home butcher kune kunes and other home butcher questions

Has anyone come across a good home processing video for smaller sized pigs, like the kunes?
Or pictures?
We have our plan for our larger market hogs, trying to figure out the scale down for the kunes- and get a good idea on what the bone to meat ratio is on these guys - would love to see some carcass pictures- we are debating how many to keep from a litter, and without knowing what we can expect, it is hard to plan
Our two are about 6 months old and still very small little stinkers - one is destined for the freezer, the other to stay as our herd boar once we find the right female - depending on what we learn about kunes for meat we might be looking for a mix female

and.... for the actual kill- what method do you prefer? Is there an issue with loosing the face bacon with using a .22?
Would really appreciate any input from anyone who is eating smaller pigs

i'm going to raise some potbellys for meat but have not done a home butcher on any type of pig as of yet. though my family used to raise 3 full sized hogs per year so i'm not new to having them around.

if you pasture/scrap feed the kunekunes then i would expect them to reach a good size for eating. and if you arent paying for bagged feed or are using minimal bagged feed, plus being able to home butcher then bone-meat ratio is less of an issue.
thats the way i look at it anyways.

as per butchering, watching/reading about regular hog butchers then doing potbellys or kunekunes will be the same thing only easier to handle and move. regular butchering just scaled down.

I am not sure what you mean by regular butchering. Growing up the old farmer who did his own on the place used a hammer to knock them out, then a knife, he cared about head cheese and blood sausage. We never did process our own hogs, we had the butcher shop do them for us. The farmers our family stays with in Belize use only a knife. Our market hogs we have not down ourselves so the kill truck comes and uses electric shock, do the initial cuts and bring the carcass to the butcher to finish. I think a .22 would be more humane the a knife and a bleed out, but am sure there is a trick to it so I don't ruin the face bacon.

I am not worried about the cost of raising them, that is not my concern, they are all pasture, some extra goat milk and whatever scraps we might have- it is more the commitment in switching from a pair to a herd, that is a big switch - I would like to see or at least hear about carcass beforehand.

Ours are 6 months old and maybe 30 pounds- if that. They are solid, great condition, healthy animals, not skinny- just small. They need a few more months yet before butcher anyway. One of the things I liked about them is that they will grow on grass, even if the carcass is smaller, it did not cost me a half ton of bagged feed to grow. And hopefully the butchering will be more manageable.
The size they are at now they would be perfect on our grill- but I really do wonder how much is meat and how much is bone

I am sure they have a growth curve too where they put on more bone from age this to this, and more meat from age this to this- and more fat from age this to this-- most animals do, I just do not know what that curve is for kunes- folks say they butcher around 8-10 months, but I would still love to hear more info about their growth curves and carcass conditions are various ages

some things i found on kunekunes for meat...

http://www.hollins-farm.co.uk/pigs.html

someone who used kunekunes in breeding their own line of pasture fed and friendly, easy care pigs. in idaho.
http://idahopasturepigs.blogspot.com/

this says they do well on pasture and "Kunekunes have an excellent ratio of meat to fat. The nicest pork is that killed before a year old. Kunekunes are considered by many to be nicer eating than the faster grown commercial pig."
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/swine/kunekune/index.htm


meat chart of a hog: http://www.askthemeatman.com/hog_cuts_interactive_chart.htm

"slaughtering and butchering" some info on other animals but some good stuff on pigs.. http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/geissal23.html

mother earth news, how to butcher a pig
http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/butcher-a-pig-zmaz72soztak.aspx#axzz2LQ9B5Qly

video of a hog butcher (didnt get to watch the whole thing but it will give you an idea of one way its done)
***THIS IS A VIDEO OF A HOG BEING DISPATCHED AND BUTCHERED*** DO NOT WATCH IF THIS DOESNT SOUND LIKE SOMETHING YOU WANT TO SEE***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sSYxakfeDY

(sorry for the dumb warning. i just dispise people who watch butchering videos and whine about them. obviously you can see its a butcher video, if you dont want to see that then dont look at it or watch it *rolls eyes* anyways...)

so for those of you here who have personally killed your own pigs-
did you shoot it? Did you buy the electric shock thing? Or?

I am not really worried about how to dress it out or bone it out or cut it up, once you dress out one animal, there are differences, but not too worried about that part of the butcher-- just the part about where to put the bullet, or if I am better off investing in some piece of equipment

oo cool! AND he lives in my neck of the woods so I can go to his classes or have him come to our farm to teach!!

Kunekune were brought to NZ by the Maori yonks ago, and they're close as we come to a 'native' domestic pig.
I haven't kept them, but they have many NZ fans.
A few things I've learned about them: apparently they're one of very few breeds that do well on pasture, with little, or no additional feed. A big organic winery down South uses them as lawnmowers...
Don't expect them to stay small! Full-grown kunekune can be pretty big, though still small compared to some breeds.
I imagine a relatively low-protein diet (pasture) would really slow their growth.
Kunekune tend to be really fatty. Not necessarily a bad thing of course
The piglets are possibly the cutest baby animals I've seen, with chin tassles like some goat breeds. Aaaw.

This may help - shows where the brain is in different animals and how to line up the shot so it goes down the first time. http://www.vdpam.iastate.edu/HumaneEuthanasia/anat.htm ETA: you have to hover your mouse over the pictures or click to see the brain locations.

