One thing that we have learned is how much we didn’t know about the pork business! Which means, if we are “hog farmers,” and still don’t know a lot, I would guess that neither do many others. After a mild moment of offense, to the ever frequent comment, “You charge $700+ dollars for a pig?!” I vowed to try to stop being, what do they call it? Booty hurt about it, and instead educate! Yesterday you may have seen my post that we needed to castrate our 500 lb. boar, Cliff. Cliff was purchased a year ago as a breeding boar, and despite bringing him to our gilts (inexperienced females) and sows (experienced females) when they were in heat all summer, Cliff just doesn’t do his job. He isn’t even interested in his job. We tried to separate them for months so that he wouldn’t be used to their scent, and be more “excited” when they were in heat, and nothing. We did end up getting a very great looking boar from the Bienson Farm when we went down to Iowa this summer, who is just eight months and already showing he is VERY interested in doing his job. Therefore we made the tough decision that Cliffy had to go.
However, you cannot just send a boar to freezer camp. Boars produce certain kinds of hormones that when intact can (not always) come out of the meat when they are butchered, and do what’s called “taint” the meat, making it smell and taste awful (quite gamey). Not only can it taint your meat, but it can taint any meat that is in the butcher shop when you cut it up. Therefore, a lot of butchers won’t even butcher an intact boar for you. After consulting with our butcher, and making the decision that we would indeed castrate Cliff, it was onto making that happen.
Bob and I have castrated probably close to 20 baby pigs before. It’s very simple actually. We do it at 10 days old, you slice open the sack, and then carefully slice open the membranes that hold the testicles. Once you get the membranes open, the actual testicle typically “pops” right out. Many farmers do it differently, and there’s debate on which way is the “right” way, but we cut the Vas Deferens, which is the “line” that goes to the testicle. Some farmers “snap” it out, suggesting that it heals faster if it is pulled out vs. cut out, which makes sense, I just can’t bring myself to do it.
After you cut out one testicle, you need to do the other side as there is a “wall” between the two that cannot be crossed without causing harm to the pig. Once you get the second one out, you pour some betadine on, spray it with Blue Kote, and hit the pig with an antibiotic as precautionary. This is easily done on a tiny pig when one person holds the piggy and the other person works quickly and Farm Daddy and I have become quite the team in this. The pig runs off like nothing ever happened to them as soon as we are done and there’s little to no blood if you do it right. It does have to be done this way as pigs’ testicles are not on the outside of their body like a goat’s are. I hear often “just band them!” and while we have banded our goats many times, you cannot band a boar, they absolutely must be cut out.
Things get quite a bit trickier when the pig in 500 lbs. They aren’t really hurt by the procedure any more than the babies (and he bled almost none), but they like being held down, a lot less! So much less, that it took this girl and four cops to hold Cliffy down. Before you start giggling, I already made the “How many pigs does it take to…” joke. 😉 Turns out it’s four. It takes four officers to hold down a 500 lb. boar. Our friends did amazing! Some not having a ton of farming experience were game for anything and jumped right in when we said “We need you to jump in that pen with that giant, mad, pig, flip him over, probably get pooped on, and hold him while I cut his manhood out.” They got him flipped and secured him in no time, so I was able to get the whole procedure done in less than 10 mins.
Not only did they do that, but they then stayed for three more hours to help us weigh 21 more pigs, and trailer four of them. There were bloody noses (I got a grate to the nose by a pig), all six of us were covered in mud and poop from head to two (legitimately), and we all have many bruises to show for our work. However, we got it done, no piggos were harmed, and honestly, we had fun. I went to bed last night with a full heart. I know that’s pretty weird after getting a bloody nose, falling in the mud multiple times, and being crapped on, but the fact that we have not one, but three people in our life who are willing to give up time with their wives and kids, and come do that with us is amazing! They didn’t complain, they didn’t shy away at the job, and they continued to ask “What else can we help with while we’re here?” Not only was my heart full that we have an amazing village, but that we get to live this life. Even a day that ends with a bloody nose is a good day on the farm. There’s something about hanging outside all day, choice beverage in hand, spending time with someone you adore, building a life you never imagined, working to accomplish a task you feel good about.
I did the math, altogether, each of us made $1.60 an hour yesterday. Way less if you take into account the half hog we gave to each of our friends that helped us out (which we are excited to be able to do). So when you wonder what your $700 goes to… it’s this, for us to pay our friends $1.60 an hour to get crapped on. However, it has never been our bank account that we’re trying to fill with this farm. It was our hearts, and we’ve done that a million times over. Thank you again and again and again to the guys who came over to help yesterday. We couldn’t have done it without you. ❤ And to our customers, THANK YOU for giving us the opportunity to do it!
Picture of the end “product” for those interested in the science behind it. Stop scrolling NOW if that’s not something you need to see today. 😉
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