castrating swine ?

[mrblue]

Hello,
friend has a few 60lb ers that were not castrated.. can you still castrate at that weight ? thanks for any info

[lost1]

Yes you can, but it is a chore. Be very careful of flies and treat at the first sign of infection. Hot weather is not very good for this operation, but I don't see where you have much choice...

[hillbilly_mom]

They can be castrated at any weight. The bigger they are the harder it is to get it done. Have someone to help you sit on the hog and hold the legs, because he is going to be strong and wanting to get away. But, then again, wouldn't you. ;) We always put them on the tail gate of the truck because it gets them up to our height. DS sits on the hog and straddles the body and he squeezes with his knees to keep the hog from moving so much. DS will pull the legs back to give DH plenty of working room. By DS almost sitting on top of the hog there is less chance of the hog being cut more than it has to be cut.

I agree that it really needs to be done when it is cooler. Not only to keep infection down, but to keep flies out of the wound. Not a pretty sight if you get maggots crawling around in there. The bigger hogs aren't going to want to move around and they take longer to heal. You will have to make them get up and walk around, just like a person is suppose to walk after a "surgery". It helps it heal faster. It isn't going to do any good to castrate the hog if you just let it lay there in pain and die because you didn't want to make it get up and move around.

[mrblue]

Thanks a bunch for the info.. I have never done one but from what i have read in the past - it should be done when they are very young...
I will try and help him hold them then... and will explain the importance of keeping it clean and not just letting them lay around.. I guess it will be another learning process for me ;D... Thanks again and great site.... Don

[jim]

Hang them over a fence then cut them, or they will bite the crap outa you. I've helped cut feral hogs this way. There is a spray sold at your feed store that will keep down infection. I don't know if you can band them or not.

jim

[GroovyMike]

Mr. Blue - i'm wondering WHY your friend wants to castrate at that size. I'd eat them as is or sell them adn get smaller piglets to start over.

[RNKaren]

Dad had a fairly big hog operation when I was a kid, we used to castrate at weaning size.

I've seen him castrate larger hogs on occasion, he always put them in a scale that he had with a head chute. Then straddled them. Also sprayed the wound disinfectant stuff on them. I wish I knew exactly what it was.

I do know that if you let them get too big without castrating - the meat isn't that good. Had one once that we butchered, the bacon smelled like pee when you fried it. ick.

[mrblue]

sorry for late reply., *thanks for info.. *
i have no clue why he gets into this position... *I told him last time that from what i have read to cut at a very young age.......
How big do you think i could let one get and not castrate-- and the meat still be good......??? *i am sure i could get a couple for pretty cheap.

[lost1]

I cut mine at two weeks.
I think how big isn't as important as how old and how they are killed. On the farm, no stress, bullet between the eyes quick bleed much less chance of bad meat.

[hillbilly_mom]

The thing is that you CAN still castrate one at any size. It just takes a whole lot of work and it takes a lot more healing time for them to heal up. The smaller the hog the faster they heal.

We had a butchering sized boar that we no longer wanted to breed. DH decided to castrate him. We did it, but it was a hard job. This is the way we did it. I don't recommend doing it, because it was so hard on the hog.

Dh took a 55 gallon barrel and put it into a corner of the pen. We put feed we knew he would like in the barrel. In this case was some of my canned pears. When the hog stuck his head in the barrel to get the pears DH and DS lifted the barrel up, so the hog was on his head and his hind legs were sticking out of the barrel. DH tied a rope around the barrel, to keep it upright and also tied a rope around each foot of the hog, to keep the legs apart. The hog, of course, was squealing and trying his best to get out of the barrel. The cut had to be bigger, since he was a mature hog, but he was able to be castrated. After he was castrated DH put the medicine on the wounds to keep out the infection. I wouldn't let DH take the barrel down until DS was out of the pen, because I knew this hog was going to come out of this barrel as ticked off as ANY animal could be. DH assured me that the first thing this hog would do would find a mud hole. When DH brought the barrel down the hog stopped squealing and laid there. He didn't want to come out of the barrel and DH had to pull the barrel off of him. It was indeed a MAJOR surgery to this full grown hog. This hog did find the first mud hole he could find to lay in. We had to go outside at least every 4 hours to make sure this hog would get up and walk around. It took over a week before this hog would move around on his own.

I consider myself a "country girl" and know that critters are for eating and know that certain things have to be done to ensure that our food is right for us to eat. But after this was done to this hog I made DH promise me that he would either castrate the hogs young or sale the mature males and buy younger ones. We now only keep one breeder boar. If we want to change stock we sell that boar and buy another. I don't think I could do that to another hog.

So it is possible to castrate a full grown mature hog. It is just hard on both the hog and the person doing the castrating. My DH has castrated hogs since he was a child. If the person isn't familiar with the job, they should NOT attempt to do this to anything but a younger hog. The bigger they are the harder it is.

[otobesane1]

We used a brand of disinfectant called Pine-E (not sure of the spelling) Oil. Crowded momma pig to the back of the pen in the farrowing house with a big piece of plywood, grabbed the piglets and placed them on their back on a 2X12 laid across the top of the pen, stretch their little front legs and snout one way and spread the back legs, slice, snip and spray. Job done.