Last year we had some friends bring us some wild hog meat and that was very good too!! Both the kunekune and the wild hog have a lot more flavor than what we used to buy at the store.

We purchased a 4 year old Kunekune sow from a friend for $200 and had her processed for a little under $250 with curing. We ended up with around 140 pounds of meat. I read and heard that because she's older we should get mostly ground but we went ahead and got ham, bacon, ribs, roasts, organs and it all looks absolutely amazing! We just got her back before we left for Thanksgiving week, but now I can't wait to try some of the meat.

If you boil your hams before baking them, they'll be more tender. We always boil them to get a lot of the salt out because of high blood pressure in my family. But it makes it tender and you then bake it for the holidays. I have a meat allergy so I can't eat any of it anymore but I still cooked the ham this way for Thanksgiving for the rest of my family. And it literally fell apart. Try it.

We got into pigs last fall. After we bought our first.. we had a 2nd within the next 3 days... 2 months later, we bought a breeding pair. 1500 we paid for the breeding pair.. she was pregnant with a different boar than we received. You guys look like a very efficient setup, thanks for the video. Eager to harvest one of ours.. but still around a year yet.

Good morning Heather and Levi. Everything looks great. ❤❤❤

Heather, you had me at bacon...lol. You actually came out ahead, even though you had your kune's for two years. Also, so much better than buying from the store, because you know what your kune's were fed, which makes it all worth it. I'm not sure if I want to have pigs, because I know what escape artists they can be. They sure are sneaky!! lol😁

Thanks for sharing the math! I’ve heard people talk about how delicious Kune Kune pigs can be, I’ll have to try it one day! Props to the butcher and his generosity!

Great video. Thank you for sharing. Love and Blessings to you all.❤❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏🙏 Doris, Penrith 🇦🇺🦘

You have a beautiful local community that I'm so glad you're a part of. Good butcher too! Congrats on the pork and lard.

Morning Heather I love waking up to your Beautiful face

Thank you so much for doing this video. It is so timely for us as we are thinking of getting kunekune pigs again. (Longer story on why we got rid of them the first time). We never butchered any, so this makes us feel more confident getting back into it. Great video guys!

We love our Idaho Pasture Pigs. They improve the pasture sooooo much, grow out in 10 months and eat no more than 4# of grain each day. They have the BEST temperaments. Our last feeder pig was 280# in 10 months. They follow our goats in pasture rotation.

Wonderful video Heather and Levi! Really nice to see a breakdown of what you got in cuts/product, what it took to buy/raise them, and the opinion about the flavor and cuts you were able to obtain with the kunekunes. Was real interesting to see that even though these were intended to be breeders and you had them a bit longer, you still had a decent cost comparison against current market for pork. Feeder pigs would obviously be even better $ wise, but this outcome wasn't bad at all. 💚🐖💚

This was very interesting. I live in the suburbs and will never be able to raise any animals here but this was intriguing.

Boar taint only occurs in about 10-15% of hogs, and you are right it is affected by the hormone levels of the individual animal. I've processed many boars of various breeds and have never had one taste bad.

I assume there's no chemicals in the lard, which makes that an incredible price!

Levi. Smoked goat. There are no other words necessary.

They are nice and dark colored

Very informative!! I'm glad you came out so well on your meat! That dark red meat is beautiful & the bacon looks amazing!! So happy for you! Have you thought about canning some of your lard to make it shelf stable & free up some freezer space? Before you get your next hogs to feed out for meat, remember their temperament will be altogether different than your Kunekune pigs. Much more aggressive & far harder on the fences, buildings, etc. Also much less trustworthy around you & the children!! Growing up, we raised a large number of farrow to finish hogs. I remember helping my dad in the farrowing barn & seeing a sow turn on him & rip his leg open. A few years later my mom was badly injured when 2 sows fighting with each other pinned her against the barn. Not meaning to frighten you, but just want you all to be safe!! 🙏 Watching your family interacting with your pigs always amazed me how docile they were!! It was certainly different than my experience growing up or even the pigs I've raised for meat here. God bless & enjoy that wonderful pork!! 🙂

Jimmy Dean from Plainview, TX 😊

I could be wrong about all of this, but in the interest of making you feel even better.... I don't think the USDA numbers include processing. So you can take the 764$ or $1.50/# off the price and land at $4.50/# and you did really well! And I could be totally wrong. 🤷

Very interesting guys!! I'm going to guess you may be right that the boar was lacking in hormones. Typically, A boar of that age would have high chances of producing tainted meat, but that is due to the hormones. Since he never produced piglets and as I remember from your past videos he just didn't act overly interested in breeding. Whatever the reason, it's awesome that you now have a freezer full of pork. Thanks so much for sharing and stay safe!!

