The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Kate Fellows on May 28, 2010, 04:31:49 pm
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We are investigating raising our own pigs to sell produce to the holiday cottages and campers on our smallholding.
We want to get mainly sausages, pork burgers and bacon as this will sell better than joints for the BBQ, with perhaps some pork belly or a few chops.
We have read that raising them to 'baconer' weight would be most cost effective, but have no idea how many sausages/burgers/packs of bacon we would get per pig.
What would be the best way to work this out? Perhaps on the weight of usable meat you can get from a baconer? If anyone has any suggestions we would be most grateful.
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Hi kate,
Just got my pigs back from slaughter and the 'kill weights' were between 70-84kg, these were not baconers as they tend to be a bit bigger and you also have to allow that weight included - head, bones, trotters etc. not sure how much a baconer would yield but am sure someone will shine some light.
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Hello Kate W.P. There is nothing to stop you turning the whole thing into sausage if you so desire (Not the bones of course but if you leave a bit of meat on the rib bones they will sell well as spare ribs for the BBQ) Make gammon with the hind legs then you can offer gammon steaks Heads tails hocks and trotters need to be treated as non saleable and used by your selves I think I put a post on where I turned a big pig into sausage with a Kenwood Chef Mincer and sausage stuffer ??? :D :farmer: :wave:
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I cant remember where these figures came from, but they sound about right - although much depends on the fat ratio, and whether the pig was thin, medium or fat.
80 k live weight
56-61 k dead weight
40-44 meat depending on fat ratio.
Also for sausages assume you will add about 10% bread or rusk plus a couple of ice cubes worth of water per kilo which will add a little to the final total.
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Thank you - that's really helpful.
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We had 2 pigs last year that were about 80kg. We just did Sausage, Bacon and Gammon. We got 1300 sausages!
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My mind is boggling at the thought of 1300 sausages - did you eat them all youselves ???
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This isn't quite true H but if your pig dead weight and prepped for sausage making was say 100 kg= 220lb x 8 = 1760 I of course removed the bones and offal But that is a ruff guide you may make your sausages 6 to the pound in which case you would only get 1320 wouldn't you this of course you would increase by the amount of bread you added say 20% ;D :farmer: :wave: p.s yes rough spells ruff
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1300 sausages sounds amazing miri miran, roughly how many gammon and how much bacon? really interested to hear. ;D
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2 Saddle back weaners £40 each
Wormer £5
Feed £171.81
Slaughter £40
Butcher Sundries £65
1,300 Sausages (sold at £3.50 for 10)
18 Sides of Bacon (sold at £8/lb)
14 Gammon joints (sold at £6/lb)
Liver, loin, kidney £20
We only sold enough to cover all costs and then kept the rest for ourselves. Hope all of that makes sense. We may have over/undersold ourselves, but it worked for us.
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thanks, these figures are really usefull. What food did you use? growers pellets? how much did you pay per bag and how many did you use? looking to get some pigs in future and interested to hear all about costs as we will be looking to do a similar thing to you did by selling the meat until costs were covered. ???