OT Pigs !!!

[Jd44A_1]

I'm sure A LOT of us here raised feeder
pigs or still have some around. Growing
up we had our fair share. We started from
just a pickup box load and went to about
200 head over some time. Anyways,s they
always had fresh ground corn to help
their bodies grow. Once in a while we
would get about a half pickup load of
apple from town and ya...theyd eat some
but not all of them. Never did give them
rotten grain that I remember from the
local co-op. Was in a discussion with a
guy and he's been feeding his feeder pigs
or wants to feed them the stinkin junk
rotten fly invested grain from the same
co-op as we live in the same township. I
told him the meat will taste or smell
like what theyve been eating. The stinkin
rotten fly infested grain. What you
guys say about this ???? Ive had pork
thats been fed rotten grain and whatever
else they could find on their own. It
was the nastyiest pork ive ever had in my
life!!!! Need some good
feedback....thanks

 

[Gambles]

A guy that I know raises a few pigs for some side money and to feed his family. About two years ago, the local volunteer fire department had a fund raiser by selling fresh-off-the-grill pork burgers, complete with side dishes (beans, potato salad, etc.) and drinks. My acquaintance donated a pig to be used to make some of the pork burgers. Everybody could tell when they were eating his pork burgers and I know a few people who took a bite of a pork burger and ate no more of them. Why did they stop eating his pork burgers? This hog raiser had found a super deal from a local factory that makes fish food that is made from fish byproducts. That is what he was feeding his pigs to fatten them up, so much so that all of his pork burgers tasted like rotten fish.

 

[Tony in SD]

You are correct. Pork will take on the taste of what ever they eat. As said by Gambles I also had a friend that feed his pig carp. When he fried bacon it even smelled like fish cooking. Now on the other hand, my daughter fed a pig an apple or 2 a day. Best tasting pork we ever had.

 

[Jd44A_1]

I knew i was correct. Now to get MORE replies like yours !!!!! Just rub it a little....

 

[Jd44A_1]

I love fish but not fishy pork.....Thanks for the reply !!!

 

[Robert Major]

Hi I custom raise hogs here they get fed the proper rations by our hog supplier. But my girlfriends brother works in a processing plant near here. They as a company raise and process their own animals in their barns. In a conversation one day he happened to say he'd heard they were trying to get the hogs to eat herbs and spices in the feed ration to get flavored meat. I never thought much about it but from what guys here said about tainted meat I wouldn't doubt they are trying it.
Regards Robert

 

[moresmoke]

Here's a couple hog ration ideas. Barley instead of corn will make the fat stiffer, so your sausage will hold together better.
And dry peas in the ration will make some of the most tender meat you have ever seen.

 

[olgentdc]

same sort of thing here ,, i bought a hog from a guy who raises a dozen at a time ,, i never will say this to anyone in my family,, but ,, to me, the sausage meat tastes like shyt,,.. the chops and roasts seem good ,,. , i took some hay over to the guys place,, and saw the deplorable condition of the pig pen and am nearly gaggin at this writing ,, NEVER AGAIN .////. i do like the idea of apples in the feed.. mite do that some day here,,. i used to raise 350 head a yr ,,.and they do taste like what they eat , , i have a pignut hikory tree grove the sows used to run in , plenty of NUTZ ... had a momma sow that only raised 5 pigs and so we butchered her ,,, along with her regular feed ,she had plenty of those nuts to eat , and i coulds tell it in the meat, it was great at 1st , but after a while i could smell that in the house cookin ,, and got to where none of us really liked pork , we shared the pork with all family members just to get rid of it ,,, no one complained , and when i asked them about the hikory smell . all said that was great tasting meat . ////// , in pork magazine i used to get , there was a florida pork producer that got orange peels and odd balloranges and such ,, he claimed his customers loved his orange pork meat ,, i would love to try that sometime .

 

[wilson ind]

bought fat pigs from local feeder.they feed thousands of head per year .. Raised over pit. couple of pigs in past just tasted off. I do think constant smell of pig manure for pigs to breath has a taste.

 

[Hotflashjr]

Hit a reply up top first. We raised pigs in our orchard last year and fed drops to them. Not rotten junk but decent drops. Our meat was good, but did not have an apple taste. Daily diet was corn and soybean ration and they were given some scrap vegetables as well as open field to root around in. They loved watermelon and cherry tomatoes. They were not wild over the apples.

I was told if you feed too much of anything beyond grain the fat can get squishy and take on different flavors. A guy near us just feeds vegetable scraps and the fat on his pork chops has no flavor and is chewy. Ours melts in your mouth with a nice flavor.

As to the apple cider vinegar we add that to water for our pigs and meat birds, especially the week before slaughter. Again we did not notice a real apple falvor on either animal. We also gave the pigs last year some goats milk from a friend. Pigs loved that mixed in with some grain. They got it twice a week for about a month and it really seemed to help bulk them up.

 

[Jd44A_1]

Old pig farmer around home would bring in barley and have me grind it as I was the mill hand at the local feedstore for sow feed. Said it helped with the milk !!! I believe it cuz he'd raised pigs before i was born. Kinda miss that arnery guy !!!

 

[Brown Swiss]

I still have a few pigs, feed them corn and soy, but get the table scraps also. They will not eat citrus fruit, peels or the fruit inside, would have to be very hungry to do so I would think!

 

[john in la]

Back when I worked at the milk bottling plant and guy would come by every day and take all the out of date milk and mix it with stale bread for pigs. Never tasted the meat from the pigs so do not know how well it work as some say you should not feed bread to pigs.

Saw a guy that had a tractor with a 24 yard dump trailer.
He was buying what looked like garbage. Lettuce and other greens from restaurants in town.
Said he was feeding it to dairy cows.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

I've heard of giving cattle beer to fatten them up they bring big money,so you might try giving them some of your favorite beer.