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Author Topic: Costs  (Read 5982 times)

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Costs
« on: April 13, 2014, 09:41:40 pm »
I've been having a browse around the pig section and have read with interest the sorts of costings that folk are talking about, mainly with regard to how expensive it is to raise their pigs and how little margin is in it.

I think i'm lucky, because it costs me around £100 or under to take a pig from birth until it's sitting butchered, labelled and vac sealed in a cardboard box, ready to go into the freezer.

A big part of this is the fact that the slaughter and butchery costs come to £25 a pig which I think is pretty good.

Out of interest, what does everyone else pay for their kill and cut?

Kitchen Cottage

  • Joined Oct 2012
Re: Costs
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2014, 08:36:44 am »
it's £22 for the kill and a further £45 for the cut at my abattoir.  I hire a retired butcher who does mine at his sons shop for £100... that said that was 5 pigs and this year I have 10...

For 10 piglets I've worked out, if all goes well, it will be £1000 in food (it's 6.80 a bag because I buy from a farm who bulk buys) it will be £220 for the kill and about £200 for the cut.  Nothing in there for fuel packaging, vets etc or feeding Mum all winter.  Base costs I think are about £180 cradle to fork per pig.  Can you do it within £100?!! 

I thought I was doing well but please give me some tips!

I raise one litter a year for home consumption and sale.

Fowgill Farm

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Costs
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2014, 09:44:53 am »
I find it very difficult to believe that slaughter, butchering & packing is only £25 per pig unless of course you're doing it yourself and not taking into account a labour charge!
My last 3 pigs cost £180 to slaughter, joint, vac-pac, label & box by my biutcher who does a superb job for the money and i'm happy to pay.
Feed is currently £301/tonne and i get thro a tonne in approx 40 days.
So either they're a low weight & age when they go to slaughter or you've found a way of getting your feed for next to nothing.
I know maths isn't my strong point are you sure its yours? :-J
Mandy :pig:

benkt

  • Joined Apr 2010
  • Cambridgeshire
    • Hempsals Community Farm
Re: Costs
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2014, 09:48:17 am »
We pay £21 kill and £30 cut with sausage making extra at £2.20/kilo (pretty much £1/lb). I reckon last year it cost me just under £200 to finish each of our pigs (excluding labour costs but including cost of purchase of weaners/cost of keeping sow) and we sold at £135 a half so made approximately £70 a pig. We finish about 25 pigs a year so do get some discount on feed as we can get it by the ton/half ton pallets.

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Costs
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2014, 12:06:25 pm »
£25 for kill and cut ? WOW what a generous butcher/slaughter house you have !

We pay just under £20 per pig for the kill fee and butchery is done on a price per kilo. 95p per kilo to cut, pack & label pork, £1.90 per kilo to have sausage and bacon made.
So on an 'average' porker we'd be looking at around £70 in 'processing' costs - again, not including things like transportation costs, insurance etc.
I've got to point out that if I wasn't selling on to the public, I'd do it all myself and save a fortune ;) but to keep on the right side of environmental health and keep my customers safe, this is the way we've got to do it.

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Costs
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2014, 02:33:44 pm »
I must have underestimated how good my butcher is!

I have a local butcher, that has an incredibly good reputation, is really into rare, specialist and traditional breeds, and does lots of big events etc. They have an onsite slaughterhouse as well. Best bit, is that it is less than 10 mins from where I keep my stock, so they have minimum stress in transport, and he tends to slaughter relatively small batches at a time, so not too much hanging about.

He charges me £25 kill and cut, and the meat comes back properly packaged, vac sealed, and labelled with cut, weight etc on it, and comes in half pig cardboard boxes. He charges me a small surcharge when I do a load of extra sausages, but mainly because I am gluten intolerant so have them done with slightly special ingredients, but its only a couple of extra quid, and only when I get say, half a pig all done as sausages.

Feed - currently comes in at about £220 a ton, delivered. And then I supplement it with lots and lots of fruit and veg, which costs nothing.

Straw is a minimal cost as I bulk buy of a local farm when we go and buy our straw and wheat for the shoot, so we are buying tons and tons of wheat and a barn full of straw, so it comes in as almost nothing - £1 a bale maybe.

Water is free.

Meds are low cost, if everything goes to plan and its just worming and vacs.

I send the pigs for slaughter at about 6 months, when they are approx 60 kilos.

So like I said, I think my main saving is the cheap butchery and also the lack of any real transport costs.

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Costs
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2014, 03:12:39 pm »
farmers round here are paying £2k a year on water supply alone. its meterage if its an agricultural business.

our butcher is £30 per pig, up to £75 each if you want curing done and vacuum packing. killing is £25 each - except the local abattoir have stopped taking pigs so its now a 3hr round trip to the nearest pig abattoir.
bales of straw here are £10-£15 each. feed £270 per tonne.

what part of the country are you in Ideation? I may move there  :excited: :excited:
the free veg is that home produced or collected from a grocers?

