Pork - Interesting article

Did I read that right? The 1900 era pigs weighed in at 1 Ton? I would question the accuracey of that story.

The fat was valueable during wartime and earlier. It had many uses, so they were taken to heavier weights and fatter.

My Great Grandpa used to turn a boar in with his market hogs at maturity. When it was time to market them 4 months later, he would hold back the gilts that appeared to be carrying a litter, and sell the rest. That would put them at around a year old. Today they are around 6 months.

My favorite story was when they were to haul their pigs to town but a recent blizzard made it impossible to get them to town.
So they loaded up the manure spreader with manure, spread it over the snowdrifts and when it froze it made a road of frozen manure. They drove the truckload of pigs down it and into town and on to the rail car.

Hogs are actually heavier now than 35 years ago when I started raising them. With the higher labor costs, packers found they can run more tonnage through the plants with heavier carcasses. They dock plenty for a light hog, thus no light hogs. They also dock for fat hogs.

Good Luck! Roger

Roger:

Great story. Yeah, the article actually said they got as high as 2,000. Maybe a little exaggeration to make a point. The other thing that's interesting is that they made no mention of the fact that the packers are docking for hogs that are too lean or too fat. The Goldilocks hog approach.

Fred

What's docking mean? This is very interesting to me. Your great grandpa's approach to breeding makes sense to me, Roger.
A lot of piggies were happy they passed the EPT test!
Peggy

Peggy, By dockage we mean a deduction in payment paid to us producers.

The packers dock for being to light, and add a lean premium on if they are devoid of fat.

I checked with Nimans a while back. I don't feel they are offering enough premium to the farmers for what they demand of the hogs being contracted to them.

I personally disagree with some of the farming practices Nimans require, such as pasture raising, due to my eco concerns.

Manure on on top of the ground on a pasture is prone to wash away in a heavy rain and eventually could wash into a lake or river. I feel properly designed storage basins to hold the manure until is to be applied into the soil after testing it for fertilizer value and the soils need are safer.

I also feel many organics farming practices, such as heavy tilling for weed control are not eco friendly. Soil erosion from wind and water occurs when no residue is left on top of the soil to hold it in place.. Heavy tillage, such as a moldboard plow buries all residue. I no-till, planting my crops into standing corn stalks or soybean stubble from the previous crop. I hate to see people treating their soil like dirt.
Roger