castrating pigs

[The Hopefuls]

last week we brought 3 male pigs home to feed up for the freezer, this week we had a friend and his friend come to visit to "have a look" , and the 2nd friend said all male pigs should be castrated , is this true?

does it make much differance? they are 9 weeks old now,

any advice appreciated
thanks brooke & kev

[red]

its not standard practice in the UK

http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/?Display=1204

congrats on getting the pigs btw... lots of fun aren't they? we have ours for the first time this year.

[The Hopefuls]

many thanks red, its our 1st year too, we just got 3 british lops , the breeder definatly knew what they was on about as they sold meat from their premises, half pigs... the lot...
they were both vets , but never once mentioned anything about castrating the males , which we have 3 of , it was only when a friend said they should be castrated or the meat tastes bad

heres a photo for you :)

[The Hopefuls]

another question as we are new to pigs LOL....

pig manure... is it good for the garden? can i put it on like horse manure and dig it in autum/winter?

[Anne A]

Boar taint? you should read up on it, a lot of people can taste it apparently, I learnt about it be reading; http://stonehead.wordpress.com/ Stoney seems to be one of the most experienced and thoughtful pig bloggers, well worth a read

[camillitech]

Hi Hopeful's

We've kept Tamworths and Old spots for 4 years now and never castrated one yet or experienced 'boar taint' despite keeping our boars for 7, 8 and once 9 months before eating them. Whilst I'm sure it does exist it certainly does not seem to affect the offspring of our 4 breeding sows. As far as I'm aware no one has ever castrated one of our boars and they have all produced fine meat

Good luck, Paul

[Thurston Garden]

Similar to Paul, I have never castrated any of my Berkshires. If you are putting them away as porkers (6 months) their wee plums wont even be operational, but on baconers (12 months) they sure will be pronounced and of course would be more of a worry if you had some guilts in beside em, which you dont. I would leave them intact either way!

And yes, puck muck is good on the garden, just treat as horse/cow muck in my opinion. Can also be used to make a muck tea feed.