[TESS1963]

Hi - I have had five litters this year and have managed to sell all of them. The only concession, was selling a batch of five boars to a gentleman for less than what I would normally sell them for. I now only have one litter of four left, which I will advertise nearer them being eight weeks old, as I am finding that people are ringing and wanting piglets right away.

I have put three of my girls back into pig, keeping fingers crossed I am hopeful that they will sale and have decided not to put the other three into pig until later on in the year. I was really worried at the beginning of the year, but the demand for pigs was steady and hopefully it will continue.

I have just bought another batch of sow nuts - £305 tonne!!!! It is a good job, I love my pigs and look on them as a hobby and not a business!

[Fowgill Farm]

Tess
You have been very lucky, normally at this time of year the phone literally hangs off the hook with enquiries for piglets, this year think i've had 2 since Xmas and both of those were tyre kickers!
Also last year my boar only had 7wks without a lady friend all year, this year he's had 2 ladies to visit in six months, people just don't seem to be breeding and recently i know of a litter of saddlebacks that someone couldn't sell so they put them in the lcoal mart, they made £5 each which doesn't even cover their rearing!
The litter we had in January, thank god there were a lot of gilts as managed to sell those and have kept the 4 boars to fatten myself. I find it all very worrying.
Mandy 

[Eve]

What's a "tyre kicker"?

[Hilarysmum]

Exactly what I was going to ask - is it a time waster?

[Fowgill Farm]

yes - a time waster, one of them arranged to come and see the piglets 3 times and then never turned up at the appointed time and rang with some pathetic excuse as to why!
Sometimes i think i'm my own worst enemy though because people come with very rosy tinted views on pig keeping and i'm afraid i wake them up to the harsh realities of it. Some of them literally think they can chuck them in a field toss in a few scraps every day or so and let them get on with it. but saying that i have some regular weaner buyers who are just brilliant and really care for their pigs perhaps too much, many tears at butcher time.
Feel very down in the dumps about it all at present.
A lot of my customers are public sector workers or retired and although i haven't put my prices up in three years, other areas of their lives are proving costly and nobody feels secure in their jobs. Its becoming a vicious circle.
Mandy 

[Hilarysmum]

Mandy you may be your own worst enemy, but you are your pigs' best friend, not letting them go to the wrong homes. 

Its very hard at present, and sometimes it seems as if the light at the end of the tunnel is a man with a torch and another sack load of problems, and as for darkest hour before the dawn, well its been a very long night.

It will get better despite my gloom, hard as it is hang on in there.   These things go in cycles.  Quality breeders of quality pigs, who care are not that abundant.  Cant afford to lose any.

[Fowgill Farm]

Hm wise words as ever, thanks.
Funny this morning was leaning over the gate into field watching Delia chase the heifers away from her patch of yummy grass, and i thought "Old lady you have the best life of any pig i know" and thats when you realise its all worthwhile, that your animals are content and really all is well in their world and thats what counts.
Mandy 

[Hilarysmum]

Exactly 

[Fowgill Farm]

Just in addition to this, i have never seen so many herds for sale as there at present both on marketplace and on GOS website. They were talking on the news this morning about economic recovery but it certainly not true in the pig world, a pig producer sent a letter to the Daily Mail in Monday's paper imploring the public to buy British high welfare pork. The downturn in pigs seems to be continuing................
mandy 

[southwestpoultry]

I have been reading this post with great interest and would like to comment, We have been poultry breeders for nearly two years and had fancied some pigs for quite a while too.
A couple of months back after doing quite a bit of research we decided to buy a pair of Oxford Sandy and Black Gilts to bring on to breed from and then fatten up the piglets for meat after that.
We wanted to find a breeder who could offer as much support and help as any new pig keeper needs and thankfully we did.
We were asked to pay a deposit for the two of them which we were more than happy to do as this shows a bond of trust between the new owners and the breeder who is selling their wares so to speak.

My partner and I agreed that supporting a rare breed is important as it keeps the breed active, we also understand that there are quite a few nasty apples out there, but when you do you homework you can find the right person to deal with and they in turn know that their animals will be well looked after, which is really important I feel.
We will be paying £60.00 each for the Gilts which we felt was a good price, they are being registered and we are also joining the BPA to ensure we are doing the right thing for ourselves and the breed.

My partner and I maybe quite rare feeling like this as new pig people - but I feel that is what needs to happen to ensure the stability of some of the rare breeds.

Thanks for reading and it would be nice to see what comments my reply brings.

Warmest Regards
Robert Dodge.

South West Poultry.
www.southwest-poultry.com

[Castle Farm]

Livestock in general has taken a hit from tighter times financially.

