Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).  (Read 8948 times)

Q

  • Joined Apr 2013
My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« on: July 15, 2015, 07:55:46 pm »
These are my thoughts as a consumer of pork as opposed to a producer & I would welcome some comments from both sides of the marketplace.
I recently bought a half pig direct from the producer but I wont be doing it again. The pork was a wild boar / tamworth cross and I paid £145 for 22kg.
it wasnt bad but it wasnt the best pork I ever tasted either.
I also felt that I ended up with cuts that I wouldn't normally buy (and more chops than I have eaten in the past 20 years).
So I still intend to eat more pork than I have in the past but I think I need a different way of buying it than this.
Just my thoughts so please be gentle.
If you cant beat 'em then at least bugger 'em about a bit.

verdifish

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • banffshire
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2015, 08:17:41 pm »
As a producer when we sell half a pig its exactly that .and we leave it up to the customer to do with I what they want unfortunatly when buying a half you only get one side so I'm a bit confused as to what your complaint is about producers id say its more to do with the butcher or yourself for not making clear to the butcher what you wanted !as to the quality of the meat how long was it hung ??? Anything with wild boar needs longer hangtime !!

Q

  • Joined Apr 2013
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2015, 09:24:43 pm »
Not a complaint verdifish just my consumer opinion - If I get round to rearing and selling pork I will have a think about what my customer might want.
So, no, I didnt get a choice of cuts - it came in a box & as it was my first go I didnt think to ask & wasnt asked.
I got a 4 pounds of sausages that weren't flavoured at all & too much meat content (i think).
I suppose I have concluded that the experience was disappointing but not the sellers fault.
If you cant beat 'em then at least bugger 'em about a bit.

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2015, 10:13:17 pm »
I don't sell half pigs very often simply because I run a market stall three days a week and all our pork goes through there. If someone asks me for a half go to great lengths to explain how it is priced, ie weighed on the bone before any cutting is done, so that the meat the customer gets does not weigh the same as half a pig carcass. I also take detailed instructions as to how they want it cutting. So my customers know exactly what they'll get and exactly what it will cost them. An awful lot of people selling half pigs are very vague about what they're actually selling which doesn't help the customer at all.

Porterlauren

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2015, 10:50:59 pm »
Out of interest, . . . . . .what were you expecting for a half pig?

Our standard half pig boxes are made up on chops of various types, joints, belly pork and sausages. It's £100 for between 22-25 kilo.

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2015, 11:39:19 pm »
Out of interest, . . . . . .what were you expecting for a half pig?

Our standard half pig boxes are made up on chops of various types, joints, belly pork and sausages. It's £100 for between 22-25 kilo.
So if I bought a half pig from you for 100 quid and it weighed 25kg? And then I bought another one for the same price but it only weighed 22kg?  That's exactly why people get annoyed and start complaining on internet forums. Why don't you weigh each half and charge the correct price based on whatever it is per KG?

Kitchen Cottage

  • Joined Oct 2012
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2015, 07:12:24 am »
So if I bought a half pig from you for 100 quid and it weighed 25kg? And then I bought another one for the same price but it only weighed 22kg?  That's exactly why people get annoyed and start complaining on internet forums. Why don't you weigh each half and charge the correct price based on whatever it is per KG?

*blinks* 

Because you are buying HALF A PIG of variable weight.  If I buy a home made cake at a cake stall I am fully conscious that, not having come through the production line, it may vary in weight from the cake next to it.  I don't sell it by 100gr, I sell the cake.

That is what happens when you buy a non production line item, it'll be different from it's neighbour.

The CORRECT price is the price for half a pig, it isn't sold per kilo. 

DavidandCollette

  • Joined Dec 2012
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2015, 07:59:27 am »
I sell half lambs cut up at the Abbatoir.  They charge me per kilo and I sell on the same basis. To me as the seller and as a consumer that seems to be the fairest way

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2015, 08:33:25 am »
All the difficulties of direct sales highlighted for you Q. A very good value for money purchase therefore  ;)

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2015, 08:54:00 am »
The CORRECT price is the price for half a pig, it isn't sold per kilo.

But if some half pigs give you more meat than other half pigs, surely it would be fairer and more transparent for the customer if it WAS sold per kg? 

We're going to be selling half Zwartbles lambs in the autumn, but I'm going to send one of the Shetland cross Manx lambs at the same time because we missed castrating him.  The price is £75 per half lamb - I take it you don't mind which one you get, Mr customer?  :innocent:
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2015, 09:03:01 am »
Mr Customer is easily fooled. Last year there was a sign outside a local butcher - half a lamb £35....


Kitchen Cottage

  • Joined Oct 2012
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2015, 09:33:35 am »
I used to sell half pigs but it was a pain in the bum, I used to guarantee a minimum kg and so you knew what you were getting and were lucky if you got more (which you always did).  I sold them at birth (only had one litter a year from Joan of Arc) and the customer knew what he was getting ... half a pig with a minimum weight.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2015, 09:37:55 am »
Good pun. :pig:

Q

  • Joined Apr 2013
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2015, 09:44:29 am »
Sounds fair KC.
I think my overall thought was that the selling of half pigs is a great convenience to the seller rather than for the consumer.  ( I accept there are people who only WANT a half pig ).
I dont need to spend £140 in one lump if I just buy the cuts I need now and I also dont have to clog up my freezer.

If its not a cheaper (kg) price to buy it in bulk as it is with other foodstuffs then why would I do it?

It just made me think whether you have had customers in the past who buy a half pig and never return but dont tell you why.
If you cant beat 'em then at least bugger 'em about a bit.

greenbeast

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: My thoughts on buying half pigs (as a consumer).
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2015, 09:59:21 am »
It should be cheaper. We're looking to sell whole pig (butchered) at £250, but it would be way more than that if i cured all the back as bacon and made most of everything else into sausages.

To my mind, the customer should be getting a bargain for buying in bulk, as the seller is getting convenience by ridding themselves of half/whole animals without selling everything individually.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS