The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Formatted on July 12, 2014, 08:00:57 pm
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I've been using the wonderful TAS pig calculator to help me get started and I just have a few questions around if I have got my sums right.
I'm going to keep Gloucester Old Spots. I'm a numbers man and I'm not planning on making a lot from my pigs but I don't want to be hugely out of pocket, so if you could help check the accuracy of my calculations that would be appreciated.
I'm expecting the cost of raising a weaner to be £31 (That is 8 per litter, cost of feeding sow per litter is £173, plus a few additional for vet bills, straw, etc) Sale price for a weaner GOS is about £50.
I'm expecting if I raise a weaner to 24 weeks I'll get 45 kilos of useable meat, it'll cost me £160 to feed & house it, slaughter & butcher it. Meet is worth roughly £6 per kilo.
Do those sums sound roughly what you would expect?
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I have just bought half a pig for the freezer (Welsh) Cut and jointed + sausages.
£130. Hope this helps.
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£130. Hope this helps.
Thanks for that, what was the weight if you know it?
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Hi. I have just raised 2 weaners to 28 weeks. And you costing is pretty much spot on as far as I experienced. .. I managed to get almost 300 per pig in the end.
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Depending on your feed prices, you might be a bit off on the costings for weaners/feeding your sow.
But mainly the advice I'd give is don't jump straight into breeding! Raise some weaners, try different breeds, get some practical hands on experience (you'll save a small fortune in vets fees if you can at least inject confidently) ;) and then think about getting a sow. If you rush in before you're ready there's a higher chance of things going wrong.
HTH
Karen
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a sow takes alot more feeding, id budget for a tonne per 6 mths if she is free range, pregnant and lactating all year round - and remember the costs of ai/boar hire, especially if she doesnt take straight away. worming etc is pricey too.
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Depending on your feed prices, you might be a bit off on the costings for weaners/feeding your sow.
But mainly the advice I'd give is don't jump straight into breeding! Raise some weaners, try different breeds, get some practical hands on experience (you'll save a small fortune in vets fees if you can at least inject confidently) ;) and then think about getting a sow. If you rush in before you're ready there's a higher chance of things going wrong.
HTH
Karen
Agree 100% with HH do not jump straight into breeding it will put you off pig keeping for life! Fatten 2 or 3 weaners for the freezer first and see if you like it.
Go to www.gospbc.co.uk (http://www.gospbc.co.uk) and read the getting started articles under pig management tab. some food for thought...........what will you do if both your sows have 14 piglets each giving you 28 to find homes for its not an easy market out there! so go slowly.
hth
mandy :pig:
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Depending on your feed prices, you might be a bit off on the costings for weaners/feeding your sow.
But mainly the advice I'd give is don't jump straight into breeding!
Thanks for that, I'm certainly not just straight in but I need to make sure long term that there is some money in this before I get started. I'm getting the land from September and planning on having it ready for 2 weaners in October to fatten up.
Thanks for the feedback, glad to see I'm roughly in the right ball park.
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Totally agree. The cost of feeding a milking sow can make your eyes water. And the bigger the litter the more she'll scoff.
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I need to make sure long term that there is some money in this before I get started.
theres really not much in at all, unless you already have housing, fencing and cheap supply of food. even then its a tiny profit if anything.
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If you're wanting to make money, forget pigs........seriously!
Unless you get magic pigs that grow on fresh air, never get ill or need wormed and can produce arcs and fencing from thin air, you'll not make money - I've been breeding pigs for around 5 years and have still to make a profit (though thanks to running courses, making lard soap and other smallholdery bits, the losses are becoming less)
It's not the money that has you sitting in a shed in mid-winter (usually in a howling gale, in the middle of the night) delivering piglets, it's not money that gives you the guts to crawl into an arc with an angry sow who's squashing piglets - it's the love of pigs, the concern for their welfare or the desire to help save some of these rare breeds that should propel you forward into the (quite mad) world of pig keeping.
Please, before you go and commit to breeding sows, raise a few weaners and get some experience first - make sure pigs are actually something you enjoy keeping - before you commit 24/7, 365 days a year :thumbsup:
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If you can build a good market for the pork, and can get what some folk on here can for it, then there is definataly money in it. I've sold nine pigs this summer in half pigs, which probably cost me around £100 to produce. I only get £180 a pig for them, which leaves me a little profit, and plenty of good meat.
But at some of the prices i've seen on here, i'd be running at something like £5000 profit :innocent:
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We produced about 60 porkers last year. This year we'll slaughter about a hundred. Costs are high but it's not fair to say there's no money in pigs. It's like any other business you need a market for what you produce and you need to spend less than you take. One thing is for sure your prices need to be fair and reasonably competitive if you're going to have turnover week in week out. If I charged some of the prices mentioned on here for my pork I'd be throwing most of it in the bin at the end of the week.
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I've sold nine pigs this summer in half pigs, which probably cost me around £100 to produce. I only get £180 a pig for them, which leaves me a little profit, and plenty of good meat.
£100 per pig, really? Wow, I'm definitely doing something wrong then :thinking:
My costs go something like this...
Cost of weaner £50
Cost of feeding to 24 weeks £80
Slaughter £20
Butchery costs £50 - £70 (@ 85p per kilo for pork, £1.90 per kilo for sausage/bacon)
So it's a minimum of £200 per pig for me (and that's without the 'incidentals' like bedding, transport costs or anything else that crops up) ???
Tell me your secret please :eyelashes:
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Why add the cost and worry off breeding. Buy weaners. less stress and helping the experienced breeder sell their stock.
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Happy Hippy, £100 is maybe slightly on the optimistic side, but not by much, and when doing a few in a batch, probably is about right.
Cost of Weaner - £35 for traditional breeds (i.e OSB, British Lop etc) or £1.60 per kilo for commercial cross breeds (making a 15 kilo weaner £24).
Cost of feeding up until 24 weeks - £36, based upon 315 lb / 144 Kilo, at £0.25 a kilo (or £250 a ton).
Straw - £20 based upon 8 bales at £2.50 a bale (based upon two pigs having one bale a week).
Slaughter and Butchery - £35.
So just going on what you included, that would equate to £106, including the straw it would be £126.
However, that cost would reduce if I was buying the cross bred weaners, and if running a larger batch the straw etc cost per pig would reduce.
My biggest savings and feed and butchery. :thumbsup:
But I can't get anywhere near what some people on here charge for my meat. I sold two half pigs the other day, butchered and packaged nicely, weighing about 33 kilo per half pig, for £90.