[princesspiggy]

thats shocking   

[HappyHippy]

well if you had been to lanark today somebody brought saddelbacks down from inverness not sold at £12 each large whites approx 180/200kgs £12£15£17 anda sow for not mutch more saddelback weaners at 40/45kgs not sold at £28 you have to remember they were wanting to get rid

Oh god, I'll probably get hung for this, but surely if you've got a pig that you couldn't sell privately it would be far more cost effective (and less hassle) to have it sausaged and either keep them for yourself or sell to friends ? You'd certainly get your monies worth then  Rather than doing a round trip of 400 miles for no sale ?BUT having said that, 'good' pigs and weaners sell no problem at Lanark - I've seen them make fantastic amounts of money (and not all registered either) But I've also seen some offered, that I wouldn't take, even if they were free  Bad condition, falsly described ones and some rather aggressive ones -as someone who takes pride in their pigs (and reputation) I would never keep pigs like that and I certainly wouldn't sell them on to become someone else's problem.
Karen x

[robert waddell]

well i must have missed that sale when fantastic amounts of money changed hands for pigs i have yet to see any pig that left its owner in pocket the best one was a pietrain gilt registered that made £135 and only because i pushed it on buyers will tend to buy private where they can see the pigs and their environment and make a decision then the 10 saddelback growers would consume two bags of feed per day and you would need to keep them at least sixty days you work out the maths

[HappyHippy]

Okay, so it was away back in April, there were some saddleback crosses that went for over £60 a time, another sale I saw a sow with litter at foot (9 piglets I think, around 2-3 weeks old, I'm sure she went for more than £300) but yeah, in retrospect, most do sell for much less than they could be sold for privately and certainly less than it's cost to rear them. Perhaps bad planning in terms of when they were selling the weaners (better chance of good money in the spring when people are looking) or maybe not enough advertising privately forced them into going to market. A market's not my first choice for selling piglets, but if you've no other options 
For the saddlebacks - the sums add up  you'd be looking at roughly £1400 to give you your finished product (feeding, kill & cut) 500 Kg pork, so if the growers cost, say £80 you'd be looking at a cost per Kilo, to produce, of roughly £4.40.
It's not a massive profit, but surely enough to justify doing it (well, for me anyway )

[robert waddell]

some pork producers get away with theft last xmas somebody was advertising pork the cost of the pig was £1000 going by our weights in the summer a central scotland producer was charging £500 for a 40kilo carcase great if you can get it but voting with your feet springs to mind

[HappyHippy]

Yeah, great if you can get away with it !  lol !
I'm not that greedy  I just want to be able to justify keeping them (to myself more than anything !) and help a little with the rare breeds and trying to convince folk to give the meat a try over white supermarket stuff !
It's ALL about the pigs with me (not doing it for the money) 

[princesspiggy]

aye but you still gota cover your costs, if your fulltime with rarebreeds, they (and you) still gota eat!

[HappyHippy]

aye but you still gota cover your costs, if your fulltime with rarebreeds, they (and you) still gota eat!

Definately agree with you, they do cover their costs and we either get a wee bit extra cash or plenty of pork (depends how we feel at the time  )

[Dundonald hens]

Well my to went I sold half of one to someone for £130 which covere3d the purchase cost and the slaughter i have bartered 10 kilograms for loads of fish and prawns with the boys on the fishing boats and we have loads for ourselfs.
I would happily do it again and princess piggy il happily swap piglets for hens or turkeys

[princesspiggy]

well id like to get a purebred turkey trio next year, havent decided what breed yet(might start new thread with topic), have loads of hens but interested in russian orloffs.