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.