500 pound boar!

[baymule]

I found a deal on a huge boar. His name is Wilbur and he is a Red Wattle. He got too big to breed their sows, so he went up for sale. The lady who owned him couldn’t put him in the freezer, he was her first pig and a pet. He is very calm and gentle. But she became afraid of Wilbur because he wanted to rub on her, affectionately, but because of his size, it was dangerous.

We picked him up today. I took boiled eggs and he walked up in the trailer to eat them. We unloaded him and he walked around his new pen.

He went in the Pig Palace and ate corn.

He is over 3 feet tall.

Wilbur is a BIG boy!

We’ll feed him soured corn, milk, alfalfa cubes and hay for 4-6 weeks, then take him to slaughter.

 

[baymule]

We have just about wiped out Wilbur. Still have a freezer shelf stacked full of pork chops. No pan sausage left. Got tired of pork shoulder and ham steaks, so I thawed them out, had 52 pounds. Been making sausage and stuffing it, BJ is smoking it. Dang! It sure smells good! Day 1, I ran ham steaks and shoulders through the meat grinder. It is a small Oster, that I've had for 35 years. I had to keep shutting down to clean the cutting blades, the connective tissue kept wrapping around everything. Day 2, we smoked sausage yesterday. I ran the pork through the grinder on fine grind, then again to stuff it into hog casings. DH got most of it smoked, still have a bowl full of stuffed sausage in the refrigerator to finish smoking today. Day 3, I have 10 packages of ground meat to season up for pan sausage. We bought some collagen casings only to find out that they won't survive smoking on the pit, they are only for "fresh" sausage. So maybe I'll try my hand at that too. Last night's supper was smocked sausage sandwiches. Yum! I got a lot of links in the refrigerator to vacuum seal and freeze.

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[baymule]

I have a gate! Since we built the new pig pen and Pig Palace, I have had a ladder to go over the fence to feed the pigs. That. Got. Old.

My husband and our neighbor put a gate in for me so now I can just walk through to get to the pig pen! Whoop! That sure has made it a LOT easier for me!

 

[baymule]

It is hot, Wilbur is wearing a fat suit and he loves to get squirted several times a day. So I oblige him and wet him down, then I wet down his laying place. Can’t make him a mud hole in this sand, so I just try to keep him a wet spot. I won’t spray him near the fence, he would wallow a hole the size of a Volkswagen bug in no time.

First I put water in his tub, he gets a good drink. Then I direct the nozzle where I want him to stand and he walks over there. Sometimes he goes and stands there waiting for me to spray him.

He has a hole wallowed out behind the mulch pile. The trees shade him all day, the mulch pile keeps the sun off as it’s going down. So I spray his wallow real good.

Today I was in the garden. Wilbur lumbered to the fence and said, “unt”. I tossed him a rutabaga. He sniffed it, looked at me and said, “unt”. Obviously he did not want a rutabaga. I went through my new gate and walked around his pen. I broke off a bouquet of sassafras twigs which he happily munched on. I offered him a Persimmon branch. “Unt”. That’s pig Latin for Nope. I offered him elm. He took it and ate it. So now I know that I am supposed to give him sassafras and elm twigs for his treat.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh dang.....that stinks like really bad! Once they decide not to do something....it can be real hard to change their mind. Next time use the neighbor for bait!!

 

[baymule]

Ok folks! The suspense is over! Drumroll please...…………………………

And the hanging weight is...……………..


506 POUNDS!!!!

That is a LOT of meat. I sure hope he doesn't have boar taint. I explained to my husband that is a possibility. If so, then we will just have a lot of spicy sausage to eat LOL. We'll fry up a package of pork chops and try it out when we get him home. With no sows around to get his hormones up and the way we fed him, I don't think there will be a problem. For a purchase price of $100 plus processing, I think it's one heck of a bargain.

 

[sumi]

Wow, that is a nice pig! I remember a number of years ago visiting the "pig farm" at the informal settlement outside our town in S.A. where the blacks kept their pigs. There were two pigs that took my breath away, they were so big! I can't tell you more than they were white and they must've weighed in at around 700 lbs plus. Each. Ridiculously huge animals. The biggest one I ever sent to butcher's hanging weight (minus head, trotters and all organs) was exactly 100kg (220.462 lbs)

 

[sumi]

Some pigs do take a tiny bit of your heart with when it's time for them to go, but unfortunately for them, we need to eat and cheap meat is a great blessing.

 

[CrealCritter]

I got plenty of freezer space wow that's a big pig 820 lbs! Everything is bigger in Texas.

 

[baymule]

Sumi we will get him in a couple of weeks. FEM I think the meat will be ok too.