Terrabyte Farm

Today was so exciting. I love getting feedback and learning how the fruits of our labor turned out. We were hoping that our pigs would be in the 200-250 pound range for live weight yielding about 150 pounds of “retails cuts” including the fat and organs. Well, I am very proud to say that our two boys weighed in at a very respectable 220 pounds and 238 pounds “on the rail” or at “hanging weight” which is after they have been cleaned and gutted. They do not weigh the animals live, but assuming a 20-30% loss of weight from slaughter (things like blood, guts, hair, etc) we can assume our pigs each weighed in between 275 pounds and 340 pounds respectively.

Our total meat back was 391 pounds, that is an average of 195 pounds per pig. We are very pleased. Additionally, the butchers commented on how well the fat was distributed on the pigs, not too much, but they said they have seen pigs coming through of late that are too lean. Not enough fat makes for dry and tough meat.

So, here is the final breakdown:

Back fat (to be turned into lard and in making sausages and salamis) = 35.375 pounds or about 18 lbs per pig
Leaf fat (this is truly a luxury and used for making top quality baked goods) = 10 pounds or 5 lbs per pig
Offal (heart and liver to be turned into pate) = 8.5 pounds or a little more than 4 lbs per pig
Heads (to be turned into brawn) = 26.5 pounds, with the jowls one head was 16.5 pounds, without the jowls one head was 10 pounds
Trotters (to be turned into brawn and Chinese style pig trotters) = 8.25 pounds or a little more than 4 lbs per pig
Hocks (to be smoked and used for beans and soups) = 8 pounds or 4 lbs per pig
Spare ribs = 11.75 pounds or about 6 lbs per pig
Loins = 38.75 pounds or about 19 lbs per pig
Hams = 84 pounds or about 42 lbs per pig
Bacon = 48 pounds or about 24 pounds per pig
Boston Butt = 34 pounds or 17 pounds per pig
Picnic Shoulder = 34 pounds or 17 pounds per pig
Breakfast Sausage (from the trimmings) = 25 pounds or 12.5 lbs per pig

Based on this pamphlet, we seem to have done quite well.  We only lost 15% from hanging weight to retail cuts weight, based in the fact that we will try to use EVERY edible piece of the pig.  It seems that compared to their sample pig, we ended up with very large hams, butts, and shoulders.  Our loin is on the smaller side, and we had an average amount of fat, bacon, and misc trimmings/cuts.  It was amazing to watch the butchers work, they are VERY fast and very efficient and were friendly and happy to see the kids with us.  We are so lucky to have two very good and very friendly butchers available to us, this morning I scheduled the date for the steer to go to the butcher in our town, so he will meet his fate on 10/4/09.

Tomorrow will be a very interesting day, we will be making brawn by boiling the head and a few trotters, liver pate, and brining one of the hams.  We left the other three hams and the bacon there to be smoked and will pick them up in a few weeks.

This weekend we will likely grill some ribs and enjoy a nice breakfast of sausage biscuits and gravy.  The best thing about working so hard on the farm is being able to eat the wonderful and delicious food that we produce.