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Processing

When it comes to processing your whole or half hog order, we entrust our hogs to the skilled hands at C&L Locker in Moscow, Idaho. C&L Locker stands as a reputable and reliable facility that shares our commitment to maintaining the highest standards in meat processing.

There are three industry standard units of measurement you need to understand when placing your pork order: Live weight, hang weight, and cut weight.

Live weight is the weight of the animal when it's walking around. This is the unit of measurement auction houses use to sell animals on the hoof. It is not something we can easily measure on the farm (try convincing a herd of pigs in a pasture to step onto a scale one at a time and wait for you to jot down their weights). Additionally, it varies hour by hour depending on hydration and gut fill.

Hang weight or "Hot Carcass Weight" is the weight of the animal after it has been killed, gutted, with head and feet removed. Some processors skin hogs, while others scald. (Scalding is removing the hair but leaving the skin on.) Scalded hogs will have higher hang weights than skinned hogs, because the hog's hide is actually quite heavy. This is the condition the pork hangs in the cooler after harvest, and it is the one point in the process between pasture and freezer when all carcass conditions are equal, so this is the unit of measurement used by most processors and meat sellers to base their pricing on. Hang weight in pork is about 72% of the animal's live weight. A 275 pound live hog should hang at about 200 pounds.

Cut weight is the weight of your meat after it has been processed. It is reasonable to expect your cut weight will be about 75% of the hogs hanging weight, but this number varies considerably depending on what you requested from your processor. For example, if you order you hog entirely boned out and ground into sausage, the resulting cuts will weigh considerably less than if you ordered all of your cuts bone-in. Even with minimal processing, there is a percent of the hang weight that is lost from moisture leaving the carcass while hanging. Overall, your cut weight is the sum of the weight of all your cuts. With a standard bone-in cut sheet, your 200 pound hang weight will translate to roughly 150 pounds of meat in your freezer.

 

Standard cuts

Below is a list of options for each portion of the hog. The cuts that are included with our standard processing are indicated with a * below; other options are listed in italics. By selecting other options, you may lose some of the Texas Ridge standard cuts. Not all specialty options are offered by all processors. If there's something you want, please let us know so we can try to pair you with a processor that offers it. Please ask us if you have questions and we'll do our best to assist you in making your selections.

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Hang weights and meat yield

LOIN & TENDERLOIN CHOICES

  • Boneless pork chops (cut 1 inch, 2 per package)*

  • Loin roasts (2-3 pounds)*

  • Tenderloin roast*

  • Bone-in pork chops (no baby back ribs with this option)

  • Canadian Bacon

SHOULDERS

  • Shoulder roasts (3-5 pounds each)*

  • Steaks (cut 3/4 inch, 2 per package)*

  • Smoked shank*

  • Country shoulder bacon

  • Country ribs

HAMS (cured and smoked is standard)

  • Center cut ham steaks*

  • Butt and shank portion half hams*

  • Ham hocks*

  • Whole ham

  • Fresh ham (uncured, unsmoked)

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BELLY/SIDE (cured and smoked is standard)

  • Sliced bacon*

  • Bacon ends*

  • Fresh side (uncured)

  • Whole side

RIBS

  • Baby back ribs* (only comes with boneless chops)

  • Spare ribs*

TRIM MEAT

  • Bulk sausage* (spicy, mild or breakfast)

  • Bulk sausage (additional flavors)

  • Unseasoned ground pork

  • Link sausage (extra charges apply)

BONUS CUTS (included upon request with whole hog orders)

  • Lard fat

  • Jowl meat (cured and smoked)

  • Offal (heart, liver, kidneys)

Once your whole or half hog has been delivered to the processor, we will email you with the animal's hang weight, and invoice you for your pork. This invoice is payable to C4Livestock immediately and must be paid before you can pick up your pork.

Pork usually takes 3 weeks from harvest to pick up. If you have paid your pork invoice with C4Livestock, we will then confirm with the processor that you are approved to pick up your order. Coordinate pick-up times directly with the processor, and plan to bring coolers or boxes to pack your meat in for the trip home. The processor will invoice you for their services separately, which is payable upon pick-up.

After your hog is processed

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