You should be storing all canned foods out of the SUNLIGHT, it will reduce the quality and shelf life of anything exposed to sunlight.

Very interesting. Nice to see you both and hear of your experience.

Thanks for the breakdown very educational

That's a great break down, and seriously, I don't think you ended up paying out a bad price for knowing where your meat came from, and how it's been raised. I just received my order of 'pasture for life certified' raised beef, with some organic raised pork in it that cost more than your your cuts. I know I'm in the UK, but considering your buy costs I still think you got a great deal. Also, with being in England, I'm totally amused at the Amish calling you English. My Son agrees with Levi on Bacon. He told me one Christmas that I should never doubt his love, since he'd proved it by giving me the bacon from his pigs in blankets lol

Very nice. Looking in my area kunekune costs are much higher. 1000 per registered 500 not registered. They are top quality but hard to justify start up costs on top of that. Still hopefull to try in future.

You probably didn't deduct the cost of waste disposal for the bits of other animals that your pigs ate, but, that is also a benefit that you'll miss while you don't have pigs on the farm. What else could you do with them? I suppose you could compost them, but, you run the risk of attracting vermin. So, I suppose, the pigs have other benefits that weren't included in your calculations.

Great video again. Nice to see you break things down. We are also Kune-kune lovers over here. Usually we buy a mix between Kunes and a classic meat pig like a Duroc or (better!) a Berkshire. They grow a bit faster, become bigger but usually have the same lovely temperament as a Kune. The taste of your own pigs is incomparable with pig meat from the supermarket. It is just sooo much better! And it has had a much better life. When you showed the official meat prices and I saw the 3 dollar, my first thoughts were: those poor pigs. Who wants pigs that can be marketed for such a low price. They must have had a pretty nasty life! You can’t really put that fact into your calculations maybe. But I think it’s one of the most important ones. They have had a happy and healthy life. No injected hormones, antibiotics or steroids. A better life for them, and a way healthier choice for you and your family. Well done! 💪👍 Greetings from the Netherlands 😊

Jimmy Dean ❤

I miss pork! Due to Lupus & kidney disease i cant have!! 😢😢😢

Omg !! I have kunekune pigs also and no babies either !! 3 years old I figured they didn’t like each other lol

Excellent thurough video Heather and Levi! It is that time of year, when the air turns chilly. We just processed our heritage pigs (American Guinea Hogs) and looking forward to curing and smoking our hams and bacon now. Great job as always! YAY bacon!

We put our male with our females when very young and about the same age and have had no issues of them not breeding. Kunekune mature later than typical so I don’t necessarily expect to see babies till around 2 yrs of age. And lots of things must be going well for the female to hold the pregnancy. Just our experience.

Very good video.

That a lot of meat 🥩 yumm ❤

That pork looks great!!

Since you had the Amish butcher, they probably did a better job of getting the most out of your hogs. Not all lockers/processors take the time to get everything that is usable. We figured that out when we had beef processed at two different lockers. The larger cow processed out less meat than the smaller one at a different locker.

Well here when get a hog butchered the butchers won't make bacon or hams. I previously lived in PA and that was standard.

My readers are just coming of age to bread.. so if I don't have piglets by October.. they will probably go to the butcher or I'll get a different boar

Very interesting video, thank you. What did you feed your kunekune's? I realize some people have enough pasture year round for them, but for some of us who get winter, that's not feasible.

I didn't know you could make butter out of goat milk. I was always told you couldn't. Now to figure out that LOL thanks. Did you separate the lard from the leaf lard, not sure I spelt that right LOL I was told the leaf lard is for like pie crusts and stuff like that. I am Learning before I get my goats and pigs, I am really watching the IPP's but I like those little ones too. Sorry for the ?'s

Maybe I missed it, but how much finished product did you get in comparison to hanging weight? Great video. You had a problem with mating because you raised the boar with the gilts. We raised our boar separate from out gilts and they hooked up as soon as we put them together. The countdown to piglets has started.

And you can say it’s organic!

Where online did you find the average cost report?

🤍🥰

You poor so much time into your homestead and videos. It's a shame you don't have many more $ub$ so that you could bring your costs down.

It takes to long to get them big enough to eat

Does your husband work? I'm new to your channel. I'm just wondering how you're affording everything. Yes it's kind Of nosy but you put your life on youtube so I just Wondering.

Gross