Horses and ponies are really suffering, but breeders are still churning them out without a care. Sec A colts are being given away around here.

There are thousands of poultry keepers all over the country hatching chicks and a fair majority of those are total rubbish, but they still hatch them hoping to get money back on chick/grower sales.

Alpacas and Llamas are different, as they are pyramid sellers and I think that the base of that pile has gone out as far as it can.

Pigs are pigs if your looking to put one in the freezer. Pedigree or X bred people will look for a healthy weaner at a good price, unless they want the cred of telling people they own a pedigree breed. Personnally I just get decent size weaners at a price I concider to be fair.

Hereford Market weaners are from £8 upwards. Coloured slightly more.

[Dundonald hens]

I have read this post with great intrested ! and yip you guessed it im a penny pincher as well and would love to know where you can get these cheap pigs !!!! the cheapest i can get within a reasonable drive from me ( 50 miles) is £50 so if anyone anywhere near kilmarnock has 2 piglets cheap please let me knw because a saving of £25 a pig is a huge amount !!

[Eve]

I'm appalled by the last post. If saving £50 is a "huge amount", can you afford to have pigs in the first place? What if you need to pay a vet, will you be a penny pincher then, too??

Breeders need to cover their costs, too, even if they're hobbyists. I'm not advocating paying over the odds, but the whole system has to be sustainable, which means there's a minimum cost involved - and that's not 5 or 8 quid a weaner, or even £25!
  

[Womble]

I suppose all these things are cyclical, but it's puzzling me to try and work out whether small scale pig breeding / rearing would be more or less so than large scale pig farming. I know that pork futures are actually traded on the stock exchange (as "Lean Hogs"), but I've been unable to find a historical chart of the price, which might have helped shed some light on the situation. It'd also be interesting to see what degree of correlation there is between the price of grain and the price of pork. However, I suspect that whilst relevant, this isn't the reason anybody on TAS went into pig breeding, and hardly helps shift weaners!!

Alpacas and Llamas are different, as they are pyramid sellers and I think that the base of that pile has gone out as far as it can.

That's another interesting one. The back of this month's 'Smallholder' magazine has 5 columns of small ads for alpacas and llamas, which I found very surprising given that pigs only merit 3.5 columns, poultry 4, and sheep 1.5!  I wonder if the market has gotten a bit overheated? After all, they're just  grumpy long-necked sheep aren't they? {ducks for cover  }

[HappyHippy]

Can I tell you why I started breeding pedigree pigs ?
I'd raised a few batches of weaners for the freezer - some bought from local breeders then, when I was a bit braver and knew what to look for, from our local mart. (I think the cheapest I bought were £35 each)
But as I learned more about pigs and became involved with TAS, the RBST and other breed clubs/organisations I realised how at risk many of the traditional breeds are - being a typical "I want to save the world !" type wummin, I made the decision to breed from pedigree stock. My reasoning for this is (to me) quite simple - non-pedigree pigs don't count towards breed numbers held by the BPA, so unless I'm breeding pedigree I'm doing nothing to help preserve these breeds. Pigs cost the same to keep and process whether they're ped. or not, a small difference in cost at the start should make very little difference in the overall cost per kilo. Plus, by having a pedigree weaner, you can sell it as Tamworth/GOS etc etc etc without breaking any rules relating to marketing  My costs to produce piglets would be the same whether I bred pedigree or not  They still eat the same, need the same land and housing, medical treatment etc etc etc The only difference is in the extra money for BPA and BKKPS membership, but that works out at less than £2.50 a piglet. So for people to be happiliy selling piglets at £25 a time I would question whether all the things are in place to ensure that the pigs are healthy and well cared for - because I certainly couldn't afford to sell them for that  2 litters at £25 a piglet barely covers the cost of the sow's feed for a year - how on earth would the breeder be paying for worming, vaccinating, bedding etc etc etc

I have read this post with great intrested ! and yip you guessed it im a penny pincher as well and would love to know where you can get these cheap pigs !!!! the cheapest i can get within a reasonable drive from me ( 50 miles) is £50 so if anyone anywhere near kilmarnock has 2 piglets cheap please let me knw because a saving of £25 a pig is a huge amount !!

Cheap pigs ? or GOOD pigs ?
As they say Dundonald, you pays your money, you takes your chance  I've heard of a lot of people buying 2 or 3 'cheap' pigs only to find they are sickly animals who end up either taking months extra to finish or who end up being destroyed. Where's the saving there ? If you're not prepared to find an extra £25 to buy a quality weaner would you be the kind of person who's prepared to pay £25 to the vet to treat an ill animal ? Please think about the 'big' picture