The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: gapcap on October 24, 2011, 08:33:30 pm

Title: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: gapcap on October 24, 2011, 08:33:30 pm
Can anyone give me a rough idea how much I can expect to pay to hire a proven x breed boar,to come stay for 6weeks? Thanks
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: robert waddell on October 24, 2011, 09:09:04 pm
not very much for a x breed   remember you have to feed it for the 6 weeks
price out AI  and take it from there :farmer:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: gapcap on October 24, 2011, 09:44:44 pm
Thanks Robert, been quoted £50 which seems a bit steep to me!
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: robert waddell on October 24, 2011, 09:54:04 pm
£50 FOR A X BREED YOU WILL PAY LESS FOR A PEDIGREE PIG TO MATE :o :o
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Roxy on October 24, 2011, 10:00:59 pm
At a show, a breeder handed me a leaflet advertising her kune kune boar.  It was £40 for the service, and £10 per week keep, at her place.  That was a registered boar.

The price quoted to you, seems high to me, especially as you will be feeding/bedding the boar.
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: princesspiggy on October 24, 2011, 11:32:10 pm
AI is £20 for 3 bottles. for pedigree beast. if that helps...
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: robert waddell on October 24, 2011, 11:39:37 pm
yes but that is only one cycle  if you factor in the second cycle thats £40  :farmer:
£10 a week to keep a kunie is that not to dear if they are eating grass ;)
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Sylvia on October 25, 2011, 07:59:34 am
Someone "lent" me a Kune boar. He arrived at the end of July and I think they may have "forgotten" to collect him :D
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: windymiller on October 25, 2011, 08:08:12 am
the first time we did it, we paid 180 (60 quid per sow but the boars owner delivered and picked him up and he was over an hour away) and he serviced 3 of our sows, that was for a pedigree registered boar, now with hindsight that was far too much and one sow didn't take so we were hugely out of pocket, 2nd time lesson learned, we got a registered one for 20£ per service and only did the 2 sows (3rd was in freezer) they were smaller litters, a 3 and a 7 but very good pigs.
you can't get ai yet for oxfords otherwise (unless some one knows different?)i'd use it, but they do enjoy a boar, in time we'll get our own, problem is the hassle of either getting rid of offspring or regularly changing the boar...hmmm
it'll wait till next year!
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: gapcap on October 25, 2011, 08:44:49 am
Thanks folks :wave:, looks like some negotiations are called for then ;) Or if anyone knows of a boar Herefordshire/welsh borders looking for lodgings for a few weeks give me a shout please.she's a big girl(wessex saddleback/pietrain) so needs to be a fairly big lad!!
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: BadgerFace on October 25, 2011, 09:05:16 am
Someone "lent" me a Kune boar. He arrived at the end of July and I think they may have "forgotten" to collect him :D

Yep, I got stung like that last year !  :( The hire boar owners went AWOL after four weeks and the damn thing ended up here for six months - must be the most expensive hire ever ! (I guess I have MUG tattooed on my forehead).

A pedigree boar (much nicer boar and owners !) I used to send my sows to, charges £75 per sow, including keep for six weeks.

I've just bitten the bullet and brought a young boar; after not being able to find a suitable local one  :pig:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Fowgill Farm on October 25, 2011, 09:24:50 am
We charge £30 for service & £10 per wk keep for Sows/gilts coming to our pedigree GOS boar. Our boar only goes out to one friend and she collects and drops him back, looks after him like her own and feeds him well so i don't charge her anything as it gives me a break twice a year. Other than that he has his ladies at home and if they bring feed with them we knock it off the bill.For a cross i wouldn't expect to pay more than £30 especially if you're feeding him, collecting & dropping him off, but if they're doing the running round well with the price of diesel £50 sounds about right.
HTh
Mandy  :pig:


Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Berkshire Boy on October 25, 2011, 11:24:18 am
Hi Gapcap,
Whereabouts are you, I am just over the Herefordshire border into Powys about 7 miles from Kington.I have a pedigree Berkshire boar you can hire,£50 delivered if not too far away.
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Blinkers on October 25, 2011, 12:09:21 pm
We have a Pedigree Old Spot boar for whom I don't charge anything for.     I do however go out and check that I'm happy with where he's going and that the sows are well looked after.    I feel that if someone is happy to feed him and look after him then that's all I ask.    I do keep tabs on him though to make sure he's OK.

 :wave:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Tiva Diva on October 25, 2011, 07:59:21 pm
Windymiller, I have heard that deerpark have OSB semen now though we've not asked as we have a boar. We don't advertise him as a stud boar but do let friends use him: fees depend on whether we take him to them or their sows come to us, and how many sows he's covering, but generally around £30 for one sow plus his keep
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: SallyintNorth on October 25, 2011, 11:30:20 pm
you can't get ai yet for oxfords otherwise (unless some one knows different?)i'd use it
Windymiller, I have heard that deerpark have OSB semen now though we've not asked as we have a boar.
Deerpark got an OSB boar but when I wanted his semen in May they said he wouldn't work and they were having to get another one.  (Hence my now not-so-little saddleback x bruisers.)

