[peteinwilts]

Hi Guys
 
I am the proud owner of saddlebacks and we are nearing the time to slaughter.
 
Do you have any recomended thoughts on how much i should sell for? I presume £x per Kg for 1/4's and 1/2's.
 
If I had it properly butchered (have had a quote of £30 per pig... is this the norm?), I run into the risk of charging different prices per cut.. then I will be completely lost!
 
Any tips or recomendations for a newbie would be greatly welcomed
 
Many thanks
 Pete

[oaklandspigs]

Pete,

Presume this is a few to family and friends

People have little idea what a 1/4 or 1/2 pig is in terms of size (and cost), and if you sell the parts, then most will opt for pork leg and chops, leaving shoulders and belly which whilst delicious will quickly fill your freezer, and yes you have to start charging differential prices.

One good way to sell is "Pork selection Boxes" which will contain chops, sausages and joints

You can then price these - so say they have the option of a £30 box, a £45 box or a £60 box - of course they can but more than one box if they want more!

You can then decide how much per kg to charge.  I normally start with a quick troll round Tesco to get an idea of what a supermarket price is, and then decide how much more than this I want to price at.  This will depend on how desperate you are to get the first sales (once people have tried price tends to become unimportant - they normally snap your hands off for the second lot). A reasonable premium should be charged, taking into account your costs, and you can find anything from a few % above to twice or three times - look at river cottage prices if you want to shock yourself!

Once you collect, you can then sort into the boxes, small joints for aunt sally who is just her and hubby and more chops and sausages, and Billy's large family can have that large leg joint.  Fred family live on sausages, so a few more for them. 

Don't forget to have a box for yourself !

[robert waddell]

yes do not sell youself short as oaklands says trawl the suppermarkets and internet(some of them charge from £500- £1000 and not even pedigree or pure)

[Eve]

Have a trawl around the internet to see what others charge for half a pig in your area - prices can differ greatly depending on geography and breed, and what's included can differ quite a bit, too. Make sure you cover you all costs (and get plenty of free pork yourself! ). Presumably you're selling to family and friends?

 

[peteinwilts]

thanks Guys

Yes, family, friends and work people. We sold the three we slaughtered last September in 12-15Kg boxes and charged a flat £50. I share the pigs with my sister in law, who set the price and sold them before I had a chance to step in... I think we seriously undersold and is no wonder they went like hot cakes. (She has been told off and is listening now!  )

I once read that sausages taste better from pigs over a year old. I have purposefully run three on for sausages. they are currently 11 months old and enormous! they have been kept in a Damson orchard which was overgrown with brambles. They have done a good job with clearing it and just the trees and woody stems remain. It will be interesting to see if the flavour is different to those kept in the fields..

The seven smaller pigs are only just coming up to 6 months (this weekend). Three are going for slaughter for meat. Out of the remaining four, we will breed from the two best and as they are pedigree, have options whether to sell as weaners or grow on for meat and sausages.

Good plan or hopelessly ridiculous!?!

Thanks
Pete

[Hilarysmum]

I would say DON'T undercharge as its really difficult to convince people to pay more next time even w hen every thing else has gone up in price.  (Smallholders dont need to pay health charges, community tax or put diesel in their cars and of course they live on what they produce and work for love, to them money is irrelevant .......). 

Go on to JImmy's Farm site and print out the charges on there  and give one to every prospective purchaser, then point out that your meat is a) local;  b) pure bred. 

You should value your pigs enough to charge a reasonable price.  Otherwise although you will sell everything you will be subsidising the consumer.

(Sorry bad day)

[Fowgill Farm]

Another tip is to not let people choose what they get in their box or else all the good cuts go and you're left with the less choice ones. I do a taster box for £40 they get a leg joint, a shoulder joint, a belly, 1/2 dozen chops and a couple of packs of sausages.  They normally then progress onto a 1/4 or a 1/2 box. If they don't want these sizes i suggest they share it with somebody and that usually does the trick. I aim on getting £7/kg minimum for my pork and just a say break even at that and this doesn't include paying me for my time (i do it lurve! ) Ha.
HTH
Mandy

[peteinwilts]

you include sausages.... do you use older pigs, or do you just make them from the younger pigs regardless?

[Stevie G]

Welcome peteinwilts. As said your too cheap, so up it!!!!!!!!
Someones in Taunton is after a whole pig, so you might make a good sale here(before 25 Feb), so don't delay!!!!!

[loosey]

This was our first year of selling any of our pork to our friends (family obviously got it free fo heloing so much with the farm!) We charged £85 for half a pig but found out/were told that we were under charging so the last 3 halves were £110 a go. People in my area sell halves for anything ranging from £110 - £140 but when it's friend I always feel bad chargin too much (one of the may reasons my smallholding will always be a hobby rather than a business!) 

[Frieslandfilly]

We charged £60 for a 1/4 of a pig, nobody batted an eyelid at that, so I guess that was either cheap or about right, they were just basic cuts as they were butchered at the slaughter house (our butcher was on hols), as for the cost of butchering our 2 cost £74 to slaughter and butcher and we are in Oxfordshire so a similar area to you. These were our first pigs so we kept it simple to start off!

[peteinwilts]

I prefer the idea of selling in 1/4's and 1/2's, but charging by the Kg. This will mean if for whatever reason we want to keep the pigs for longer than 6 months, the price will reflect the extra food put into them..

We slaughtered our first 3 at 6 months and the abatoir cut them into peices into boxes of quarters. The quarters sized range from 11.5Kg to just under 16Kg. A flat rate would just not be fair for those that have the smaller quarters.

[manian]

we charged 120 for 1/2 pig
the slaughter butcher 'evened out' the boxes and shared liver etc
everyone was happy for that
we kept alf for ourselves and swapped 1/2 for a lamb
mx

[princesspiggy]

just wondering - if you were selling a box of various cuts of meat - from a customers point of view, would offering a beef box and a pork box be better or worse than offering a "pork and beef" box. has anyone tried this?

[peteinwilts]

manian : how much did your boxes weigh?