I asked my friend the pig farmer for his expertise on our great pig debate, and he says:

My first reaction is on the "high on the hog". I really didn't know (and don't) where it came from and really it doesn't have much to do with the business of raising hogs today. Some of the comments in the string might be as accurate as any. The muscle that is the most valuable is the loin muscle and it is on the top of the hog. Also it could refer to the fact that on the traditional farms of the past, hogs were raised not only for food and lard, but they have traditionally been a profitable part of a diversified farm (a few chickens, a cow or two, maybe a steer, some hogs, and crops) and they were often referred to as the mortgage lifters because they would sell some and make the mortgage payment.

As to the comment about sausage, not everything goes into the sausage, it is just muscle and fat with some seasonings usually put into a casing. Today the casings mostly are man-made, but in history the casings were what was available, which at the time of slaughter, there was always the intestines available which were cleaned and used. A note on this is that we went to a Japanese restaurant in Hawaii, and cow intestines were served as an option on the buffet, so in some areas of the world, they are a delicacy.

The comment about 'everything is used except the squeal' is correct and the person who wrote about that is the only way to make a profit is correct. It is amazing what all of it is used for, but a short list would not only include the meat and hide (some shoes are made from pigskin, it is a soft and flexible leather), but the gelatins are used for the capsule casings on our medicines, the thyroid is used for the manufacture of one of our medicines, the heart valves are used for replacements in humans, - I think you get the idea. It isn't gross, it is just a fact of life that we humans need to take advantage of all that god has offered us to help us survive.

In our area of the United States we use the following terms and definitions. I remind you that they are different elsewhere, just as some areas use the word 'soda', others use 'pop', and still others use the word 'coke'. They all refer to the same thing.

Boars - uncastrated male pig, usually of breeding age but not necessarily (Breeding age is around 7 to 8 months)

Barrow - castrated male pig of any age

Sow - a female pig which has had baby pigs

Gilt - a female pig which hasn't had any baby pigs

Hog vs. Pig we use these terms interchangeably, but I usually think of a hog as older than a pig

By the way, a hog will reach sexual maturity at around 280 to 300 pounds. Most hogs in the United States are marketed between 240 to 300 pounds depending on what the packing plant wants and what the markets are doing (price going up or down). This is usually between 5 1/2 months and 7 months of age.

Boss hog does refer to the television character, but there also is always a social structure in a group or pen of pigs, unless the group is too large. The structure is very much like the gang structure and there is one pig nobody challenges which would be considered the 'boss hog'. If you mix two groups of hogs, they act just like the Palinstines and Israilites, they fight until a new 'boss hog' is found.

It is now illegal to feed slop to pigs. It was very prevalent around cities with a restaurant trade, but it encouraged trichinea so it was made illegal.

I would consider a weaner a pig which is between the age of weaning (depending on the farm it is as early as 2 weeks or as late as 5 weeks) to around the 40 pound weight (8 to 12 weeks). After that it is a feeder pig and then it is a finish hog. A finish hog gets up to the slaughter weight and if kept for breeding it becomes part of the breeding herd which consists of gilts, sows and boars.

While I don't know a lot about the cattle or dairy business, I do know that a bull is the same as a boar, an uncastrated male, a steer the same as a barrow, a heifer the same as a gilt, and a cow is the same as a sow.

About the comments about eating Boar meat, it is usually used in heavily seasoned sausages. That is because it is ground up very finely which eliminates the toughness, and the seasoning covers over the boar odor in the meat. Because of boar odor, we castrate all of the boars at birth which are not going to be used for breeding purposes. If we don't, the plant will dock us on our checks.

Hog Run probably refers to when out west they would herd the hogs from an area to a marketing yard next to the railroads. It would be done across open lands with a large number of hogs as well as farmers herding them. Today when we talk about the hog run, it is how many hogs are delivered (by truck) to the slaughter plants in each area, usually by state or a total on the whole nation. So when you see or hear of the hog run in Iowa today was 110,000, it would mean that 110,000 hogs were delivered to the plants in Iowa today.

Sou-eee was probably a noise or hog call made when feeding hogs in pens outside. This was done on the old traditional farms of 30 years and more ago.


And, I can but add:

[Homer]Mmmmmm. Bacon.[/Homer]