We've gotten Duroc feeder pigs the last couple years, and they seem to out grow about any about any breed we've ever had before. Here they are the first week of May....couple of 30lb weaned piglets. Our Border Collie is around 50lbs by comparison.....and trying to herd them. Killed the first one this morning....he weighed 430lbs. Will do the other one in a couple weeks. He looks a bit smaller, but by then, should be pretty close to this one. I started about 7:30am, and had him hanging in the cooler by 9:30. Will start cutting up tomorrow morning after it chills overnight.
We usually get 10-12 quarts per pig. I save the leaf fat (around the kidneys) to render separate as it is the best of lard. One of the reasons old timers scalded and scraped their hogs was so the carcass was chilled with the skin on.....once chilled, you can remove it far easier, leaving more fat on the body to trim up for lard. I waste a lot, as you can see, by skinning versus scald/scrape ...but we still end up with plenty for the two of us. Since I work by myself, its a LOT less work to skin.
