Monday, February 11, 2013

How much do our pigs weigh?

Today a friend posted on Facebook how much her pigs weighed.  I wondered how she weighed them.  She used this method http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2006/01/13/how-to-weigh-a-pig-with-a-string/  I'd seen this before but had never done it myself. 

The folks who gave me my new goat, Darcy, came for a farm tour this afternoon.  I asked for their help giving the goats shots and measuring my pigs.  They obliged and were good sports about it even though one of the goats they had to hold was my stinky buck.  They even allowed me to take pictures while they helped. 

To find a pig's weight we were to measure the length of them from where the tail meets the torso to the point right between the ears.
 We also measured their girth, right behind their front legs.
Once we had these numbers we multiplied the length of the pig by the girth, then took that number and multiplied it by the girth measurement again and then divided it by 400.  The numbers were higher than I expected and I don't know how accurate they are.  If they are in fact accurate, then Roxie is 594 lbs and Calvin is 210 lbs.  I might believe Calvin is 210 but could Roxie really be that big?  It's hard to say.  I would have put her in the 400 to 500 lb. range. 

Hobbes wouldn't stand still long enough for us to get his measurements but we're guessing he's pretty close in weight to Calvin.  It's sad to think about saying goodbye to these two boys but they're getting close to butchering weight.  I think we took our last pig to the butcher around 300 lbs. 

Pigs are such interesting and cool animals.  I'd like to raise more.  We hope to have Roxie bred in the next month for babies in July.  I'm already looking forward to having piglets again.
 

3 comments:

  1. Very neat! That is a pretty sweet livestock trailer you got there as well. ;)
    Em~

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  3. Tip. If you're not so great at math, you can actually buy a measuring tape that is specifically for weighing/measuring pigs. Provides instructions and weight tables on the tape. Pretty cool.

    Pigs are so much fun. :)

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