Lactating sows don't taste good?
- Thread starter Unlicensed Dremel
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In the hunting club I am in in the past 5 years id say we average killing 25 hogs per year.
Most all of them get cooked wether it be boar, slick belly sow, or lactating sow. We have taken them up to 500#. The 500# was cooked and eaten and tasted just fine as were 2 300# boars the year before.
Ive seen some come in that when u started cleaning them smelled rank as can be. Others Ive seen have no smell at all to them. (all cold weather kills)
I head shoot the ones I take. They are down quick and bleed out a lot, so that might also help some.
The guys here just soak them in plain ice water for a couple of days.
Most all of them get cooked wether it be boar, slick belly sow, or lactating sow. We have taken them up to 500#. The 500# was cooked and eaten and tasted just fine as were 2 300# boars the year before.
Ive seen some come in that when u started cleaning them smelled rank as can be. Others Ive seen have no smell at all to them. (all cold weather kills)
I head shoot the ones I take. They are down quick and bleed out a lot, so that might also help some.
The guys here just soak them in plain ice water for a couple of days.
I am aware that they are considered a pest
but still think that killing sows is counterproductive
I hunt protecting crops for farmers (but not on a texas scale) we also have a year round season almost, a farmer can always just call it protecting his crops and hunt, the real season is almsot year round.
as boar used to be part of our fauna it can't be listed as invasive. they were gone for hundreds of years but escapees from penned areas escaped and voila, in 25 years we have gone from not shooting a single pig to shooting 100k last hunting year.
and sweden is 2/3 the size of texas, and half the country is pig free due to cold.
I have hunted in germany which holds a laaarge number of hogs
killing sows with piglets is always bad here and there.
I very clearly don't see a leading sow myth, very much true from my experience
a sow that has had a few piglets shot from her will stay away from those fields ime
piglets that starve to death isn't a good thing either, not that I care that much for the suffering but it can't be good to have carcasses rotting scattered across the land, trichinosis and so on
young pigs without a sow will breed EARLIER then pigs with a lead sow, hence counterproductive.
pigs without the lead sow wreck more -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED-,
If I can get any higher on my horse I say that you americans should look to do more European style driven hunts
ditch the pitbulls, solohunts over a feeder and so on
it is just not effective enough, a bunch of dogs and you get one pig at a time? what is that?
I get that helihunting can be effectice and tbh looks helluva lot of fun
but hunt more communal
people in blinds all over the area
and dogs that just bark/drive the pigs or beaters
and get Franz Albrecht over there ASAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ob0fgc0I7A
imagine him in a heli
but still think that killing sows is counterproductive
I hunt protecting crops for farmers (but not on a texas scale) we also have a year round season almost, a farmer can always just call it protecting his crops and hunt, the real season is almsot year round.
as boar used to be part of our fauna it can't be listed as invasive. they were gone for hundreds of years but escapees from penned areas escaped and voila, in 25 years we have gone from not shooting a single pig to shooting 100k last hunting year.
and sweden is 2/3 the size of texas, and half the country is pig free due to cold.
I have hunted in germany which holds a laaarge number of hogs
killing sows with piglets is always bad here and there.
I very clearly don't see a leading sow myth, very much true from my experience
a sow that has had a few piglets shot from her will stay away from those fields ime
piglets that starve to death isn't a good thing either, not that I care that much for the suffering but it can't be good to have carcasses rotting scattered across the land, trichinosis and so on
young pigs without a sow will breed EARLIER then pigs with a lead sow, hence counterproductive.
pigs without the lead sow wreck more -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED-,
If I can get any higher on my horse I say that you americans should look to do more European style driven hunts
ditch the pitbulls, solohunts over a feeder and so on
it is just not effective enough, a bunch of dogs and you get one pig at a time? what is that?
I get that helihunting can be effectice and tbh looks helluva lot of fun
but hunt more communal
people in blinds all over the area
and dogs that just bark/drive the pigs or beaters
and get Franz Albrecht over there ASAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ob0fgc0I7A
imagine him in a heli
well there is
I don't have any sources myself, I haven't studied the scientific papers myself, only read articles which cites them
our hunting federations didn't just come up with it willy nilly. it has been researched
it is just recently that we did make it a real game animal and not a pest so now we don't have eradication as a goal
I don't have any sources myself, I haven't studied the scientific papers myself, only read articles which cites them
our hunting federations didn't just come up with it willy nilly. it has been researched
it is just recently that we did make it a real game animal and not a pest so now we don't have eradication as a goal
I wonder just how many articles citing animal behavior, and statistics about their behavior, etc.. really have much basis in fact. I read statistics on hunting and hunters in game pamphlets supposedly researched and verified that I would guess are just dreamed up by the "experts".
