Author Topic: Help with the ecomomics of pig keeping please? (Read 3523 times)

marigold · « **on:** October 20, 2009, 09:08:08 pm »

We've been doing the sums for our new venture into pig keeping and we are trying to decide whether to go for two or three.
I read somewhere that for a family two bigs would be good one for pork and one for bacon so then do we get 3 and sell one to contribute to the whole undertaking.
I reckon that on the basis of one pound of food per month of life per day per pig works out at £160 per pig over 6 months plus £50 for weaner and £25 for slaughter a total of £235 per pig. so if the weight of the pig is 100 kg that is £2.35 per kg which for naturally raised good tasting pork is fantastic
Question is would it be better to raise 3 with a view to selling one? would I be able to sell it to the butcher to pay for his services?

kp · « **Reply #1 on:** October 20, 2009, 10:02:35 pm »

Hi Marigold, I kept two pigs until they were 9 months and reckon its cost me about £630 to keep them both, it cost me £50 each to have them slaughtered at a small local abattoir, normally £40 but because they were so big it was extra (100kg dead weight each pig) the meat is starting to go quickly, family have had quite a bit and I gave some away to people who had helped me out, so three pigs may be a good idea. What breed are you going to get?

best of luck
Karen

marigold · « **Reply #2 on:** October 20, 2009, 11:07:19 pm »

Thanks KP
I'm going to have a look at clairie's Tamworth x's on Saturday. There are some lovely pics on her thread entitled Tamworth X in the market place. What did you do with the pork? did the butcher process any of it for you into bacons or sausages or did you do it yourself?

dixie · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2009, 03:53:09 pm »

From the age of 8 weeks to approx 22 weeks I estimate weaners to cost £60 each in feed, then add the cost of the weaner, butcher etc Butchery costs seems to differ greatly, I am very fortunate as mine does mine for next to nothing as he says i am a good customer!
I would sell one to family/friends in halves or quarters if you can, it will offset the cost of the ones you have for yourself. I find butchers charge a lot for doing hams and bacon but its worth getting a quote, or do it yourself, its fairly straightforward, I do my own now!

bibs · « **Reply #4 on:** October 21, 2009, 05:09:47 pm »

Hello - in my experience ( not huge but I'm on my fourth lot of piggies ) I would say it costs approx £120 to feed a pig until it is 6 months old, which is approx when you would send to slaughter. The longer you leave them, the more fat/meat ratio you get so it is entirely personal. About the number to fatten - well as it's your first go why not stick with two? You will then beable to really appreciate the amount of meat on a pig and work out just how you would like it to be butchered for you. ( you get a lot of food from a humble pig ). Once you know what you're doing you can then do 3 next time having a clear idea of what you'll be getting. If you are in touch with other smallholders who do something you don't, why not swap some meat for other products or services. We do this and it works really well. Good luck - they are brilliant creatures to have around.

MiriMaran · « **Reply #5 on:** October 21, 2009, 08:48:07 pm »

We had 2 British Saddlebacks this year for the first time. The bacon and gammon joints weighed roughly 1 1/4lbs. We have costed the meat according to what the local farmshop sells their meat for. This is our rough costing bearing in mind that we did our own butchery:

Weaners x2 @ £40 each £80.00
Wormer £5.00
Feed £171.81
Slaughter £40.00
Butchering Sundries £65.00
Total £361.81

Value of Sausages £650
Value of Bacon £398.32
Value of Gammon £232.36
Total £1280.68

Hope this helps. Just remember this is a rough cost.

gavo · « **Reply #6 on:** October 21, 2009, 09:41:07 pm »

Do you mind me asking what sort of prices your local farm shop charges?

marigold · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2009, 10:19:03 pm »

Thankyou Mirimaran - that is very helpful It is very close to my guesstimates

MiriMaran · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2009, 07:44:29 pm »

Glad to be of help Marigold.

Gavo my OH says they charge £8/lb for bacon and £6/lb for gammon and £4/lb for sausages.

smc · « **Reply #9 on:** October 29, 2009, 09:09:01 pm »

There seems to be quite a variation in the cost of feeding weaners through to slaughter - £60 - £120.

Does the "1lb of food per month of age per day" just cover commercial feed or include fruit and vegetables as well?

What type of feed are you giving them Dixie?

Is there a ratio of fresh food to commercial rations that we should aim for, or can they have whatever is available? For example, we might have more fresh stuff available some weeks than others.

Thanks

Hilarysmum · « **Reply #10 on:** October 30, 2009, 07:55:10 am »

A lot depends on where you buy your feed, we buy in bulk saving a massive 3 euros per 25 kilos. So our costs per pig would be cheaper.

Dont forget that dead weight is less than live weight, then allow for bones, head, trotters, these are hard to sell.

1 lb of food per month of life up to 5 months, then roughly 2 kilos a day until departure.

All the veggies, fruit and nuts we feed is as an extra. We always feed full pig nut rations per day. I believe the value of "other" feed can be fed at 4k = 1 kilo propriatry feed. Although this should never replace more than 1/4 ration per day. In winter when they need to keep themselves warm as well, I personally would still feed the full amount.

At the end of the day you get out what you put in.