free range pork

[jdt]

got a funny story . i butcher hogs and sell sausage , bacon n hams every winter . last winter i bought 3 from a guy and killed the 2 biggest right away and sold the meat . the 3rd decided he wanted to be on the free range program and turned himself out with my dads cows ! i just left him the rest of the winter and everybody enjoyed seeing him as he now thought he WAS a cow lol . when i would pen them cattlle he'd be right up front following the dogs to the pen . haha they named him porky and he was hinda the mascot 

   when it warmed up we didn't see him for awhile , i thought maybe a coyote got him and didn't think much about it . then 1 day my dad calls and says i need to do something about him cause he;s grazing on dads beans ! well he was just a little feller last time i saw him so i said o.k. we'll go catch him .

i took my boys 10 n 6  in the jd gater with the tie rope , and my little girl 4 just for a supervisor lol .

we finally found him asleep against a roll of hay and partrially covered . i told josie to stay in the gater and the boys to be handy with the tie rope , started leading the dog closer and as he woke up and started gettin up i turned the dog loose .

 CRAPP !!!  HE AIN'T LITTLE AND CUTE ANY MORE  this dude weighs over 300 and the dog is caught n i'm in too deep to back out  got my dog over his nose and fling him off like a bugger lmao, the ear was split out and he was ill !!

i got out ofthe way and turned around and he's headed right towards the boys ! they scatter like rats in a corn crib and the hog runs in a cave of round bales where the dog catches solid this time .

here i am with three kids for help and knowing i can't load this hog on the gater if i get him tied i just reached in and got my dog by the tail and finally pulled them out enough to choke him off .haha

told my dad  that he almost wiped 75% of my whole fam damly and i would have to go back with a real helper and another dog and depending on where we found him a horse . kept putting it off for one reason or another because i didn't wan't to kill him in the summer as there's no market for sausage . lol

   caught and butchered him last week . he made the best sausage several customers said they ever eat !  he went from 235 lbs to 480 lbs in about 9-10 months .



    i wish i had a thousand of'em that way , i'd be rich!!!

[BA-IV]

That's a lot of gain on a free range hog, that's impressive!

Was he a Hampshire, Duroc, or what?

[Reuben]

JDT...that was a good story...

When I was a kid our only neighbor anywhere close to us was over 1/2 a mile away...I was over there one day and it was time to feed the pigs...they had bought three pigs all littermates and they were Duroc crosses...two weighed about 40 pounds and the runt weighed about 25-30 pounds...there was a crack in the wooden fence and the runt could go and come as he pleased and the other 2 were to large to fit through...the runt had the run of the maize, corn, soybean and rice fields...plus at feeding time he would come back to the pen...a few months later I came by and he was slightly bigger than his 2 siblings and now he would go over the top to come and feed at feeding time...he got in our field when he weighed close to 3 hundred pounds or so...I siced my dogs on him and then I had to call them off on account they ripped some hide off of his ham...he stayed out of our field after about three run ins with my dogs...

long story short he had the deepest dark red healthy looking hair you would see on a Duroc and his siblings had a dull red blond color to them...at butcher time his siblings weighed about 150 and he weighed close to 400 pounds...

[c dunn]

Lol. Good story

[jdt]

he was a duroc cross i'd say , my little girl is still telling people about the tame hog that almost ate her daddy and brothers lol .

its been my experiance that domestic hogs are stouter than wild ones . i could have crawled in under that hay and legged him n them boys would have backed me up  BUT ........ i was afraid they might get bit  lmao

[Black Streak]

I got a good laugh out of that story, thanks!

[jdt]

i got lots of good tales but i hate typing . i thought about getting 1 of them deals where you talk and it types the words for you but i doubt this computer can understand my brand of english lol

[Cajun]

JDT, I know what you mean. I try to use Seri & she never understands what I am saying.lol