Best Cold Storage for Hogs?

[DurtenTyler]

I'm fixing up an old ranch to be used for hog hunters. What's the best way to do cold storage? Is it sufficient to just hang the hogs over night inside a garage? I'm thinking of chest freezers that are 7.0+ cubic feet, or as big as I can get them.

What's the best storage or cold storage for hogs?

 

[DAQ80]

My buddy built an insulated shed, installed a regular wall A/C unit and hooked up a CoolBot to it. It works awesome as a walk in cooler. He leaves it off until he has something he needs to hang and it cools down really quick. Might want to look into something similar.

 

[DurtenTyler]

My buddy built an insulated shed, installed a regular wall A/C unit and hooked up a CoolBot to it. It works awesome as a walk in cooler. He leaves it off until he has something he needs to hang and it cools down really quick. Might want to look into something similar.

Wow, that's pretty awesome. I just saw some YouTube videos with the ColdBot. Not sure if its worth the effort through. If it breaks, it would be a giant pain to fix and replace parts. I'm a one man ranch owner / guide / bed & breakfast host so I'd rather spend a little more money on some 24 cubic foot chest freezers with warranties, and if one breaks, there's still another for my guests to use.

Would some 24 cubic foot chest freezers do the the trick? I have a 7 cubic foot chest freezer, so 24 cubic feet sounds giant to me.

 

[spectr17]

Walk in cooler, none of the hog operations I've seen use chest freezers. There may be times you need to hang 4 or 5 hogs. WIth a walk in you just hang the animals and cut them up when you want, to get them into the freezers you're going to need to cut them up right there.

 

[Deleted member 33033]

Not sure I understand the application you are inquiring about. If you need to temporarily store them, stick the quarters in a big ice chest with some block ice. I transported mine just fine this way. For long term stationary storage a chest freezer that doesn't have auto defrost is best.

 

[myfriendis410]

My vote would also be setting up some kind of walk-in. I think if you calculate the load right a good AC unit would do the trick inside a big insulated box.

 

[DurtenTyler]

Walk in cooler, none of the hog operations I've seen use chest freezers. There may be times you need to hang 4 or 5 hogs. WIth a walk in you just hang the animals and cut them up when you want, to get them into the freezers you're going to need to cut them up right there.

When you say "walk in cooler" are you referring to a CoolBot air conditioning insulated room/shed type setup that DAQ80 described?

 

[DurtenTyler]

Not sure I understand the application you are inquiring about. If you need to temporarily store them, stick the quarters in a big ice chest with some block ice. I transported mine just fine this way. For long term stationary storage a chest freezer that doesn't have auto defrost is best.

As for the application I'm inquiring about, let me tell you what happend last time (and my first ever time) I went hunting... We had a decent sized sow we wanted to take to the butcher the next day. We gutted/skinned the sow, cut off the hooves and head, and put it in a game bag. Then we put the game bag into a plastic garbage bag and into a very large plastic storage box that had a lot of ice in it. We used the large plastic garbage bag to keep the sow from soaking in the melted ice. For some reason it didn't work and the sow was soaked the next morning. I'm assuming what we did isn't what you would call the standard procedure.

The biggest coolers (ice chests) at WalMart weren't nearly as big as the bigger chest freezer's I see on the market. Plus, with an ice cooler, wouldn't the pig end up soaking in water when the ice melts?

 

[Deleted member 33033]

Here's what I did. I placed block ice in the 168qt cooler and bagged my quarters in trash bags, laid em on top of the blocks. Every 6 hrs I unscrewed the drain plug. Block ice melts much slower than cubes.

 

[bsanders8181]

Durten you may be able to find a small reefer trailer as an easier option than building a cold room or dealing with ice. The store at lake Pillsbury uses an old one to house its ice. Pretty sure they wired it into their house power. You really do want something you can walk into. In the old days(I've been told) guys used to dress their animals and hang em on a pole in the shade until they were ready to go home. Don't do that.

 

[tpuig]

There are usually walk in coolers for sale on Craigs list. Don't get cheap with clients pigs. If something goes wrong, you'll pay more in the long run...

Having a generator isnt' a bad idea either.

 

[myfriendis410]

Besides; I firmly believe the animal needs to hang in cold airflow to improve the quality of the meat. We try to give hogs five days in the walk-in. Obviously you can't do that but it will take the pressure off a several day hunt with a first day-kill to handle.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

DurtenT, since u are going to use jho & its members to help u get started with your business adventure wouldnt be a great idea to have the first officel jho ham slam on your ranch with jho members when you are ready to go for it. Maybe we can do a jho work party to heip u with your ranch preps for your hunting opperation. Just something. To think about! Have a great day!.....tra

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[SpiritWalker]

^^^ Way to work it TRA ^^^

 

[DurtenTyler]

DurtenT, since u are going to use jho & its members to help u get started with your business adventure wouldnt be a great idea to have the first officel jho ham slam on your ranch with jho members when you are ready to go for it. Maybe we can do a jho work party to heip u with your ranch preps for your hunting opperation. Just something. To think about! Have a great day!.....tra

I'm doing something like that for my friends dad later this month and in return him and his buddies are buying me a Remington 700. I'm going to show them where to hunt, but really I'll be learning how to guide. I'm pretty much living off credit cards at this point so as sweet as a Remington 700 sounds, I'm going to need to get this thing off the ground pretty soon. Before bringing anyone out here I don't know I have a lot of concerns, like security. Actually I will make another thread on that topic...