Don’t Worry, I hate me too…

So, butchering is always super difficult. It takes me a lot of mental strength to do it. This is especially the case with guinea pigs.

They are sweet, adorable, and full of life! But when you are breeding for livestock for improvement, you have to cull early, and cull often. It is a sad reality, but very true. I breed first for survival in an outdoor setting, and secondly for size.

Yesterday was the day. I had to go through and choose one male for replacement, and get my herd down to 20 total females. Both for cost of feeding, and choosing the best stock for another generation. I kept 12 pigs of my own breeding, and 8 of my originals.

In order to meet slaughter criteria, they have to be 1 lb 6 oz. 34 pigs met this criteria. We also have 20 males and 24 females still in grow out. There are also 6 baby pigs born in the last few weeks.  This brings our total up to 70 pigs. When did I get over 100 pigs? Yikes they reproduce quickly.

And the dogs have food for nearly a month. Perfect timing for the unemployed!