[harry]

took my last 2 pigs for slaughter today. what will happen next spring,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,  i heard on the radio this morning how pork is going to double in price next year,,,,, feed which is now £100 a ton will be £200 a ton in 2013 as feed is 70% of rearing cost prices will rocket...... many large producers have killed their breeding stock and are ripping down buildings already..... for people like myself with a handfull of pigs i suppose the trick will be getting feed free or cheap ie veg etc. so i also think i will stick with my free range kune kunes timing may also be a consideration ie when carrots beet and apples are plentifull, and no winter pigs.

[hughesy]

I'm sure a lot of people, myself included, would like to know where this £100 a ton pig feed can be got from? Or indeed the £200 a ton stuff for that matter.

[robert waddell]

just imagine the kunnies feeding the nation        maybe harry is living in the past with his feed costs     sorry cant help it

[chickenfeed]

I'm sure a lot of people, myself included, would like to know where this £100 a ton pig feed can be got from? Or indeed the £200 a ton stuff for that matter.

add the 2 prices together and your nearer the mark my last price was £317 a ton

[Fowgill Farm]

My last lot £330/tonne bagged & delivered. Ouch.
Sunday papers had all this doom & gloom for the pig industry in them too, makes you wonder if theres a PR machine somewhere in govt trying to get rid of the British pig herd or is that me just been a conspiratoral theorist!
mandy

[robert waddell]

at the present time British pork is dearer to produce than foreign pork     just wait till there is next to none in Britain   they will find out how cheap the foreign pork is then
 
beef when they had BSE every time the price recovered to a reasonable return all over the TV again price dwindled    i think this happened 3 times

[Beewyched]

My last lot £330/tonne bagged & delivered. Ouch.
Sunday papers had all this doom & gloom for the pig industry in them too, makes you wonder if theres a PR machine somewhere in govt trying to get rid of the British pig herd or is that me just been a conspiratoral theorist!
mandy

I agree with you Mandy - tho my OH says I'm a conspiratoral theorist too 

[rispainfarm]

Everything is cheaper to produce abroad robert. Look at all our clothes that are manufactured abroad and then brought back to the uk whilst british manufacturing companies are going out of business. Look at the call centres in india etc as it is cheaper to run. But then we know the uk government never look after their own

[robert waddell]

funny you should mention the call centres   i get a very friendly  Asian that keeps calling me 

[P6te]

Everything is cheaper to produce abroad robert. Look at all our clothes that are manufactured abroad and then brought back to the uk whilst british manufacturing companies are going out of business. Look at the call centres in india etc as it is cheaper to run. But then we know the uk government never look after their own

You are absolutely correct that lots of things whether it be clothes or services are cheaper elsewhere.  At the end of the day their is a reason for this, cost are lower and in many instances this is because of poor working conditions and or low labour rates.

My day job is in IT and we have people from India working alongside us for a limited time before returning to India.  I know first hand the conditions that they live and work in. Even when they are in accommodation here, it is several people living together in a room that to our standards is totally unacceptable. (without naming names, the IT company I work for is a household name and everyone reading this will know them)

Look at the pice of clothes manufactured around the globe, whether we like or accept it or not, lots will have been made by children or at least people working in extremely poor conditions.

In the engineering sector (another household name I could mention) with bases around the world (US, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong etc), in the far east cost rates are very low.  Working conditions are good but the hours they work are excessive.

Cheap goods or services comes at a price somewhere along the lines ....

Pete

[deepinthewoods]

Everything is cheaper to produce abroad robert. Look at all our clothes that are manufactured abroad and then brought back to the uk whilst british manufacturing companies are going out of business. Look at the call centres in india etc as it is cheaper to run. But then we know the uk government never look after their own

british manufacturing comapnys arent 'going' out of business theyve GONE out of business, that went years ago. along with steel and everything else.
 now the labour costs in india and china are increasing we may start getting some of it back. as has happened with the call centers.

[rispainfarm]

P6te, yes that maybe so, unfortunately though they bring in the business through the reasons you mention

[MAK]

If the big pork producers are packing up then despite rising food costs will there not be an oppotunity for the smallholder who can keep just a few pigs? I say "few" pigs because I am thinking a small plot of land could produce a most food with only the protein nuts bought in.
It is a lot of work to plant up enough pumpkins, spuds and veg to support 2-3 pigs and you need the time to gather fruit, chestnuts and acorns but that was the way of it some years ago,
I do the above and do not overwinter.
I hope to collect some brewers grains this Friday and make that a regular thing.
next year I will plant up a larger area with pumpkins ( collected the seed already), use more of my neighbours land and her tractor for spuds and get the flour mill going.

Can those of you who keep large numbers of pigs suggest ways to reduce the ammount of bought in food ?
Tthere must be a model for feeding a couple of pigs that makes economic sense ( especially if you can save on expensive butchering and sausage making costs).

[Fowgill Farm]

It is a lot of work............................ especially if you can save on expensive butchering and sausage making costs.

In a nutshell, most of us have other jobs that we work at besides keeping our pigs and there sometimes just aren't enough hours in the day as it is. I would love to have time to do all the things you suggest MAK but unfortunately that won't pay the mortgage or the bills, i DO grow as much food as i can weather permitting   been dreadful this year, our pumpkin harvest is about 10% of what we got last year and i do go foraging for the pigs but this year again Mother nature has had a tough year too and theres very little in the hedgebacks to forage certainily no damsons & sloes around here. I won't save on butchering or sausage making as i sell my pork on and want a professional job done and don't want to poison anybody! One of the things i have done is reassess my measuring scoop and i've found i was giving my stock pigs way too much food so have now put a mark on the tin and they are getting what they should be which now means i'm using a bag of feed every 3 feeds instead of every 2.
Commercial farmers have economy of scale but even that doesn't seem to be able to help them in the current climate.
Mandy 

[hughesy]

Totally agree with Mandy. We grow as much as we can for the pigs but this year has been hopeless. We'll be solely on bagged feed from now on and it's frightening. I've just rang round our three local suppliers and the best I can get now is £350/ton. As Mandy says definitely worth checking your scoop sizes out I found that I was giving them more than I thought too.