From what I read when we had to put down our goat, brain trauma like a bullet to the head should knock them unconscious immediately, tho the body will jerk and twitch as they die.

I've read with pigs to make an imaginary line crossing the forehead from eye to ear and that makes the "X" you should aim for.

Thank you,

I was wondering how the bullet would affect the head cheese and cheek bacon - but I guess the shot seems pretty clean
it seems like the shot to head(or the electric shock or the hammer) with animals just stuns them, and then the heart pumps their blood out after you cut their thought, I was wondering if there was faster way to kill, but it really does not seem like there is

people say when you butcher animals it is quick and painless, I say bs to that, it may only take seconds or minutes, but that is not twitching or nerves until the very end , most of that kicking is them bleeding to death - we do try to do it the quickest and the best we can so that it does go as fast as it can, I hope I don't ever get over getting upset about my animal's deaths- no matter how many we have butchered here, it still gives us pause with each animal and we try to make sure we don't muddle it up and make it more painful or stressful than need be

I do my own at home butchering of small kunekune cross pigs using a .22.

Visualize an X drawn from each ear to the opposite eye. Where the lines cross is your mark. It is fast and effective.
I'm getting a hanging weight of 65-70% of live weight and prefer to butcher at 6-8 months. The most recent pig I processed had a hanging weight of 43 lbs at 7 months of age. Next years crop should be a little bigger as I am adding more kunekune to the mix.

I don't personally use meat from the head because I have not been able to find non-lead .22 bullets. Lead spreads out to contaminate the area so it's not worth it to me to eat anything from the head area. If anyone knows a source of non-lead ammo for a .22 mag please let me know. Check out this study http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/leadinfo.htm that was done related to lead poisoning of Calif. condors and you will see how much lead is left in a deer carcass taken by a hunter. I'm sure the pattern of the "lead trail" is much narrower when the shot is point blank as it is in the case of home butchering. Still, this info is enough to make me shy away from eating anything from the head.

As for fatty-- I haven't butchered any purebred KK's but my 1/2 breeds aren't fatty at all. Just a nice layer on the outside of the meat to make it nice and juicy.
Sue
http://www.kunepigs.com/

I've only self butchered 4 hogs, but my first experience using a light caliber gun made me a believer in the old timer stories about being chased around the barn by a hog you had just shot in the head. I have switched to using a 30-30 deer rifle at close range. It is quick and efficient, and there is zero suffering on the hogs side. I use the adage of making a mental x from eye to ear. It works well. The hogs I have butchered are all larger Duroc crosses with on the hoof weights of about 300 pounds. The larger size likely makes a difference.

j

Jay Hayes wrote:I've only self butchered 4 hogs, but my first experience using a light caliber gun made me a believer in the old timer stories about being chased around the barn by a hog you had just shot in the head. I have switched to using a 30-30 deer rifle at close range.
j

I'd second Jay here. If you are butchering hogs larger than kunes or even a big ol' mature kune boar I'd definitely go with the heavier caliber as he recommends. A .22 is quite effective though for sheep, goats and small pigs.
Sue
http://www.kunepigs.com/

Ah! Thank you! Thank you!
We also have a 30-30, we could do that, I know the mental X you are referring to- thank you! Thank you!
and good to hear about folks who are eating kunes too! Thank you!!

I just want to clarify the everyone here is talking about at .22 rifle, right? Not a hand gun. I helped some folks slaughter a goat one time and they used a .22 handgun. It did not do the job. My brother explained to me later that you need the rifling effect of a longer barrel to have a .22 bullet be effective. According to him, a .22 from a rifle enters the brain and scrambles it, so the animal really isn't there when it bleeds out.

Nope. I use a .22 revolver. I've never had a problem with goats, sheep or small pigs. It's all about the placement so take time to study the anatomy. It's easy to put the bullet too far forward.

Jenn Andersen wrote:I just want to clarify the everyone here is talking about at .22 rifle, right?

.22 rifle to head. It did kick 15 seconds. Slit throat. I cut out the cheek bacon and boiled the head up though I didnt have the stomach to eat it. I left it out for dogs and the badgers stripped it clean as a whistle.

Sue,
Here is a link on where to find lead free 22 mag ammo.

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/detail.aspx?use=1&loadNo=0060

I Shot a 4 year old Kune that was pretty big other day in the x eyes ears front head point with a .22 and it barely flinched!

I had to go in from the neck end avoiding the skull, that dropped it straight away.

Meat was dark like beef, tasty.

I cut out cheek bacon and boil the head and feed it to the wildlife overnight it is stripped and im left with a clean skull to make bone sauce or bonemeal.

Armin Voigt wrote:Sue,
Here is a link on where to find lead free 22 mag ammo.

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/detail.aspx?use=1&loadNo=0060

I would not recommend the lead free 22 mag ammo that I linked. I found out that it is designed for varmints and to expand violently on impact, so would not get much penetration. A better choice,in my opinion,would be full metal jacket rounds for the .22 mag since the lead is fully encapsulated and will get lots of penetration.

Has anyone used full metal jacket bullets on pigs and recovered them to see if the copper jacket remained fully intact(no visible lead to spread lead contamination)?