We raised 7 pigs this year! 2 for us and the rest for friends.
The pigs had about an acre of land to graze on grass. The pigs were purchased by friends and taken to our house at 8 weeks old. We raised them until they were 6 months old.
We got an early start on harvest day, and it was cold. Dusty and the kids built a fire outside to keep warm while last minute preparations were made and while we waited for the sun to rise. Our goal was to harvest 4 pigs by the end of the day. That means everything is done right down to the cuts, individually wrapped and put in the freezer. A pretty ambitious goal.
We feed the pigs some grain and got the guns ready.
Yep, it's dead.
Where are the kids you ask?
The ones that wanted to be a part of it watched while I explained to them what was going on and how great it was that we had pigs that lived a good life, free from hormones, vaccinations and concrete slaps. We also talked about knowing where your food comes from.
We killed 2 pigs at a time.
The next step is to hoist them up on the tractor and take them to the butchering area.
All hoisted up and ready for transportation.
Austin was the driver.
Here's the butchering location.
Next is to hose them off and start butchering.
Ready, set, go!
We had to work fast in order to get 4 pigs done in a day. We need to get these pigs quartered and on ice before we start with the next 2 pigs.
We kept the fire going since it was still pretty cold.
Here's Dusty skinning.
Quartering.
Then on ice while the guys go get the next two pigs.
After the pigs are chilled we start making the cuts, package and freezing.
We had stations.
2 butchering stations, sausage making station, packaging station and labeling station.
Followed by runners placing the meats in the freezer.
Josiah makes sausage!
Austin does some labeling and running to the freezer.
One of the families figured out the approx price per pound to raise these pigs ourselves.
They figured that it came to about $1.70 per pound, that includes every cut, so hams, bacon, sausage, roasts, pork chops, steaks etc.
In the recent past we've purchased roasts from Costco for $1.99 per pound and it wasn't organic or anything special, just plain ole Kirkland pork roasts.
So, in our opinion it's cost effective to raise our own.
(I believe we shared with you in an older post that we didn't think raising our own chickens was cost effective for our family, but pork is!)
The End.
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