[sokel]

Do you have any idea approximately how heavy your pigs are?

The last ones where GOSs and without checking back through my records I seem to remember  that one was just under 70kg and the other just over 70kg ,

[devonlady]

I prefer to sell to family,at least I get paid! Sold £400 worth to a deli in town and still haven't been paid for it. His reason?  An employee had accidently turned the deep freeze off and the meat was spoiled.
The thing that grieves me most isn't the loss of money but the fact that those poor old pigs died for nothing.  Another thing I sometimes do is sell a weaner to family, keep it here and they pay for feed, killing and butchery costs etc. plus a little more for my time.
My DIL and I are also starting a veg box scheme for family only.

[mowhaugh]

Do you have any idea approximately how heavy your pigs are?

The last ones where GOSs and without checking back through my records I seem to remember  that one was just under 70kg and the other just over 70kg ,

Thank you!

[Fowgill Farm]

People who are charging the high prices, how much turnover do they have?

If I could get £600-£700 a pig, i'd be loaded!!!! But I just couldn't justify it to myself.

I know we produce a premium product, and i'd say the pork I produce is as good or better than many, but I like to give people a good deal, while making a good profit myself. It's nice to be able to sell quality meat to families who just couldn't justify it at the highest prices.

But with a decent enough turnover (and we could do a lot more), we make a good profit off the pigs, at least i'm happy. We've concentrated on slashing inputs rather than raising prices.

I'd be very interested to know what profit per kilo folk are making? It might not be so different between the low and high prices.

Porterlauren
I would look at your costs again becoz I sell at £150 a half and I break even if I'm lucky, there must be something you're not factoring in!
Plus don't undersell your pigs and your hard work, no wonder people are queueing up, they can spot a mug when they meet one! 
never feel guilty for charging what they're worth.
mandy

[hughesy]

I've said this before but there's a big difference between selling the odd pig or two every now and then and actually making a business of selling your pork week in week out throughout the year. It's all very well saying your meat is superior and high prices are justified but if you're trying to make a living it needs to be sold and the price has a big influence on wether that happens or not.
I also suspect that many people who sell the odd pig every now and then have no real idea of what it cost them to produce it.

[Porterlauren]

I'm a bit busy a sec, but will put up my costs later, i've costed it over and over and just think I pay less for most things than a lot of others. We do about 4 pigs a month at the moment. But will be upping it next year.

P.S I don't take kindly to being called a mug. I could think of a few names for folk charging the earth to family and friends, but I refrain.

[twizzel]

£10/kg!! For pork!! Sorry but that is extortionate no matter how good it tastes.

I'm happy with buying my commercial pork, not overfat at £3 a kilo... Not had any complaints yet when I've served up a huge roast to friends!

[MKay]

I've said this before but there's a big difference between selling the odd pig or two every now and then and actually making a business of selling your pork week in week out throughout the year. It's all very well saying your meat is superior and high prices are justified but if you're trying to make a living it needs to be sold and the price has a big influence on wether that happens or not.
I also suspect that many people who sell the odd pig every now and then have no real idea of what it cost them to produce it.

It difficult to make a living selling a pemium product like this BECAUSE the other smallholders under price you by 70%! They destroy the market place as thoroughly as China do.

I am self employed and the Croft forms 50% of my income but I could never live off it.

[MKay]

£10/kg!! For pork!! Sorry but that is extortionate no matter how good it tastes.

I'm happy with buying my commercial pork, not overfat at £3 a kilo... Not had any complaints yet when I've served up a huge roast to friends!

Exactly, most of the population don't care about where their food comes from and those that say they do only mean it if it is convenient. Ie on price.

Ethical pork production is; a traditional breed/cross sow who is slow grown outdoors (10mnth a year min) in company on a nutritional diet with many acres to roam. Only put in pig once she is mature -2y old, only made to have one litter a year, fed to a standard that she maintains her full condition during lactation and weans naturally at her choosing (normally 15-17weeks here). Growers who are then grown on free range on many acres and then meeting a humane end.

This is what I do and it is why I charge (and my customers pay) £10/kg. If this is what you do... Perhaps you need to consider upping you price(even if you then discount it for friends and family or the impoverished).

Let them know the price its worth, ie 10/kg but then treat them to a hefty discount if you feel so inclined.

You must remember Tesco finest is not up to the standard we do, ethically, welfare, quality or taste and that's about the best commersial pork you will get. We are not heartless meat factories. We are cruelly free meat, whether our friends have the acuity to taste the difference is another matter entirely. (Plus who complains about the quality of the the produce prepared after a dinner party??? It could have come out of skip and wed all smile to the hostess.) So poor example.

[MKay]

Finally, (sorry my phone makes it difficult to do single long posts)

Costs;

Feeding sow through lactation @upto 20kg/day £500
Feeding Growers to 40kgDW@upto 2.5kg/day £50
Transport to abattoir £35(upto5)
Kill, cut, vp £36, £30, £15

So that's £185 per carcass at a boned out weight of say 28kg- £6.60/kg

[twizzel]

£10/kg!! For pork!! Sorry but that is extortionate no matter how good it tastes.

I'm happy with buying my commercial pork, not overfat at £3 a kilo... Not had any complaints yet when I've served up a huge roast to friends!

Exactly, most of the population don't care about where their food comes from and those that say they do only mean it if it is convenient. Ie on price.

