The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: nutterly_uts on July 24, 2015, 08:59:33 pm
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Does anyone do this as a business using their own pigs?
I know it is somewhat demand lead but roughly how many pigs are needed to keep it viable? What age/s of pig are best to do it with? Any breeds recommended or to avoid?
Am wanting some pigs but I'm trying to get my head around numbers and what options we have with them. I don't know if breeding or just weaners at the moment
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Do you have a spit? And a few grand to spare? Oh and the relative certs from environmental and animal health? Just a few of the hurdles to jump through before thinking about geting pigs?
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Nothing yet - 50-100 acres of blank canvas and no urgency to get stock :) still very much in the researching process. Money not allocated in any direction so far
Will look into certifications, Thanks :)
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Start off with a couple of white pigs, raise them to pork weight and hire a hog roast and give it a try to make sure you enjoy all parts of the process before you commit to the full set up ;)
It'll cost upwards of £5K for a basic set up, decent machine, gazebo, catering bits and bobs and a trailer to store/cart it all around in.....you could easily spend double though.
Breeding pigs to supply your enterprise year round will depend on how many roasts you plan on doing every week - 1 a week means approx 50 porkers a year and having them at the right weight at the right time (most machines have an upper weight limit - especially those with a spit) Assuming you can manage the feeding/stagger litters you'll be looking at 3 breeding sows each having 2 litters per year - a quick guess would see feed costs around £10,000 p.a......maybe more (for sows and raising weaners)
Once we factor in all our costs, we make around £150 profit from each hog roast......maybe I'm not charging enough :innocent:
HTH
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Karen how much are you charging? ????
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£4 for a roll... Assuming 120 rolls (£20 from our local bakers), the cost of raising the pig (£250 - if you factor in cost of breeding/buying, feed & straw and slaughter charges), the cost of gas (£30) and all the other wee bits and pieces (gravy, apple sauce, stuffing, onions, napkins and condiments (£30)
That's obviously not counting things like petrol, insurance or a 'wage' for my time; preparing, 8 hours cooking/serving and the clean up time :-\
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Start off with a couple of white pigs, raise them to pork weight and hire a hog roast and give it a try to make sure you enjoy all parts of the process before you commit to the full set up ;)
It'll cost upwards of £5K for a basic set up, decent machine, gazebo, catering bits and bobs and a trailer to store/cart it all around in.....you could easily spend double though.
Breeding pigs to supply your enterprise year round will depend on how many roasts you plan on doing every week - 1 a week means approx 50 porkers a year and having them at the right weight at the right time (most machines have an upper weight limit - especially those with a spit) Assuming you can manage the feeding/stagger litters you'll be looking at 3 breeding sows each having 2 litters per year - a quick guess would see feed costs around £10,000 p.a......maybe more (for sows and raising weaners)
Once we factor in all our costs, we make around £150 profit from each hog roast......maybe I'm not charging enough :innocent:
HTH
Thanks :) VERY helpful :)
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I know two or three people around here who do hog roasts. None of them rear their own pigs. I would suggest that you will need more outlets for your pigs than just the hog roast to give yourself flexibility and ensure you don't have a business based on feast or famine principles. Either set up as a hog roaster and buy in the pigs when you need them, or set up as a pig farmer and develop the market for what you produce, possibly including the hog roasts in your plans. Either way it ain't easy.
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Spot on Hughesy.
Unfortunately it would be more cost efficient for me to buy an outdoor reared commercial hog, rather than use my own wonderful, happy, tasty, pampered piggies ::) We did once for a short notice roast when we didn't have any pigs ready. It cost me about £120 plus slaughter.....i can't compete with the big guys when it comes to costs :-\
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HappyHippy yes it would be a much better business model formne to buy in pork to sell too. Not the same though is it.
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yesterday at nantwich show they sold hog roast £8 a roll and sold out
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yesterday at nantwich show they sold hog roast £8 a roll and sold out
They'd probably had to pay about 2 grand for the pitch ;D
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yesterday at nantwich show they sold hog roast £8 a roll and sold out
They'd probably had to pay about 2 grand for the pitch ;D
and if they did 3 pigs they are 4k up!
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We had a party and hired the spit£120 bought the pig£120. Cooked it all ourselves, fed around 100 people and had some to spare. It's a great way to do it but the outlay cost is big but if you can get the customers and get to the big shows you could make your money back.