Articles constantly state how many deer and hogs we have here in Texas, how much damage the hogs are causing for ranchers and farmers (stated in actual dollars and cents?)....just how do they come up with these figures?
I just picked up my new hunting license for the year and their pamphlet has an article on how the antler restrictions are working so well and we are growing monster bucks. We have no reporting program here so they have no way to tell how big the bucks are that are being harvested. No mention of the bucks running around that should be culled that are part of the breeding herds and can't be shot.
I think a guy just has to use his own common sense, and I think some of us still have some of it.
As far as shooting and eating feral hogs...listen to the guys that do it on a regular basis and you will probably have better info than some expert sitting in an office will give you.
Articles constantly state how many deer and hogs we have here in Texas, how much damage the hogs are causing for ranchers and farmers (stated in actual dollars and cents?)....just how do they come up with these figures?
I just picked up my new hunting license for the year and their pamphlet has an article on how the antler restrictions are working so well and we are growing monster bucks. We have no reporting program here so they have no way to tell how big the bucks are that are being harvested. No mention of the bucks running around that should be culled that are part of the breeding herds and can't be shot.
I think a guy just has to use his own common sense, and I think some of us still have some of it.
As far as shooting and eating feral hogs...listen to the guys that do it on a regular basis and you will probably have better info than some expert sitting in an office will give you.
I put a couple on my smoker once about that size. I wrap them in tinfoil so they don't get too smokey, but use a good rub on them before cooking. As I was taking them off, a friend stopped by and I gave him one of them. He stopped by a friend's place that had a game processing business on the way home. To make a long story short, they all got their pocketknives out and the little pig never made it home with the guy. They are super tender and tasty at that size.
Double Naught Spy
New member
We think getting rid of protective breeders is a good thing.
voila, in 25 years we have gone from not shooting a single pig to shooting 100k last hunting year.
Much better to have the sow raise the piglets into productive ecosystem destroyers.
And continue to raise the piglets, educating them along the way.
You are right. Much better to have the piglets destroying crops, spreading disease over wide distances, and causing erosion problems than to have them die off.
First you are worried about them starving to death and now you claim they are breeding. Provide the articles.
Oh right, because Sweden is doing so good controlling its hogs, Sweden being 2/3 the size of Texas and now with some 300K from escaped captives since the 1970s, a population that is growing at a fast rate. Y'all are a great model for hog control methods.
http://www.wildsweden.com/about/the-wild-animals/
http://files.webb.uu.se/uploader/271/BIOKand-13-025-Duck-Lovisa-Sammanfattning.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=w...KHc_xBOc#v=onepage&q=wild boar sweden&f=false
In fact, y'all have done such a poor job of managing your hogs that they have now invaded Norway that DOES list them as invasive despite once having been indigenous there.
http://dolly.jorgensenweb.net/nordicnature/?p=234
So you don't shoot the sows and the population keeps growing and growing and growing. LOL.
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I have a buddy that eats them when he can. Gut, skin, behead, and then roast like a chicken or broil like a turkey with various spices. He thinks they are wonderful and claims they are very tender.
The sows in this area are different. About one-third of the adult sows we hunt and trap have never had a litter and are not pregnant. It's not unusual to find a 2-4 year old sow that has never borne pigs. Not sure what to attribute that to: Maybe it's the Eurasian boar blood that many wild hogs here carry.
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Double Naught Spy
New member
They breed early as well, so any Eurasian contribution would not have any relevant impact.
there is stuff in this that mentions what I brought up
http://jagareforbundet.se/PageFiles/11121/framgangsrik_vildsvinsforvaltning_ny.pdf
you could probably use an online translation thing
well now it has stabilized.
the boars won't spread in any significant numbers anymore because of climate (most of the pigs are in the south of Sweden)
and it is a great resource for hunting to. it is not all cons
now we got wolves who are eating our moose so we need something to hunt you know
educating them so stay of the fields, don't come into town, stay of the roads etc etc
it is the sows that keep the boars away most of the time to
with the lead sow gone...
the lead sows cycle controls the others heat cycle. with her gone it affects the others, they can re-heat
you don't see the logic in this?
it is not only Sweden mind you, Germany is the model we look to and they manage big populations just fine (that you read about pigs in Berlin is more to do with PETA idiots) overall they have found a balance of agriculture and thriving driven hunting
If you do want to and need to eradicate them I have no problem with that, it is a different country and enviroment.
obviously the way things are handled now isn't working right? making any dents in the numbers?
life finds a way and all that, and maybe just maybe one of the reasons are those I have mentioned...
total eradication is a looong process
http://www.galapagos.org/conservation/project-isabela/
and those are islands, still took a huge amount of heli time and close to 10 years.
http://jagareforbundet.se/PageFiles/11121/framgangsrik_vildsvinsforvaltning_ny.pdf
you could probably use an online translation thing
well now it has stabilized.
