DH gets to pick a pig. There's 7 of them all ranging between 65 and 80 pounds.

How DO you choose a pig? Biggest, smallest?

Long and hot dog shaped or short and stubby?

Male, female?

Help!

What are you going to do with your pig? If you are raising it to slaughter, you get more lean meat from a longer pig and females are generally less trouble.

Thank you!
We're raising it to slaughter. Well, we aren't...the guy DH works for is, in exchange for DH doing the chores occasionally.

Is lean meat good in pork? I thought it was all about the fat/marbling but I suppose that's kind of built in to a pig...

Lee Anne if you want flavor and tenderness go for the fat pig.

Long and lean, if you have a choice. I always called the fat pigs "pie crust pigs"..........lots of lard and I don't think you want that. Unless you bake lots of pies. LOL

LOL!! nope, not a lot of pies baked here...

what a decision!!

I should have specified "long and lean" does not mean "razorbacks". LOL Wish I had a pic of a nice lean hog. I always told hubby that if I had a choice for one to butcher, I'd always pick a gilt that had already had a litter, but didn't breed back (for whatever reason). Best meat I've ever had. Nice sized chops and hams, and not lots of fat. Yum. That's the only part I miss of not having hogs. Oh, and the fact that they were great kitchen trash and "old food" eaters. They loved it when I took my kitchen trash up there..........you could almost hear them "oh, guys, look, here she comes and she has PAPER for us to chew up". They pulverized it and it made good bedding.

The back side to the long lean ones is that they are harder to catch... just saying

Yep, athletic and fit!

I slaughtered the below pictured stocky Hampshire boar a couple years ago. I was very disappointed to have gotten almost no fat out of him; it was the leanest hog I've ever seen.



Fat is good. You can trim off the excess and render it down into highly valuable lard.

Just make sure you don't get the runt.

Gads, didn't your meat taste and smell "boar-y". You can get distinct boar smell on even a young barrow (250 pounds) that has an undetected undescended testicle. Smells bad and tastes even worse. Boar meat is only good for mixing in for bologna, etc. where it isn't the only meat in it.

I agree. Not recommended eating!

I'm so sorry I didn't see your replies - I forgot to watch this thread!

The meat didn't taste or smell boary at all, actually. It was perfectly fine pork that we're still eating on, actually (although we are almost out of it).

I don't know why the meat was fine, I guess we lucked out.

Gay boar?

Certainly not. He was kept busy with his 5 sows right up until the end.

My apologies to himself!

metro boar?

Best home grown pork we've had was raised on Purina's "Lean Generation" feed. Really good tasting and tender, too. And it wasn't just luck; we had three that were raised that way and they were all good!

No beer and massages???

You volunteering?