Has anyone here bred and raised potbellied pigs for food? how did they taste? Were they easier to breed? Can they be cross bred to a meat hog? I know they carry more fat, but it can be rendered and use in soap. I am just wondering if they could be cross bred to a meatier breed for weight, but simplicity in breeding.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), August 11, 2000

Answers

I hear they are awfully gristly.

-- Shannon (Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary) (gratacres@aol.com), August 11, 2000.

what does it cost to buy a young one and what weight do they get to in how many months? here in Wisconsin you can get a young one at 35 lbs. for $40 and up, raise them for 5-6 months and end up at 250 + pounds

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), August 11, 2000.

I've heard gristly too, but then I've heard others say they were great. I am trying to get a perpetual herd going. I want something that breeds easily and produces prodigiously. We have a lot of potbellies go through our auction for cheap, cheap, cheap. I've just been considering trying to raise them. The hog we have these days are so big they are hard to breed and butcher.

Little Bit farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), August 11, 2000.

I have had some excperience with Potbellies. I buy and sell many type of livestock and ocasionly dabble in the exotic market. When Potbellies first became popular as pets I bought 2 bred sows for $1500 each they had 9 piglets I kept 2 gilts and sold the 3 remaining gilts for $800 each and the 4 boars for $500 each. I rebred the sows and bred the gilts when they were 8 months old after the second litter of piglets the prices kept dropping every litter. When I got out 2 years later gilts were down to $75 each and boars $50 each. I probaly average 2 calls a month from people wanting to get rid of their Potbellies, I won't even take them for free now, I charge them $10 a pig and they must delver them to me. They bring about 3 or 4 cents a pound at the market if I can even get a bid.

I have dressed out a couple to eat and was not pleased with the results, even the fat made lousey lard. I ocasionly sell some to some Mexican farm workers they BBQ them whole and say they are good, Maybe they have a different cooking tecnique than me but I won't waste my time dressing out any more.

Some peope have released them into the woods around here and they have bred with the wild hogs and basically ruined the strain.

It is cheaper to raise a good hog then a bad one!!!

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), August 11, 2000.

The Potbelly is a lard pig, fatty, and I don't know how tasty they would be for the U.S. tastes, nor anything about using them for lard. You'd have to ask a Vietnamese. If you want a fatty, but still tasty pig, let a hog go over 250 pounds. A well bred Pot will weigh under 100 pounds. So many go over that. The sanctuaries are filled to the brim 'cause folks expected a lap pig. I don't know if they charge the high fees to adopt a pig like they do for dogs, but you'd have to lie if you adopt! They'd never allow it if they knew the truth! To breed a female to a hog would be cruel, I would think, since delivery of a possibly very large piglet could present problems to the sow, if not death. It's been done, tho. I'm offered free Pots often; they're in the newspaper for as low as $10. I've just never favored them as a pet. My Hampshire hog is one of the best pets I've had, very laid back. The Pot is hyper. It costs as much to feed a bad pig as a good one. Get a good ol' domestic piglet for $30. In 5-6 months your taste buds will thank you!

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), August 12, 2000.

i haven't eaten any of mine yet. i got one sow and a boar for y2k thinking it would be easier to buture as smaller pig and i was really wanting the increased fat as one of the things i did worry about was fat to cook with. please don't yell but mine are now pets and are going to be put in a fenced area around the small water puddle (a pond that is not holding water very well right now) to see if they will seal it so it will be a bigger puddle. gail

-- gail missouri ozarks (gef123@hotmail.com), August 12, 2000.

Little Bit:

I agree with the others. Stick with standard breeds.

There is nothing sacred about a pig reaching a certain size before it is butchered, it just won't be as fatty. When we were on the dairy farms in WI each summer Dad would host what I think was called a sponfargel (German for a young pig roast). Anyway a young pig of 100 pounds or less was cooked over an open fire. Us kids use to just about fight over who got the tail.

Those were good times for families. Custom was on a Sunday afternoon to load everyone in the car and tour the county or to go visiting to a relative. Men playing poker, women gossiping, kids playing outside. Entire clan would get together for weddings and funerals. Weddings were always followed later in the day with a huge reception meal, with an open beer bar, and young kids were allowed a little beer. Raw liver and onions was always a dish. After funeral masses everyone got together at a restaurant for a group meal. That is still the custom at least in Milwaukee.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 13, 2000.

I think what you need might be the British Middle white, or the British Small White, breeds of hogs. These heritage breeds can compete favorably with modern commercialized strains of hog, ie feed conversion, fat percentages, etc., while maintaining the small size of the worthless potbellies. The scarcity of these small pigs make them a possible income enhancer as well. The Middle Whites have the turned up snout of the old Berkshire hogs. Randy Henry (JaRaCo)

-- Randy Henry (JaRaCo) (JaRaCoRanch@aol.com), August 13, 2000.