Gene Water

Captive bolt is your answer.  Otherwise, I would say that if you can't shoot them, get them tanked up til they're rolling on the ground, then wack them in the head with a sledge hammer, then stick 'em.  Trying to get them with a hammer right off the bat, I dunno, I could see you missing a solid shot, this poor piggy is now hurt and terrified, you're terrified that you hurt him, everybody traumatized, it's just not good all around.  

We got guinea hogs, 2 of them, they're going to be a year come october.  They look to be around 80 lbs each maybe.  At this rate, they should be in the 110ish range I'm thinking by mid fall when I'll do them.  I feed them grower feed x2 per day, 3 scoops each time between the 2 of them, and then the rest of the day they graze/root.  Sometimes I'll throw in our kitchen scraps/leftovers as well.  I think they're a fairly easy breed to deal with, friendly and docile, not hard to confine with hog panels.  The downside is that they won't get too big.  If you're going to get them as weaners in spring, expect to winter them, because they just won't get big enough worth the effort until they're at least a year old.  

Kune kunes are similar in the sense of growth rate, ease of raising, etc, with the added benefit that they root even less than guinea hogs (which do root, btw...don't believe the stories that they don't).  But, they're very expensive compared to guinea hogs.  That's why more often than not, when you see them in the US, they're pets, not food.  

I have no info on ossabaws, sorry.  

By the time we got the pigs, I already bush hogged the area, so it was mostly grass.  They root the wetter/softer ground like crazy, sometimes tearing up all grass in one day.  So my advise is, if you're going to put them there, be ready to move them very often.

Hi, I used the search function here and got some positive info, but also read on a DNC white paper that pigs shouldn't be put to graze on wetland (no explanation why).  So here I am asking, can I rotational graze piggies on wetland?  Anybody doing this?  I've got a couple acres of it, floodway land backing up to a creek, mostly all overgrown with the usual wetland grasses.  I'm looking into a couple american guinea hogs.  How are they on a diet of cat tails and such?  

Looks like this thread ran dry.  Well, I've made bread kvass a bunch of times since posting here last, and actually have a batch brewing on the counter now as I type this.  It's really hard to mess up, honestly.  

Here's what you need to make around 2 gallons:
- Loaf of bread.  Traditional way is to use a rye loaf, but really you could use any type.  You're going to toast it, so get a sliced loaf if you're doing it in the toaster.  
- Raisins, golden or dark.
- Sugar, 3-4 cups.
- Active, dry yeast, 3/4 oz.  They sell it at any grocery store in a 3-pack, you'll use all 3 packs.  

So, the process:
Boil water in a big soup pot.  While it's boiling, you could toast your bread.  The darker you toast it, the darker the brew, you could play around with it, but you definitely want to at least toast it so it's very dry.  I prefer unsliced bread, I tear it up into big chunks and toast it on my grill outside.  Big chunks are easier to fish out of the water later, but either way you'll be fine.

So your water boiled and your bread is toast.  Turn off the heat, toss a healthy handful of raisins into the pot, toss in your bread, cover, and let it sit just like that for 10 hours or so.  

After that, you're going to fish out the bread.  Like I said, big chunks are easier to fish out, and also to squeeze after getting them out, so that you don't lose too much water from the pot.

So the bread is out, the raisins are still in, and now you toss in your yeast and sugar.  I find 3 cups of sugar is just right for me.  Stir it up a little, and let it sit on the counter for another 10 hrs or so, covered with a lid, occasionally giving it a quick stir.  

After that, strain through a cheese cloth, pour into water jugs with a screw-on cap, stick in the fridge.  You need to be careful for the next few days, unscrewing the caps every few hours to release the gas, else boom!!! all over your fridge.  

The kvass will be fairly sweet when freshly made, will lose sweetness as the yeast eats up the sugar.  I like it best on the 3rd or 4th day.  Enjoy!

Excellent, thank you.

Walter, I saw that page on your website, that's what I'm going by, very helpful.

I was wondering, why do you send out to slaughter if you're doing your own butchering? Is that a USDA requirement for retail? For pig, we'll keep one and sell the other to friends in bits and pieces...not really for sure yet about all the legality stuff there. I looked up chickens, though. Seems we could process our own chickens for retail w/o license if we do less than, well, way more than we're ever hoping to grow in a year.

Thanks for the responses, guys. Can I ask, do you notice any difference between frozen pork and aged, or do you let it sit out in the fridge for a while after defrosting?