Pigs anyone

[Paulf]

Trying to find out how much it costs to rear pigs from weavers to slaughter.

 

[Freer4]

Depends on what you feed them, but you need a holding number plus a herd number. And there is a lot Of rules on keeping pig. Not worth the hastle when a whole pig is only about £100

 

[Paulf]

I already have a holding number. I don't know where you can buy a whole pig for £100

 

[aberreef]

Depends a lot on the breed and how you keep them but 2 weaners will cost you about £80.
Food - £20 per month (rough average for 6-9months)
Vets bills - £20 (probably less, they are pretty healthy things but need treating for parasites)

So, very rough total of £220 - £280 not including housing, slaughter etc.

Through the summer months they will graze a lot on grass but during the winter there's not much forage around so will need more food. Bare in mind it is illegal to feed any form of kitchen scraps

You won't make a huge profit from raising 2, probably a loss really BUT, if you make your own sausages, bacon, ham etc plus all the roasting joints and chops etc, you'll be eating the most delicious pork dishes for the better part of a year having had the pleasure of caring for what must be the most wonderful farm animal on the planet. Worth every penny, go for it

 

[pargyle]

I already have a holding number. I don't know where you can buy a whole pig for £100

Weaners are very cheap at present - seen them as low as £25 but they average more £35 - £50 depending on the breed .. Cost of feed has been increasing steadily over the last couple of years and you don't get much change out of £10 for a 20Kg bag at present - even buying in bulk. Buy cheap feed you get crap meat at the end.

You are a bit late for weaners - best time to start them is April and then to slaughter October, you would be lucky to get them to a full weight before the winter set in starting from now (hence how cheap weaners are at present). If you have an area for them to forage naturally then you will save on feed and if you grow other stuff they will eat any (fresh) waste. You can't just have one pig - they are social animals and you need at least two. You cannot, legally, feed them any cooked waste.

You will about need 20 x 20Kg bags of feed to get a weaner to around an 80Kg pig ready for slaughter. You need to allow for bedding - say 10 bales straw - another £20 or so. Slaughter fees - £30 depending on where you are. Transport and any (God forbid) Vets bills and medication.

You are probably looking at better part of £300 to get a pig from weaner to table (assuming you can butcher it yourself). You will get about 60Kg of usable meat (including sausage meat) from an 80Kg pig so if you allowed for the present average cost of hand reared pork meat at around £9 a kilo in bulk carcass you are looking at £540 of meat, or thereabouts. for a cost of £300 (assuming you do not include any overheads/time etc.)

The meat will be the best pork you have ever tasted but it's a fair commitment and a lot of effort (Feed twice a day in daylight, keep them clean and happy etc.etc).

 

[Gimlet]

Don't forget you will also need movement licences for every time they are moved and you will have to keep a movement book which will be inspected periodically.
They were still coming every year to inspect mine for ten years after the last pig left the farm.

 

[For want of a better word]

We formed a pig society.. and rear 20 + Sandy and Blacks every year... shared costs and labour
Whole pig including butchering costs about £200... but better than ANYTHING imported from Denmark !!!!!

 

[enrico]

Hi, we have a pig group. Six of us buy a pig each....sandy blacks. We grow them on from eight week weaners for about four months... They are the right weight at 24 weeks. Each weaner cost £35 this year and food....finisher pellets are around £9 per bag. £100 per pig covers all costs. We have free land and home made ark. They use little bedding as they are clean and free range on the land. Abattoir costs about £25 per pig. £65 with butchering as well, however we do our own butchering collecting half pigs from the abbottoir and this reduces costs enormously. It is fun to do and takes about three hours per half.
All in all a whole pig should not cost you more than £150
The meat is tender, sweet and because we cut our own all the joints it is the right size joints for us. It lasts us a year and is a world different from shop rubbish.
As a group we do a couple of weeks each feeding and cleaning which means it is not time consuming. We sell half a pig to cover some cost and could sell them all time and time again! Movement orders are really easy and done on line. No real problems. We have only ever had one sick pig in three years and that died. We had to pay disposal costs. But all in all well worth doing
E

 

[ultreen1]

Our Tamworths weaners were £25 each, slaughter and butcher £50!
The big cost was the trailer to transport them and also! A big also! Was the side bars on the ramp of the trailer. The abattoir would not accept trailers without the side bars! Luckily my dad in-law has a fabrication factory and made them for the trailer.
For us it's about quality meat we will enjoy and not about cost.
We plan to get 4 more very soon, 2 porkers and 2 for bacon!

 

[enrico]

Oh by the way..... I bought a cheap smoker on xbay....smoked bacon....yummy!

 

[ultreen1]

That's the next plan smoking the meat!

 

[enrico]

It is quite complicated actually but we bought some cure that was not carsagenic as most of the stuff used is..... We have enough for about two thousand pigs! You don't need much, then the smoker is a bit of an art too! But it was a challenge worth trying and I will be doing it again this year.... But with more!

 

[kighill]

I raised a pair overwinter last year slaughtering this year, the costs given are a very good indication. The proof of the pudding though, is in the eating.

The best sausages the whole family have ever tasted.

I will buy my next pigs in the spring and rear on for autumn slaughter. I do not recommend fattening up over winter, it costs more to feed them due to the energy required to keep them warm, also it was such a miserable wet winter it spoilt part of the fun involved in keeping them.

It is ideal to know where your food came from and we took pleasure in knowing we had happy healthy pigs.

To sum up our pig keeping experience, when our youngest child was asked

" How are the pigs"

He replied,

"DELICIOUS"

 

[BeeJayBee]

You lot are making me feel very hungry!

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

What quantity of pork scratchings do you get from the average pig?

Dusty

 

[Paulf]

Thank you all very much. Great reading all those comments. Think spring weaners it is then. Two or three I think. Have the right type of trailer can build my own arc. Cost coming down already ha. I don't have much of a cash flow so was interested in how much outlay was necessary. I rent an acre and sell free range eggs, so have a bit of space to use up. Grow veg on the plot so lots for them to eat. Going to be a busy spring I think orphaned lambs and now pigs. No more meat buying for my family.
Thanks again. What a great side track for this forum.

 

[enrico]

The pigs will wreck the land you put them on. Sturdy fencing or electric fencing is really, really important. You can use it the following year for veg though. It would be a good idea to split the land to alternate the pigs land and the veg plot!

 

[ultreen1]

The pigs will wreck the land you put them on. Sturdy fencing or electric fencing is really, really important. You can use it the following year for veg though. It would be a good idea to split the land to alternate the pigs land and the veg plot!

I agree!

And always make sure the battery in the fencing unit has a full charge...we woke up to them running around the garden one morning!

 

[enrico]

Yep, we were walking back from the pub and met them coming the other way down the road!

 

[ultreen1]

Must have been after a pint and some scratchings with you!