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Costs
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2014, 03:19:46 pm »
Aye, i struck lucky with the water. . . . . . .that wasn't by design, just a happy co-incidence.

Yer, my £25 kill and cut, is for a porker, not a bacon big, so it's just all of the usual joints, chops, belly pork, some sausages etc. I guess i'm very lucky that the butcher has an on site abattoir. I actually just checked it is £25 and yep. . . . .it is. I didn't realise that I was getting such a good deal as i've never used anywhere else.

When you say £10-15, I assume you mean the big round bales? What i'm getting for £1 (or £2.50 if I buy a single bale out of season) are the standard oblong bales, the kind you can carry by hand.

The veg is a mixture of home produced, collected from a veg wholesaler, and scavenged (i.e I can go and collect huge numbers of windfall apples, and also other stuff that doesn't make the grade when harvested on local farms.

I live in southwales. . . . . the very rural bit  :D

Fowgill Farm

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Costs
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2014, 03:25:30 pm »
I send the pigs for slaughter at about 6 months, when they are approx 60 kilos.

That explains a lot, thats a suckling pig(32" chest) round here ;D mine go at around 75kg ish (40" chest)for pork at 22 - 24 wks old.
Butcher must fancy either you or your missus ;D
Mandy :pig:

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Costs
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2014, 03:43:20 pm »
yes big bales.
we sent ours in at 85kg to get 50kg back.
what price are you selling your pigs then ideation? per pig? per kg?

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Costs
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2014, 04:23:06 pm »
I might be light on the weight!

As they go off at 24 weeks. . . . . 6months. And they are certainly 'pig size'  :D rather than suckler size.

So they may well be heavier than i've said. . . . probably closer to the 70kg mark. I've got some going off in next 6 weeks, so I will let you know then  :D Or maybe that was 60kg that I get back.

Not sent any to slaughter since last year. But it would cost me the same to get a porker slaughtered and butchered, whatever the weight of it (within reason).

Shygirl - I can get the big bales, but I find it easier dealing with the smaller ones, I can cart them about easier, fit three on the back of the quad, and as we are buying them in bulk for the pheasants, I can pick them up cheap, and don't need to pay any transport etc. I also find I can just cut one loose, and throw the hole thing in each pig ark. Saves waste.

I don't really sell a huge deal of pork. Some goes to the local pub, as whole pigs, and they pay around the £200 mark, I think they sausage it all, and make a huge profit lol,  in general I sell half pigs for £90, although last year I did a batch and sold half of them to good mates at 65-75 quid a half. But i've recouped some handy favours in return!

This time round, i'm thinking I'll try and sell the lot for around £90 a half and make some profit on them, enough to pay for a few other bits and bobs. Also i've considered doing a lot of sausages and going round the local pubs, restaurants etc etc and trying to tout my free range, happy, saddle back sausages. Never going to get rich, but it keeps the place ticking over.

It amazes me the differing value that folk place on things though . . . . i've seen people advertising a pig for £35o plus. . . . . i'd get laughed at. Same with chickens. . . . . local garden centre sells garden hens, for 16-22 pounds each. I can get the same hens for a couple of quid, geese for £2 etc etc. I guess it's just who you know.

Mandy - he's never met the missus. . . . . so I guess I might just be his type  :-* Or I just dropped lucky.

On a slightly different note, anyone tried pork and venison sausages? I have access to lots and lots and lots of venison and mostly it just goes as dog food, but was thinking of doing a few batches of vein/pork mix for ourselves to try?

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Costs
« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2014, 05:24:17 pm »
You're very lucky with your set up (and I'm very jealous of your butcher)  ;)

Pork and venison is lovely as sausage - the pork stops the venison being too dry, great with black pudding in them too  :yum:

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Costs
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2014, 05:29:25 pm »
Yer i've made pork and bunny burgers for the same reason  :thumbsup:


Tudful Tamworths

  • Joined Aug 2009
    • Liz's website
Re: Costs
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2014, 12:05:38 pm »
My local abattoir in Caerphilly is £36 for kill and cut. Bagged and boxed nicely, joints all individually-wrapped and chops in pairs. He does a lovely job butchering.
www.lizshankland.com www.biggingerpigs.com
Author of the Haynes Pig Manual, Haynes Smallholding Manual, and the Haynes Sheep Manual. Three times winner of the Tamworth Champion of Champions. Teaching smallholding courses at Kate Humble's farm: www.humblebynature.com

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Costs
« Reply #14 on: April 17, 2014, 11:23:52 am »
Must be a Welsh thing then Liz.

 

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