The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: 90driver on October 01, 2013, 11:16:38 pm
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Today I picked up our 3 pigs from the abattoir. It has taken me quite a few years to actually pull my finger out and actually do it. I am so glad that I did. For those of you thinking about doing the same I thought I would list the cost as a bit of a guide.
3 x weaners £75
40 x pig feed £ 324
slaughter and butchering £ 330 !!!!
Total cost £ 729
The sale of 5 x 1/2 pig £ 600.
Well I knew I was not going to make any money.... but did not cost the earth either. I am not sure how we got away with feeding them so little, and they certainly were not small (80kg) .
I created them a 30m square enclosure with mains water, stock fencing, electric fencing and a swishy new 1/2 mesh field gate. the total cost for that was £850. All work was done myself and I did not have to hire a digger for the water pipe as I have one on site.
For an Ark i used an old Series 3 lwb roof, which proved perfect for 3 80kg pigs. I modified it for purpose with some scrap timber and purely for looks fitted it with a roof rack complete with spare wheel.
It has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish and will do it again next spring and maybe even twice.
It was a bit of a voyage into the unknown but I would encourage anyone who is thinking about doing it to get out there and do it.
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Great news, exactly how i started out as an 18 year old!! 8 years later and im just as enthusiastic as i was back then. Pig keeping, rearing, breeding is an addiction I indulge in :)
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Very interesting - thanks for summarising the figures, I'll have to do the same when our first 2 pigs go off sometime in November!
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We did pretty much the same. Had 3 weaners, and similar costings over the summer.
However, about half of the butcher cost was for making sausages and bacon/ham, so if you're not bothered about sausages, you can cut £100 off the bill.
I think ours worked out at about £3.50 per kg.
Rare breed pork sells for about £8/kg round here, and the average cost at supermarket seems to be about £5/kg, so I was pretty happy having a good amount of meat for cheaper than Tesco!
Tastes better as well :)
3 weaners: £135 (They were already a bit older)
feed: £200
Slaughter+Butcher: £355
Total cost: £690
We sold a couple of half pig for £120 as well, then have the rest in the freezer :D (2 pigs is about the limit in a chest freezer).
Getting our new pigs (3 gilts to raise for breeding) on Saturday, and can't wait :)
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Thanks 90driver and jimmy, it's interesting to see the cost on paper.
I wish I had taken note of how much pig food I was buying now. I will have to do that when I get the next 2 in the spring
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slaughter and butchering £ 330 !!!!
Ouch. Out of interest, can you give us a break down of what that consisted of please?
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For us, it was about £55/pig slaughter+cut. - £165
Bagging and labeling was an extra £19/pig. - £57 (We didn't know what all the cuts were, so next time we might do this ourselves).
Sausages were about £100 (We had a lot, but boy are they tasty).
Bacon/ham was about £40
I think you can really cut those costs down if you can make sausages yourself, and maybe even do some of the butchering. For our first time we just wanted the butcher to do it all though.
Pig feed is certainly a big cost Bionic. Our local supplier does £10 25kg bags which isn't bad. There's a place that delivers by the half ton or ton load which works out nearer £8.50 / 25kg. Best to also find places that have waste you can legally use to add into the mix e.g. windfall apples, sugarbeet that's not up to scratch, etc etc (I'm working on that now for next time).
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Wow your slaughter butchery costs surprised me, we have been told £60 a pig, we assumed butchery would include bacon/ham and sausage maybe we will have a surprise :huff: We have found feed at £9.90 for 25kg how did Jimmy get his so low £200 for 3 :thinking: & they want £40 for weaners
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Looking at it now it was a mistake to pre sell them as 1/2 pigs... should of been sold per kilo with different rates for joints and Sausages. But as this was our first time I wanted to make sure we did not have any hanging around. As it turns out I could of sold twice as many and for a greater amount.
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Wow your slaughter butchery costs surprised me, we have been told £60 a pig, we assumed butchery would include bacon/ham and sausage maybe we will have a surprise :huff: We have found feed at £9.90 for 25kg how did Jimmy get his so low £200 for 3 :thinking: & they want £40 for weaners
I'd be astounded if £60 includes any sausages or bacon/ham, that sounds like the basic slaughter+cut cost to me. Sausages are fairly costly - casings, time to make them, and any flavourings.
Just for fun, here's a graph showing the average growth of our 3 pigs (Based on measuring every so often). We got them when they were already 81 days old, so they were over half way done already.
Ours would go off food when it was boiling hot, but then catch up when it was cooler.
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Looking at it now it was a mistake to pre sell them as 1/2 pigs... should of been sold per kilo with different rates for joints and Sausages. But as this was our first time I wanted to make sure we did not have any hanging around. As it turns out I could of sold twice as many and for a greater amount.
We did the same. Also we priced ours fairly low (£120 / half pig) just to make sure we weren't stuck with more than we could eat/store.
Live and learn for next time eh :)
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So how would you sell now 1/2 pig or by the kilo ? if by the kilo would you take pre orders ?
