Here they are, in our wagon, waiting to go on the long ride:
We decided to take the whole family, so we hitched the trailor up to our van. I think it is a strange sight to see our new van pulling a load of pigs, but it worked!
Have pigs, will travel! We took a total of 5 to the same meat market. Three were ours and the other two were sold to two different customers who are going to deal directly with the meat market for their cuts of meat.
The last time I posted about the pigs last week I mentioned about the possibility of some more sales. We were blessed to be able to sell 2 more of the pigs, one for $100 and one for $110! Also the person who had agreed to buy one hog if we raised it for her, came through and paid the $100 we had agreed on back when the pig was a feeder. The $310 that came in this week was a particular blessing, because I was not sure where I was going to get the money to pay the butcher for fixing up the remaining 3 pigs that we were keeping for ourselves. It turns out that these last sales paid for the butcher with money to spare.
To re-cap the feed costs compared to the pig sales, it seems that we came out ahead. We raised 15 piglets from birth and also fed 2 sows and a boar. We paid out $665 for feed during this pig raising operation time and we sold 5 pigs for $40 apiece ($200), 1 pig for $45, 2 pigs for $50 apiece ($100), and 2 pigs for $100 apiece ($200) and one for $110. That adds up to selling 11 pigs for $655. (The 12th pig I really gave to the FFA in exchange for them castrating 10 of our male pigs. I was counting that as a $100 trade since that would have been what the vet would have charged, but even if we don’t figure that in, the feed costs were just $10 more than the sales of the 11 pigs. I find that to be rather amazing!)
So that leaves us with basically free meat from 3 hogs. But nothing is really free unless you do it yourself. Some day we may butcher our own hogs here at Pure Water Hollow, and then the pork would be as close to free as possible, costing only our labor. That is the goal of self sufficiency!
But, we are not there yet. Maybe someday.
In the meantime, we took our 3 hogs to a very reputable meat processing market. Of the three meat markets we were considering, it is actually the most expensive one and also the one that is the farthest away from our home! But they vaccuum seal the meat, have a very professional reputation, and is the same place the FFA at my school does business with. I figured to go for the best.
The three pigs that we kept were about 256, 222, and 215 pounds alive. Their carcass weights were 185, 160 and 155. The market we went to charges a $20 kill fee, .35 cents per carcass pound, and another .35 cents for each pound you want cured.
We got about 239 pounds of fresh meat in pork chops, tenderloins, roasts, and sausage, and we are getting 161 pounds of hams and bacon cured. That is a lot of pork! The final bill, including tax was $291.35. So it is not free. If you divide the cost by the pounds, we are getting each pound of pork for an average of .73 cents per pound. That’s not too bad, I think. Now our freezers will be full again and we have saved much grocery money.
God is good!
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3 comments
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Trixi on February 3, 2008 at 11:37 am
This is our goal for next year. Thank you for sharing all of this great info. with us!!
Blessings,
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mountainmama on February 3, 2008 at 5:14 pm
We are looking into the cost of pigs at this time. I have been comparing the cost of buying one already grown or raising some on our own. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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The Unlikely Homesteader on February 3, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Sounds like it all balanced out pretty well ~ especially since you get the peace of mind of knowing what the pigs were fed and how they were treated. Well worth it, I'd say!!
Trixi
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