KinzeMech - 1/12/2013 08:55
Bruce Avison - 1/12/2013 07:27
Something else that rowled me up a bit, is since the barn raised breeding stock, not just finishers, if one had a bit of a limp or got stuck in a grate, or was splay-legged, off it. Again, maybe I'm soft, but I see that a bit excessive. I'm assuming splay-leggers can still be raised for bacon in a normal manner? Don't know why they wouldn't have a seperate pen to round up the "oddballs" and sell 'em off, but it probably doesn't conform to the all-in-all-out mentality.
Bruce
No, they can't. Packing plants will either refuse the animal, or dock so heavily you get the same as nothing for it. You can thank PETA for that. The animals have to be walking well, on their own power, or they won't take them.
We had a hog get a leg caught in a gate while loading the truck to go to slaughter. Broke it's leg. The trucker wouldn't take the hog. He said the packing plant would refuse the hog. They don't want to get caught with an animal with a broken leg, for fear it will end up resulting in accusations of animal abuse. So, because of that, that animal has to go to waste.
We butchered it ourselves, to avoid wasting the meat.
As for the runts, a lot of them will grow to 100 pounds, and just stop growing there. They will never reach market size. You don't have to euthanize too many at 100 pounds to realize you really need to get to them sooner than that. That's an animal that ate a lot of feed, took up pen space, and produced nothing.
Pig/Piglet "Bouncing"
