boar slaughter age?

[enrico]

we have been keeping Oxford Sandy Blacks for the last five years but this is the first year we have had uncastrated male pigs. Does anyone know the age for slaughter to prevent boar taint?
Thanks
E

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When I saw the title of this post I thought you were organising a weekend's pig stickin' to sort out the feral wild boar problems caused by then naiive bunny hugger types illegally releasing them And there's me about to send my favourite lance and boar trident off to be re-sharpened (thought that the phrase slaughter age was just an accidental gap in the middle of bad grammar)

 

[enrico]

I have a friend in the Forest of Dean that has built a boar trap out of scaffolding poles. Save chasing them round! They do horrendous damage! Hope they don't spread this far north!
I will be using the electric fence to keep them out rather than keeping the pigs in!

E

 

[dexter's shed]

feel free to send any wild boar over to me in kent, theres reports of them in our woods, but as yet they are as elusive as bigfoot

 

[pargyle]

feel free to send any wild boar over to me in kent, theres reports of them in our woods, but as yet they are as elusive as bigfoot

Make good sausages .....

 

[For want of a better word]

we have been keeping Oxford Sandy Blacks for the last five years but this is the first year we have had uncastrated male pigs. Does anyone know the age for slaughter to prevent boar taint?
Thanks
E

We keep OS&Bs as a cooperative... called the Pig Society!
Our Grand Pigmaster seems to think that 6 months old would be a benchmark for going on holiday to piggie world, although also said that pigs on pasture do not seem to be prone to the stinky meat problem. ( aparently sows can be prone to the problem too if not allowed to roam!
We only ever have snicked boars as feeding and managing feisty young boars is deemed to be a possible problem!

Piggies have done an excellent job of rooting up the ground prior to planting an orchard.. still had to get a tractor in to get some of the willow stumps out!

A new batch of weaners already on order!


Yeghes da

 

[MikeT]

I spoke to the lads at BQP who supply Waitrose, their pigs are no older than 6 month, and no taint has been found.

 

[enrico]

Thanks Mike....that was our cut off point so nice to know that is what the big boys think too!
Thanks ican....all ours were on pasture before they did what pigs do! They will be gone by six months though. We too are a pig club, do our own butchering, smoking etc. just not had ballsy boys before!
E

 

[Worldsend]

I usually run to 6 to 7 months

I found the Saddlebacks finished much quicker than the Saddleback/British White cross

Just make sure you don't keep them a month too long as thats a months worth of food that will run to fat

 

[MikeT]

Pigs

Thanks Mike....that was our cut off point so nice to know that is what the big boys think too!
Thanks ican....all ours were on pasture before they did what pigs do! They will be gone by six months though. We too are a pig club, do our own butchering, smoking etc. just not had ballsy boys before!
E

My wife has always wanted Oxford pigs, she used to rear day old from a nearby pig unit. She has always enjoyed rearing young stock be it lambs, calves, kids or piglets. But this had to stop when she was diagnosed with MS.

We still have a small flock of sheep and 3 Highland cows and their calves for her interest.

We did have a sow last summer, The high health status guilt rearing unit near us had a sow which got pregnant by accident. We were asked if we could farrow it. She produced 10 piglets, I had to deliver it to rearer unit, we would have liked to have kept her but being so near to a high health unit may have caused problems.
Mike