What’s the best breed of hog to raise for home butchering? Sausage, pork chops an pork belly is what is in mind.
Will be raised inside barn. Thanks

I’d look at duroc pretty hardy and usually have the biggest loin size with pretty good meat.

Amercian landrace if you can find them. Long hog with an extra rib.

Yorkshire, or an old spot both do well in confinement, most of the ones we raise are crosses, I have good luck with red pigs, if they have black spots, all the better.

There, you have it. Didn’t have time for popcorn.

Better yet a two or three way cross of just about any of those breeds.

I've never raised a hog but when I buy one I try to get a Duroc or any of the heirlom breeds.

I guess I didn’t ask are you looking for feeder pigs or are you talking breeding stock?

Thanks for all the advice. I’ll will definitely check them out.


Yes feeder pigs

Any 40# er' will do

Cheaper the better

We raised a berkshire and a duroc feeder pig this year. The berkshire hurt his leg and in August so we butchered him a little early. The duroc got butchered the beginning of November. The duroc yielded 40 pounds of belly and plenty of everything else. The berkshire didnt have as much belly, but he was also a couple months younger. We have an old spot gilt I plan to breed to a duroc or something

Love the Harley - Hog Heaven sign - that's great

I have had good luck with Duroc/Cross or Hampshire/Cross. I try and buy from a farmer with good genetics and not any feeder pig to arrive at the Sale Barn. I have been able to finish a hog in 90 days in my mobile pig tractor.

One time deal, or breeding?

I always bought the cheapest at auction, eyeballing per lb.
Also, had a local Memnonite lady who would have her kids catch all they could and stick them.in a pen.
$30, your choice.
I'd send my kids in and tell them.to grab the biggest ones, lol.
Got a lot of 70+#ers that way.

Gotten expensive lately.

All above are good choices, I prefer the Spotted Poland chinas

We have a lot of hog farms here in Iowa. When my son was in 4H we raised a few. Biggest problem was finding someone to sell you some. Almost all the time the farmer raising the hogs wasn't the owner. We would buy 3. Pick the best for show. sell 2 and butcher 1. He had a couple of blues doing that. Surprised me each time.
just

I know of at least two guys that still raise hogs they show themselves and to sell pigs to 4H kids to show. Those folks are around, but not easy to find. Another option is to check on craigslist and/or face plant marketplace. Lots of small lots of livestock show up there.

If I was to grow out pigs again I'd like to try some Red Wattles, an heirloom breed that has a lot of marbling in the meat, supposedly very tasty, Have no idea where you'd find them or at what price.

I used to get mine from a displaced hillbilly that raised generic pigs, used to be 25 bucks, last ones I think were pushing 60....

Be sure to get you a pig castrator. There are numerous pictures of them on here.

They have it great here until Fall

You skinning or scalding when you butcher?

white hogs look cleaner then dark hogs if your scalding

red wattle is the best tasting hog I have ever had
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Wattle_Hog

I traded a guy tree cutting for a half hog , it was great.

We have had our best luck when buying feeder pigs to buy crossbreds, typically 2-3 way crosses, most with Duroc and Yorkshire with Hampshire, spotted Poland China or American Landrace but Duroc and Yorkshire were two that we had in all our groups. With Yorkshire and Landrace you can go a little longer if scheduling butchering is difficult as they are longer and don't get as fat as quicky as some. If you are going to butcher your own then that is not an issue. We did not butcher our own so we scheduled with a processor. Almost had to pick the date and then buy the feeder pigs as many are months out on hogs and almost longer on beef.

Bryce

As of right now I don’t plan to do any breeding. Just going to buy a few barrows to try.
Plan on doing the scalding method as of now. Many different breeds to choose from.
Thanks for the reply’s so far

Berkshires have red bristles that won't scald clean. The meat is the best though so skinning them is best.

I would love to raise one off but considering it's either just me doing the cutting or just me wrestling the thing into a trailer to haul for someone else to cut I'd have to look at a guinea or pot belly, lol.

I remember hog killing being a community affair and now that I'm older I understand why, lol.

Berkshires or red wattles for the best taste. Raise them on dirt or deep bedding!

Warrior, Im a one man show (albeit a good bit younger) and its not too big of a problem if you have a tree, a hoist, and something to pull with. Before I set upmy skinning area I would cross stake rebar underneath the tree branch, and hook a chain to the skin and rebar to let the hoist do the skinning work. I cant/dont scald for the reason you mentioned, but havent felt like I miss out on much by skinning instead of scalding. Would be a little too much for me I believe. If you are really interested, kune kunes and mangalitsas are supposed to be smaller framed, slower growing pigs in addition to the ones you mentioned

I always scalded and butchered them myself, a block and tackle and scalding barrel next to a strong table works good, .. but I was a lot younger then, lol

I'd skin them now if I had another one, and the butchering isn't that hard to do..A cooler would be nice if you can't get a weather window....

Hogs a pretty easy to skin out, beef is where thing can get interesting just because of the weight, some of the heritage breeds have a website for the breed and will list breeders that can maybe lead you to some pigs, I do agree with staying away from sale barn pigs some can be great and the next one can be bad around here I’m not sure if any are sold that way now.

I've been involved in one beef. Nope, not again. Sun up to sun down getting that steer cut up into eating sized chunks.