Monday, February 06, 2006

Weighing Pigs


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To be eligible for the Suwannee River Livestock Fair, our pigs will have to weigh at least 225 and no more than 275 pounds on Saturday, March 11th.

Today we weighed them. To weigh pigs you use a portable swine scale. It is basically a scale shaped like a cage. You get the pig to walk into it, slam the door shut, check the gauge for the weight, and then let the pig out again. Simple.

Katie's pig, "Mia Ham" was 2oo pounds today. Jr's pig, "Donk" was 180 pounds. Both are doing well and on track for a successful weigh in. (Emma is not in FFA, and hence is not raising a pig)

A little more than one month to go. Posted by Picasa

8 comments:

OldHorsetailSnake said...

Gee, this is more exciting than the Super Bowl. I check in here regularly, so I hope you'll post the weigh-in just as often. Thanks, Cracker.

(BTW, I FINALLY got you linked on my site. Why I didn't do it before is beyond my ken.)

R.Powers said...

Hoss,
I'll post it everytime I weigh 'em. All of us FFA parents share the scales (they are big, heavy, and expensive) so I don't have them too often.
I definitely plan to blog the fair this year.
Thanks for the link. To be honest, I have quit adding them, I visit more than I can bear to list on the site...just lazy.

Anonymous said...

Do you feed them Redlight foods every day? :)

Thunder said...

OK, I just gotta ask. After the fair do the pigs become someone's redlight feast?

Anonymous said...

Is 2oo pounds different from 200 pounds? Is it a Florida thing? A pig thing? Just asking.

R.Powers said...

Kodijack,
I'm going to pour the food to them. They can literally eat round the clock.

Laura,
Ahh, the luxury of being a pig.

Thunder,
We don't talk about after the fair.

Pablo,
You must be an editor. I put in these typos just to keep you on your t0es.

Rurality said...

Well you NEED to talk about after the fair, because I'm curious... does someone buy them there, or do you sell them after butchering, or do you just eat a lot of pork?

I'm also curious how feeding + butchering costs compare to sales figures. I know that's not why you're raising them, but I'm still wondering.

R.Powers said...

DPR,
Actually, if they get to close to the 275 mark, they go on a slimfast diet.


Rurality,
If your pig makes it in the fair, it competes in the show ring for ribbons, etc. Everyone wants to be the Grand Champion, but only one will get it. After the showing, the pigs will be auctioned off at inflated prices bid by local businesses. The kids make a few hundred bucks and the businesses have done a good deed that is tax deductible. Last year's champ pig brought it's owner $10,000+.
No, that is not an error.

So I really don't have a clue as to the economics of raising your own pork, since we only raise for this fair.