closely confined hogs and taste

Last 3 years been getting lame fat hogs from tightly confined farm. Near the farm and inside the facility the smell is
unbearable. Hogs breath this 24-7 and while are on slats are in proximity of crap . My concern does this environment effect the
taste and quality of the meat? I understand there are old and better breeds for quality taste. Thinking of either buying 2
weaned pigs and fatting then in more natural setting.Maybe just getting 2 at a time from confined farrowing farm, finishing then
in shade on wire but skidding pen as crap builds up. Ok gentlemen please give me your thoughts and possibly some quality meat
breeds and where to buy them. In that situation possibly buying a breed guilt , rasing a litter selling some to taste conscience
folks like me.re breeding would be by AI . Thanks to all for considering .

Landrace X Hampshire X Duroc.

Any hog finished where they can get their nose dirty and root around in bedding or dirt will have a better taste. I think it is more exercise than the air. When they are in total confinement buildings they just eat and sleep. So they are not muscled as well as the hogs of yesterday.

As for breeds. I always thought a York, Doroc cross was the best tasting.

JD seller brings up a good point about excercise. Old time genetics usually have a better taste because of more fat. Much of the modern breeding is to create a lean pork and despite being from a confinement farm, that lean pork has no taste to me.

When we raised hogs, they were finished outside in the dirt and sunlight starting at about 50 lbs. People who bought a side of pork from us always claimed ours tasted better then the Hutterites whose hogs were raised in confinement and never saw the light of day except loading on the truck.

Did you ever consider pooper scooping the hog pen?

not going to do it for neighbor with thousands of pigs just to buy one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I farrow to finish Hamp/York cross. None of mine are confinement or run in farrowing crates. I lose a few every once in a while but you quickly learn ways around it.

I would discourage picking up a sow for breeding. Hogs are social animals and she will tear things up out of boredom without friends to chew the fat with. She will be tougher to handle because everything is "her" way and she doesn't have to get along with others. You are also left with a huge animal that's only good for sausage after you realize cutting piglets and culling runts isn't fun. I've bred carefully to get sows with great mothering characteristics, easy handling ability, and great litter/survivor ratio. If you buy someone's cull you don't know what you get.

Get on Craig's list. Buy some weaned at five or six weeks. Bring them home and ring their noses so they don't destroy your land (or maybe that's not a big deal, either way), and feed them free choice. In five months you will have great meat and have friends crawling out of the woodwork to get some meat from you. There's just no substitute for hogs raised on dirt.

Yes the meat from a confinement raised hog stinks. My wife claimed this to be true for years and then she told me to carefully smell the porkchop I just cut into. OMG, it smells like the inside of a finishing barn. We try now to purchase free range pork, it does not have the smell. Try smelling the next juicy chop you cut into.

Hi
The barn environment does affect the meat color and flavor. We run 6 bio techs so apart from a roof over their head the hog is raised in a natural climate/day light controlled by the weather and the cycle of day and night , not a switch on the wall!. They have straw bedding not concrete and pens those guys are happy playing in the straw to.

They don't get any antibiotics here after the first 4 days i put that in the food when they come in to help deal with anything caused by the move to a new enviroment , we don't treat them after that. unless there is a whole barn full of a big health problem from our supplier. we loose very few due to tight herd bio security as our suppliers are an export breeding herd. we found out of all the odd sick ones we used to inject 95% died anyway so we quit about 8 years ago, nature takes it's coarse here now.

We have local guys that will come here and take a smaller hog that can't ship to a processor or if one happens to get a limp and can't ship. They say the meet tastes way different and has color to, compared to store bought.
My supplier has taken hogs from here in the same truck as some from the conventional climate controlled barn they run. You can see the difference in the live animal for color and how the animals react and behave to situations. If I quit here I could never work in a conventional barn, they are horrible places to raise a hog and work in.


Raising from say a 50lb plus weanling like we do and feed it good nutritional balanced corn/soya and such hog rations is the way to go. you should get a good tempered hog and the best weight gain for time. If the protein is not right it makes our hogs waist more food and it gives them a real bad attitude. I can tell and will ask the feed truck driver if they changed food or different ingredients he will say yes how did I know. simple the fact 180 of these 90 -130 kg hogs are trying to kill me in the barns all of a sudden!.
As for what to go with You can get some real good modern blends that do good like we raise them. But what they all are i don't know. I think ours are called P.I.C genetics from what my guys told me last week. we might of had some called isoweans at one point that did good to.
Regards Robert

Any pig that comes from confinement will not be good for raising outside. They do not have any resistance for disease you need to get pigs from raised on dirt background.

Sorry, I couldn't resist making a joke about it.

A few years back we butchered a wild pig. It was a young 150 lb gilt. It was the most tender flavorful pork I have ever eaten. I have been disappointed in store bought pork ever since. There are no wild pigs around here any more. I would sure like get a couple every year.

I get mine out of the confined barn. You just have to throw them in a pen outside for
A couple months feeding what you like. After a couple months there is no longer a smell.
They taste the same as my brothers born outside.
He has the black ones and I get the fatless ones

We raise three pigs every summer. One for our own consumption, and the other two go to the fair as 4H projects for my boys. We always free range, open feed them. I have always just bought what ever is available locally. I think that free range is the key. I also never put in hog rings. It is also important that the processing is done properly to have good tasting meat. I am very fortunate to be able to raise almost all our own meat.
Ted

I just read a book you might like to read ,all about hogs...The title is Pig Tales,,by Barry Estabrook.I got it in the library,its a fairly new book. It mentions some farms in Iowa,you may know them.

Bill, If anyone who know I'm sure you will. I've always wanted to know the proper way to smoke pork. Which end do you light and which end to you puff on? I gave up smoking decades ago. I have no plans to smoke pork. Just wondering who does it and which end do you put your lips on?
Geo.

I built a 8 ft x 12 ft slated floor deck and put a roof on it and enclosed one end. Put a two hole feeder in it and a old hot water tank with a nipple on the bottom for water. It worked real good for raising about 3 at a time. They would always poop in one corner so it was easy to keep clean. It was on two 4x6s so I could drag it around to where I wanted it. They were always corn fed and tasted good. Never had any problem selling them for freezer pork.

Geo, problem is, its too hard to hold between the fingers. You're right though, its hard to figure which end to puff on, a good filter helps.

I'll take your word on a good filter, especially if you plan to smoke a pig's butt.