichard]

I would not use a processor that allowed non workers to be in the processing area. Strict HAACP requires anyone in the area to be sanitised and wearing the correct garb.

The processor we use has a glassed in processing area. You can watch the whole thing except fpr the kill if you want.-Dick

[budrichard]

And my point is, if you want to get the benefits of a "whole hog" you need the skin, feet, head, fat, everything, and cut it yourself.

I would heartily second this statement. For me the point of buying a whole pig is to butcher it yourself, it's great fun.

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Have you actually killed and butchered a whole hog? Not suckling pig but a 200# market hog?-Dick

[Prawncrackers]

And my point is, if you want to get the benefits of a "whole hog" you need the skin, feet, head, fat, everything, and cut it yourself.

I would heartily second this statement. For me the point of buying a whole pig is to butcher it yourself, it's great fun.

←

Have you actually killed and butchered a whole hog? Not suckling pig but a 200# market hog?-Dick

Butchered, yes. Killed, not yet! My buddy and i have just started butchering our own pork this year. Though i admit we cheat and ask our supplier to halve the pigs for us but we take the rest from there. We've done the equivalent of a whole pig already this year, and in fact we're doing another half this saturday. We tend to get smaller rare-breed pigs like tamworth or berkshire, so a half pig is around 80lb - very manageable in a small domestic kitchen.

[Chris Hennes]

OK, getting on that time of year. I've still got quite a bit of pork left in the freezer, but I want to get a head start this year on trying to find an area farmer who is raising a few hogs. Since I'm getting in earlier this year, I'm hoping I have more options available. However, it seems like finding a slaughter operation that doesn't skin the hogs is tough: most of these small farmers hire the butcher to bring his trailer right to the farm, where they don't have the equipment to blanch and scrape.

Before I start posting classified ads, I need to figure out what I want. Talking to people it seems like I do not want a hog that was raised as a show pig: they are apparently judged basically on "what would Hilshire Farms want to see in a pig?" Not quite what I'm after here. The question is, what, exactly, am I after? I want a tasty hog. Preferably with a lot of fat. How the heck do I advertise for that?

[ilikefood]

I want a tasty hog. Preferably with a lot of fat. How the heck do I advertise for that?

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I was talking to a pig farmer who used to raise quality pork and sold at local farmer's markets about how to get the pig to taste good. His belief was, from a flavor standpoint, the feed matter more than the breed. He said the breed will determine the size and shape of the hog (at least with breeds available in WI) but the feed will have a greater impact on flavor. By this time I had a couple beers and don't exactly remember what he believed the "perfect" feed was but I thought it was a combination of soy and corn. So, when you advertise maybe look for hogs with a certain diet (not slop) and go from there.

Oh, and I second the "not going for a show pig" idea.

Good luck,

David

Edited March 17, 2009 by ilikefood (log)

[budrichard]

Here's the long and short of it!

Your typical commercial pig is a very lean animal these days and you will not get a lot of fat if from a commercial hog farmer. Most operations have no problem trailering your hog to a commercial butcher, I don't understand these smaller operations that can't properly prepare a hog. I got into one once for a small pig(about 20#'s) and i will never do that again. Find a large commercial operation that will trailer your pig to where you want it so it can be prepped the way you want.

If you want more fat, the 'berkshire' breed has been getting popluar at least with the Japanese market Mitsuwa but I don't know where they source thier product from. I really haven't noticed any difference anyway. In any event I don't know where to purchase one of these breeds locally anyway and I suspect you will pay dearly for the privaledge if you find one.

Hogs raised for the County Fair competition are judged on the hoof, and the price you pay is considered a donation to the competitor usually if 4H raised.

So find a pig at the size you want from someone that will take where it can be properly prepped the way you want i.e cut up, wrapped, frozen or whole for a BBQ.

You should pay market price unless you want a small pig and it has to be taken before it reaches commercial size. Good luck!-Dick

[Shamanjoe]

Does anybody living in Southern California know where I can go and buy a whole pig, or someplace that would raise a few for me? I'd love to have one or more to fatten up myself, but it's kind of frowned upon in the suburban environment.