Pigs # 23 - Update

28 weeks old, and on the weigh in this week the tape measure is showing:

Pig 1: 72.2kg
Pig 2: 70.6kg

My 'customers' (workmates) are currently requesting:

1. Lots of sausages
2. Back bacon, unsmoked, thick slices
3. Hams (the kind you boil, smear with mustard etc and bake)
4. Roasting joints

Surprisingly (to me anyway) chops and ribs are really unpopular.

Although we still have quite a lot of frozen pork, we still buy smokey, streaky bacon, so it would be great to be able to create some of this.  We had a delicious cooked breakfast last weekend at Usk Garden Centre ( www.uskgardencentre.co.uk/ - highly recommended, nice people) which came with black-pudding, which to my shame I hadn't actually eaten before.  It was DELICIOUS, and I would love to get some of this made from these pigs too!

I can imagine plenty of people buying the 'full Welsh' breakfast pack on a Friday - smoked or back bacon, sausage, black pudding and free-range eggs!  That will be our next promotion I think!

Pigs # 22 - Update

The pigs are 26 weeks old, and I finally managed to get a tape-measure to them on Friday morning.  The bigger they get, generally the more docile they are, and they were fairly happy to be measured during their lunch!  Their vital statistics are:

Pig 1: Chest 37", Back of ears to base of tail 42"
Pig 2: Chest 37", Back of ears to base of tail 40"

Using the tried and tested formula, that gives:

Pig 1: 65.33kg liveweight
Pig 2: 62.22kg liveweight

My growth charts are on my other computer so I can't compare directly (update later this week), but from memory they're about the same as the Saddlebacks at this stage.  I'd like to get them to about 30 weeks, or 75 to 80kgs in weight before they 'go'.

I popped in to see James & Richard at Morris Free Range Meats & Horticulture in Coedypaen today and saw some new-born piglets, which must have been only a few kgs in weight each.  What amazingly productive animals pigs are!