If by the Kilo then what prices for what
Pork joint, pork chops, ham, bacon, sausage
Assuming either Oxfords or Berkshires
Aiming for one at 80Kg the other being where it is so maybe 70-75kg, between them maybe dead at 105kg previous post stated they finished out at £3.50 a kilo finished, if £3.50 finished but sold at 120 per 1/2 that's not a lot of profit or contingency.
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That is seriously expensive butchering! :o
My basic is £25, £4.00 for a side of bacon and 50p/lb for sausages.
Although we don't have it bagged and labelled as it's extra.
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Ye but even houses are only 2s 6d in Staffordshire :roflanim:
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What's 2s 6d? Or am I totally out of touch :-[ (or just a lot younger! ;) )
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That is seriously expensive butchering! :o
My basic is £25, £4.00 for a side of bacon and 50p/lb for sausages.
Although we don't have it bagged and labelled as it's extra.
Wow yeah £1/lb for sausages here, but everything's pricier in the south east I guess... Still much cheaper than in the supermarkets though which is nice :)
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What's 2s 6d? Or am I totally out of touch :-[ (or just a lot younger! ;) )
you have heard of 2 & 6 old money pre 1967 you know 10 bob anyway I was just trying to say it seemed really cheap that's humour for you :roflanim:
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Well it's certainly cheap and cheerful here !! ;D
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The break down of Slaughter / butchering costs were : Basic kill £25 . Jointing £24 both per pig. Boning and rolling £1.15/kg. Sausage making £2.65/kg.
Given that rare breed pork is selling for £8/kg I have well under sold. But I never started the project to make money ... just for it not to cost me too much :)
Next time more of a price structure definitely.
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rather idealistically you've enjoyed it and got a premium product at the end of it....... :thumbsup:
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I live in Spain I will be slaughtering my own pigs cost 60cents (different rules here ;) ) and I am hoping to butcher everything myself, quick learner
As I grow most of what I feed the pigs I'm working it out at approximately €45 per pig in bought feed.
Slow growing stock, looking at 15-18 months slaughter age, but tastier meat and all organic :)
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rather idealistically you've enjoyed it and got a premium product at the end of it....... :thumbsup:
spot on ! Trying to make a living from smallholding is almost impossible... but treat it as a hobby that pays for itself and it is much more enjoyable. ;-)
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Congratulations and I guess the 2 key points are that you enjoyed keeping the pigs and that their is potential to reduce costs if you do the butchering,bacon and sausages yourself.
I'm in Cactus Jack's camp and we will home kill our next 3 in December then butcher and make sausages,bacon and hams. My neighbour will have one pig and do the black puddings but I just hope that he stops filling our freezer with wild boar and deer he has shot !
We already had the sausage maker but we added to our costs ( investment in pigs) when we got a great set of butchering knives and saw in a nice case for 100€ ( on offer from a hunting shop).
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i had my butchery basic cut £22.50 then 85p per lb of plain sausages £1 per lb burgers (pork apple) then 1.25 per lb more more complex sausage mixes like chill and caramelised onion
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How is it that Spain and France, being in the EU like we are, have different rules regarding the slaughter of animals? Or do they just not bother with the rules?
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We have the same rules as the EU but we are the only stupid beggars who strictly adhere to them.
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EU Rules. Well the tagging and movement papers are the same here in France but if you are just keeping pigs for your own consumption then you may home kill etc and essentially you are left alone.
A few years ago we did register that we keep pigs for home use but we simply gave our address and now we receive a magazine a couple of times a year. We bought our last GOS weaners from an English breeder down the road. She completes and keeps all her "breeders" papers but has never sent them to the local office or received a visit.
Odd really as when you home kill and clean up afterwards the plastic ear tags are really enviromentally unfriendley.
Imagine the cost difference if you do not have to take the pigs to slaughter or pay for basic cutting or for sausages/bacon or ham making.
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MAK how do you dispose of the bits you can't use like guts etc? In the UK they'd come down on us like a ton of bricks if we didn't do it the proper way. I suppose there's a big difference between killing a pig for your own use and killing a pig for commercial reasons though.
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All the houses in our village are attached to a long barn and built within the barn (at the other end to our house) is the pigs home. Thus keeping a couple of pigs was pretty standard here so they are still very relaxed about things and we try and keep the old ways going. So to answer your question about disposal of bits I list the usual procedure.
Once the pig is stunned and the blood collected for black pudding we set a light to a lot of straw and drop a dead pig on top whilst scrapping the burnt hair. I will have dug a hole and we lift the pig over it using a tractor's bucket raise it up by its hind legs then empty the pig. I fill my hole with soil but others leave the biodegradable guts for their hunting dogs or whatever passes by.
We then pressure wash the pigs and cut them in half and drive them hanging from a tractor back to my barn. We hang these halves inside the barn ( wrapped in shower curtains) overnight then start cutting the next day. This is best done when it's cold but last year it all took place in a blizzard. Black pudding is made overnight by my neighbour and we start the next day with a hearty breakfast of kidneys, black pudding and eggs - habitual for us now.
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Some expensive butchering costs there!
i Pay £60 per pig, that includes sausages, all cut up, labelled and boxed as half pigs ready to sell for £150 per half
Slaughter is £15