I'm hoping they have a new OSB boy now and he's working - if no-one else finds out before, I'm expecting to be wanting some of his semen in about 7 weeks' time...  ;) :D
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Rich/Jan on October 26, 2011, 07:39:11 am
HI - here in France stud fees seems similar to some of the posters on here - 50 - 75 stud fee plus 5-10per week for food - thats in euros which isnt much different to pounds nowadays. ::)
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: pugwash on October 26, 2011, 05:17:54 pm
Checked with Deerpark today,still no luck with the OSB but they are trying.
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: windymiller on October 29, 2011, 10:09:24 am
many thanks for that, i'll give them a shout in the new year!
i'd heard that ai for oxfords was basically out the question as the boars were available and quite docile so there was no demand.
that said theres a lack of local pedigree boars round here and we'd not have enough sows for keeping him busy, is that a myth?? i'd suspect its more down to the individual pig?
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: SallyintNorth on October 29, 2011, 01:10:33 pm
It has been suggested to me that the easiest way to have an Oxford boar for my one breeding sow is to buy a boar in as a weaner, use him as soon as he's sexually active, then eat him - and repeat.

However as Meg's not registered (she's pure-bred but not pedigree), it's not the end of the world for me to use AI of a different breed as all my piglets are for eating not breeding anyway.  When Meg's time comes, I expect I'll start again with registered gilts.

To use the buy-in, use-and-eat boar regime for producing registered piglets, it would of course have to be a registered weaner that was bought in.

And I expect those who've had some experience will be telling us whether or not this tactic results in boar taint in the pork from the young but sexually active boar?
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: robert waddell on October 29, 2011, 04:07:17 pm
boar taint does exist
if you do not or can not detect it  there is nothing wrong with your idea    the only thing wrong is you would need a lot of future boars in the pipelie one ready every 5 months and as your sow gets bigger your boar would need to be bigger as well :farmer:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Tudful Tamworths on October 29, 2011, 05:06:04 pm
Reluctant to raise the boar taint issue again, but I've never had it in traditional breeds - even when I've raised them to eight months old. I have, however, had it in commercial crosses, which mature much earlier (Landrace x Pietrain - sent them off at five months and could detect it).

Interestingly, went to an impressive farm in the Midlands last weekend (Robert and Lillian were there, too). Two youngish chaps (late 20s/30s) who have the largest herd of Tamworths in the UK - about 40 breeding sows, plus three/four boars, along with growers - all outdoors.

They don't castrate their boar growers, and slaughter at seven months old. And they sell to top London restaurants - all with no complaints.

I'm well aware that others will come back with comments, but I know dozens of breeders who don't castrate - and many who raise a young boar weaner, use his "skills", and then send him off for slaughter. I've done it myself, with no regrets/complaints.

Why not try it and see what happens?
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: robert waddell on October 29, 2011, 05:21:09 pm
what Liz is not telling is that there were some gilts that looked in pig
that entire boar that you send of to a new outlet may just be the one that has taint or they can detect it new outlet will be reluctant to buy any more
interesting point that Liz has also opened up the crosses we have lop x Hampshire piglets and when they were castrated at 3-4 days old the taint could be detected by Lillian the student vet and happy hippy when they were being castrated
at the recent qms butchery demonstration the butcher (male)rubbished the taint idea yet his sidekick(a woman)said she could detect it with commercial crosses
the jury is still out :farmer:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Tudful Tamworths on November 01, 2011, 12:00:29 am
Robert, I didn't mention that some gilts looked in pig because that wasn't what we were talking about here.

The issue was boar taint, not the age at which boars could impregnate gilts/sows. You make it sound like I was trying to hide something. What a load of unnecessary, distracting rubbish.

Back to the taint issue, I will reiterate what I've said before - I've sent off older, uncastrated males for slaughter with no complaints. I've eaten them myself and have had repeat customers.

That's all I wanted to say -apart from the fact that you need to learn how to use full stops, and that you should ease off from using capital letters for emphasis. Nos da, bach x :wave:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: robert waddell on November 01, 2011, 09:45:31 am
correction Liz the topic is boar hire
so you are the only one to deviate from a post
i would rather talk than write but i bow to perfection personified :farmer:
Title: Re: Boar hire.... how much??
Post by: Tudful Tamworths on November 01, 2011, 06:02:03 pm
I wasn't deviating - it was raised earlier.

Clearly wasting my time contributing to a thread when you are on board, Robert. As the TV business mentors would say, "I'm out". Rant to your heart's content.