the boars won't spread in any significant numbers anymore because of climate (most of the pigs are in the south of Sweden)
and it is a great resource for hunting to. it is not all cons
now we got wolves who are eating our moose so we need something to hunt you know
educating them so stay of the fields, don't come into town, stay of the roads etc etc
it is the sows that keep the boars away most of the time to
with the lead sow gone...
the lead sows cycle controls the others heat cycle. with her gone it affects the others, they can re-heat
you don't see the logic in this?
it is not only Sweden mind you, Germany is the model we look to and they manage big populations just fine (that you read about pigs in Berlin is more to do with PETA idiots) overall they have found a balance of agriculture and thriving driven hunting
If you do want to and need to eradicate them I have no problem with that, it is a different country and enviroment.
obviously the way things are handled now isn't working right? making any dents in the numbers?
life finds a way and all that, and maybe just maybe one of the reasons are those I have mentioned...
total eradication is a looong process
http://www.galapagos.org/conservation/project-isabela/
and those are islands, still took a huge amount of heli time and close to 10 years.
Double Naught Spy
New member
Really?
Wow, all those sows you keep alive are doing a poor job of raising young. As it turns out, between 2005 and 2010, collisions with hogs in Sweden quadrupled. http://farmprogress.com/story-oh-look-at-the-pretty-deer-wham-9-43654
http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/hhsslueko/2014_5f005.htm
Actually, it fails to corroborate many of your claims. Additionally, it is oriented toward development and maintenance of a sport hunting industry, trying to get sows into a synchronized birthing schedule to facilitate sport hunting.
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i've hunted and killed a few hundred wild hogs in the woods, at feeders, in game plots and on wheatfields. Spent thousands of hours hunting, trapping and observing wild hogs. i often hunt wheatfields where it's not unusual to see sounders of 40-60 wild hogs. Large sounders are usually accompanied by one or more mature boars.
Here some small sounders consist entirely of mature sows without pigs. Quite often these sows are not pregnant nor have they borne a litter. Once killed all five mature sows from such a group, one right after the other. None were pregnant.
After last deer season i started shooting boar hogs. The tally now stands at 11 for the year, ranging in size from about 200 pounds to about 350 pounds. Most were shot in areas inaccessible to vehicles and were not recovered. Collected the hams, shoulders and back straps from some. A few were field dressed and given to folks who needed the meat.
My hog killing priority runs this way:
1. Mature boars.
2. Mature sows.
3. All others.
IMO: Sweden set itself up for a hog catastrophe. "Managing" wild hogs for sport hunting is a myth. Parts of Norway where a wild hog was not seen for hundreds of years are now populated by wild hogs thanks to Sweden's misguided wild hog policies.
Here some small sounders consist entirely of mature sows without pigs. Quite often these sows are not pregnant nor have they borne a litter. Once killed all five mature sows from such a group, one right after the other. None were pregnant.
After last deer season i started shooting boar hogs. The tally now stands at 11 for the year, ranging in size from about 200 pounds to about 350 pounds. Most were shot in areas inaccessible to vehicles and were not recovered. Collected the hams, shoulders and back straps from some. A few were field dressed and given to folks who needed the meat.
My hog killing priority runs this way:
1. Mature boars.
2. Mature sows.
3. All others.
IMO: Sweden set itself up for a hog catastrophe. "Managing" wild hogs for sport hunting is a myth. Parts of Norway where a wild hog was not seen for hundreds of years are now populated by wild hogs thanks to Sweden's misguided wild hog policies.
Double Naught Spy
New member
Apparently, there is Swedish research that agrees...
http://files.webb.uu.se/uploader/271/BIOKand-13-025-Duck-Lovisa-Sammanfattning.pdf
Numerous papers point to control being based on the killing of females, predominately all ages of females, as killing off the boars, as is typical of trophy hunting, has little or no bearing on population control.
The killing of females was supported in this Swedish study...
http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/2041/5/magnusson_m_101123.pdf
In fact, this study specifically noted that the killing of adult females decreases the survival probability of piglets which is beneficial for population control efforts
Other studies also support the killing of females for population control efforts.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01094.x/full
http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data...uling_Diss_V2.pdf?origin’=’publication_detail
None suggest NOT killing of sows with piglets.
There is no indication that the Swedish wild boar population is now stabilized and their detrimental impacts continue to grow there, ecologically, agriculturally, culturally, and financially.
http://www.academia.edu/9792875/An_...d_by_wild_boars_a_case_study_in_Arboga_Sweden
This study also noted that hunting actually reduced piglet dispersal, not increased it. http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data...uling_Diss_V2.pdf?origin’=’publication_detail
As for eating the lactating sow business. In looking at various online sources, commercial slaughter houses butcher by age and utility. So a percentage of commercial hog meat is going to come from pregnant and/or lactating females and we never know it.
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