Processing Hogs

FarmerTom

I've been lurking but not active for some time due to various reasons but mostly due to I had become very frustrated with my grilling set up.  I have just completed an addition to our old meathouse here on the farm and will post pics soon, I hope, if I ever finish getting it organized.
   In the meantime, not trying to steal any of @SGH thunder, we had a hog killing this weekend.  Not the right time of year, but hog farmers are in a really bad position now with processors shutting down and are selling hogs ready to slaughter at dirt cheap prices.  My son went a little ways up into Indiana and purchased 10 weighing about 275 each at $0.50/pound live weight.  Several neighbors wanted one or two each so we got them and fed them here on the farm until this weekend when we slaughtered and processed 5 of them.  2 people took theirs and did them themselves.  For the other 8, I have a neighbor that has raised and slaughtered many over the years and knows how to do it. My son and I offered to buy one for him if he would help us slaughter ours.  We wanted two, and before long our 2 and his one grew to 10.
   And this weekend it all started.  For a neighbor to get their hog processed, they had to come help with all of them, so we had a good crew.   We killed and quartered 5 on Saturday, refrigerated them over night to cool them, and processed them 
Sunday.  Have 3 more to do this week to finish up.
   I hope the pics post properly, and hope no one is offended.  I tried not to take any that might be considered too gruesome, but some folks are easily offended.  Not sure how they think that meat gets onto the shelves of their grocery store without going thru a similar process.
       

Feeding them at our place.

Cleaning, gutting, and quartering.  I left out the killing process.

Ready to quarter.

A bunch of vac sealed porkchops. 2 to a package.  Can't wait to try some.

Spare ribs ready to Egg.

Most of one hog ready to freeze.  There's an additional 40 or so pounds of sausage I didn't have bagged when I took this pic, plus we still have the bacon to slice.   Lots of good eating here.  I wanted to cure the hams but we were afraid it was too hot.  We always cured hams in late winter.  Plus I couldn't find some of the ingredients my mother always used.  Needed to order them as no one locally carried them any longer.  There's pork chops, ham steaks that are tenderized, shoulders, a picnic ham, country style ribs, tenderloins, spare ribs, some roasts, sausage and bacon.  All for $135.
   I didn't make any baby back ribs.  Left them with the bone in pork chops.  I try to watch our local Kroger and can regularly find baby backs for $5-$6 a rack and try to keep 8 or so in the freezer.  
   That's all for now folks.  Hope you enjoyed reading about our weekend here on the farm.  

saluki2007

Great documentation.  A buddy and I just did the same thing for the same reasons.  It is deferentially an experience and gave me a greater appreciation for the animal.

FarmerTom

@saluki2007   Having lived almost all of my 65 years on our farm, I’m very familiar with the life and death of livestock, and as you stated, have a great respect for those animals.  My son and I delivered one of the live hogs to someone my son works with.  Their preparations weren’t sufficient to contain it and it got loose and started wondering around.  So the guy decided to go on and kill it and start butchering it.  In spite of my son telling him to shoot it between the eyes ( which kills them instantly) , the guy shot it behind its ear.  It began bleeding profusely and still walking around. With my son yelling at him to shoot it between the eyes, he once again shot it behind its ear.  Finally, after it was slinging blood all over the side of my sons truck, he shot it between its eyes and it dropped.  My son was livid.  Yes he was mad that there was blood all over his truck, but what really upset him was the treatment of the hog.  In return for livestock furnishing us meat, they deserve our respect and to be treated as humanely as possible.   Should we get hogs again, this fellow won’t be getting one of them. 

bangor307

Good to see another farmer who knows how to provide for his friends and family, nicely done! 

bangor307

A little low but with a 45-70 close counts!

Cornholio

Cool post but I have to ask.. what’s up with the twelver of Mountain Dew on the gutting area? 

Elijah

FarmerTom said:

We killed and quartered 5 on Saturday, refrigerated them over night to cool them, and processed them Sunday. 

You must have some major refrigeration capacity. 

lentsboy007

How awful and offensive !!!!!! 

Just kidding . Anyone who is offended by animal processing probably shouldn’t own a smoker .  Brought back memories, my grandpa (here in southern Indiana ) had a pig farm when I was a kid.  

ColbyLang

Cornholio said:

Cool post but I have to ask.. what’s up with the twelver of Mountain Dew on the gutting area? 

Never had a Mountain Dew and Crown royal? It’s called a rocket. Real drink

FarmingPhD

Looks like a productive weekend!

RRP

bangor307 said:

A little low but with a 45-70 close counts!

Somebody has some GREAT head cheese ahead of them! And for those who don't know what "head cheese" is - it isn't found in any supermarket deli showcase! It really is especially GREAT when made by someone who knows how to make it! 

WeberWho

Great to see you posting again! I hope the wedding went well. I think you were smoking something for it and the wedding was maybe on the farm? I could be way off...

Thanks for the pics and the process. I've never done it myself but always appreciative about learning a thing or two when someone does post something like this. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Great post. Those are some insanely low pork prices. I hate that this is where we are with our producers but I would have jumped on that to the amount of space I had to to store it

your son was right. If we are going to kill these amazing animals to eat- and pigs are amazing animals- we have a responsibility to do it the right way. We always like to say that our pigs “have one bad day”. And if you do it right it should be one bad second. 

FarmerTom

I’m not sure who brought the Mountain Dew.  Our fridge was, and I emphasize ‘was’ , full of an assortment of beer when the day started.   Needing cooling space for the hogs, well only one acceptable option.  

FarmerTom

Hey @lentsboy007 , I’m in Ky but close to Madison In.  Go there often.  These hogs came from the Greensburg area.  Is that near your neck of the woods?

lentsboy007

FarmerTom said:

Hey @lentsboy007 , I’m in Ky but close to Madison In.  Go there often.  These hogs came from the Greensburg area.  Is that near your neck of the woods?

No I’m actually quite a bit southwest of there , in Martin County 

FarmerTom

WeberWho , you have a good memory.  That was our daughters wedding.  She got married on our farm where my father grew up.  We rented a big tent and had the wedding and reception way back on the farm.  Our son in law is from Texas and several of his friends and family wanted to camp out after the wedding.  It was a really great time.  Our daughter wanted me to cook "a" brisket for the reception.  I knew that wouldn't last long, so I cooked 5.  One on my M and 4 on the XL.  My hog processing friend cooked up a big kettle of Texas style chili in one of our big old lard kettles.