Ethical pork production is; a traditional breed/cross sow who is slow grown outdoors (10mnth a year min) in company on a nutritional diet with many acres to roam. Only put in pig once she is mature -2y old, only made to have one litter a year, fed to a standard that she maintains her full condition during lactation and weans naturally at her choosing (normally 15-17weeks here). Growers who are then grown on free range on many acres and then meeting a humane end.

This is what I do and it is why I charge (and my customers pay) £10/kg. If this is what you do... Perhaps you need to consider upping you price(even if you then discount it for friends and family or the impoverished).

Let them know the price its worth, ie 10/kg but then treat them to a hefty discount if you feel so inclined.

You must remember Tesco finest is not up to the standard we do, ethically, welfare, quality or taste and that's about the best commersial pork you will get. We are not heartless meat factories. We are cruelly free meat, whether our friends have the acuity to taste the difference is another matter entirely. (Plus who complains about the quality of the the produce prepared after a dinner party??? It could have come out of skip and wed all smile to the hostess.) So poor example.

I can see what you're saying but slightly tarring people who charge less per kg with the same brush here. I don't rear pigs but do rear a small number of lambs each year and my partner is a commercial beef farmer. We definitely aren't a 'heartless meat factory' and definitely not cruel. Cows and lamb free range outside as the weather allows- then the cows come in and are well fed, bedded out of the elements (the majority calve over winter too).

The lamb we rear is second to none in taste and quality. No it isn't rare breed and they are commercial lambs but I have had no complaints on the quality of it from friends who have had some from us. They definitely finish slower than commercial lambs- 6-8 months instead of the normal 16weeks. I'm not comparing us to Tesco nor you but our lamb fits in the middle of the pricing scale (supermarkets selling at rock bottom prices, farm butchery at higher prices, ours is in the middle of both).

The other issue I see selling per kg is half a pig or lamb will have some premium cuts i.e. legs, chops, and some less popular, cheaper cuts i.e. breast/belly, shoulder. To price yourself at the top of those range of cuts means your cheaper cuts are actually very expensive ! And the more expensive cuts are in line with your price. If you're selling per half pig or lamb I think the price per kg needs to be the average price on all of those cuts.

Just speaking from experience here but down here in Cornwall you'd be hard pushed to sell pork at £10/kg, very hard pushed. Not saying it's not nice pork, have no doubt that it is, but probably not the best thing to tar all producers no matter what meat they produce with the same brush that if they aren't charging premium (slightly extortionate) prices then animal welfare is at risk...

[MKay]

I was referring to the commercial pork you spoke off, I have yet to see truelly ethical pork production in that scale period.

Lamb and beef production in the UK is pretty good so again a terrible idea to compare the two, if we were including American feedlots then we could have some comparisons but we are not.

I'm sure a good butcher will sell your husband's fillet steak hung for 21days for 30/kg mine hung for 45 has lost a lot mode weight through dehydration so 45d@50/kg is equivalent to 21d@35/kg so as you can see my prices are fair.

Anyway back to pork, my method has high costs as you can see a porker @40kgDW is costing me £6/kg to produce (for the cheaper cuts as well) so £4 a kg profit is probably not much more than Tesco are making on theirs! They just do it worse and cheaper.

Speaking of cheap cuts, what is a cheap cut? My belly becomes panchetta, jowls-guanciale, neck -sausages.
On that point though perhaps I should shoulder orate, my pork box will contain 10/15kg mix of; pork chump steak, leg roast, loin steak, chops & sausage. I dont sell the shoulders, fillet or belly.

[Fowgill Farm]

Finally, (sorry my phone makes it difficult to do single long posts)

Costs;

Feeding sow through lactation @upto 20kg/day £500
Feeding Growers to 40kgDW@upto 2.5kg/day £50
Transport to abattoir £35(upto5)
Kill, cut, vp £36, £30, £15

So that's £185 per carcass at a boned out weight of say 28kg- £6.60/kg

Must be little pigs my boned out weights per pig are approx  44kg
So half pig at £150 is roughly £6.82/kg and usually inc 2kg sausages and 1kg of bacon in the price
All i'm saying is don't undersell your produce we cant compete with supermrkts so dont try
Mandy

[Porterlauren]

Ours are killing at at around 70-80 kilo dw.

We run a mix of pedigree saddlebacks, pie train x largewhite/landrace and pie train x saddleback.

The latter x breeds, convert food far better, and grow quicker and to be honest no one ever says oooo those saddelbacks taste so much better. All are fed the same food, on the same system, and I think that has more to do with how they taste than the breed often. As a result, the latter breeds grow to kill weight quicker, taking less feed.

Feed costs us 25p per kilo, and is a tasty mix of wheat, oats, barley, soya, beans etc etc, rather than a grey, dull, pelleted diet.

Bought in weaners cost 1.60 a kilo live weight. So a ten kilo piglet is £16, a twenty kilo piglet is £32. Good value I think.

They are slaughtered and butchered by a master butcher, about 5 mins from my house, at a total cost of £35.

There are very minimal transport costs, a couple of 5-10 min journeys maximum.

I think a lot of pricing comes from where you are and the market you are approaching. I'm in a rural area, and my clientele are normal folk, if I worked in the city or had access to a large upper middle class market i the south, then I'd probably get away with charging more!

[MKay]

That is incredibly low costs! You should increase your price in line with Tesco finest and you would make enough for an extra holiday.