How much $ to raise a pig to butcher?

[RubberChickenLubber]

We are thinking of getting a pig to butcher, and want to know how much of an investment we're looking at to get it to butcher. We can get a piglet for $40-50. Thanks

 

[FarmGirl01]

Here is the low down on my last pigs.
bought pig (blue butt barrow) 27.50
bought pig 2(hampshire gilt) 27.50
grew for 150 days
fed a total of 20-50lb bags
processing of 2 hogs at aprox. 250 lbs 280.00

Sound like alot? Worth every penny. Will never buy store pork again. It is a great experience.

 

[Cassandra]

How much meat did you get from two 250 lb hogs? I am very curious about this also.
Thanks,
Cassandra

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

So about 6-7 bags of feed per pig. If I get the feed at $9.75 per bag, it's about $65-70 per pig, and I pay about $40 for pig. That's about $100, + butcher. That's not too bad.

 

[MissPrissy]

In this day and age and the loss of the family farm there is no comparison when it comes to feeding out your own meat animals.

Is it cheaper to raise your own meat birds or pork or beef when you look at it in a purely economical setting? No way. No how. Is it better to raise your own meat stock and feed it out with good clean feeds and grass? You better believe it is.

If you read up on the industry standards of what meat producers are allowed to feed the animals that are brought up to market weight you would be sick and never want another bite of grocery store meat.

Beef and some pork are allowed to be fed the ground up wood shavings and poop from the chicken farms. They can be fed old chewing gum and wrappers - think about it - chewing gum is now mostly made with plastic and rubber not real 'gum' and the gum wrappers are foil lined.

There are several really good books that tell the truth about the commercial meat industry. Anything you can do for yourself to get your family off the commercial food grid is already a major plus - not only for you but it gets the junk and nasty chemicals out of your kids bodies.

We (my dd and I) just finished one that caused her to change her eating habits (something I could not do over the last year because she thought I went off the deep end with home grown produce, pastured pork, meat chickens, guineas, etc over the past years)

The Real Food Revival

I am not advocating every book or every author. There are plenty out on this subject. I find many of them to be using the subject to pass off their own liberal beliefs under the guise of scientific fact. However, there is information to be garnered and digested, even when we don't agree with every thought the authors have put down on paper.

Dollar for dollar you will not save money nor break even by raising your own meat, milk or eggs.

Edited to add - we bought/buy heritage pork = $100 per barrow, plus feed, and they get leftover bread from a bakery and any left over milk from the goats) and they are pastured on green grass.

 

[FarmGirl01]

I believe it can to about 400 lbs of meat. These were also grass fed and had any scrapes from the garden and house.

 

[TundraChick]

I am only on 2 acres and I have to keep this low key for the neighbors. That said I have a few questions.

Ok, so how much room do you need? I would not be able to raise a pastured animal. It would be raised on bought feed and kitchen scrap. Anyone do this? I the meat still good enough quality? What size shelter? and how much outside room.

 

[MissPrissy]

In a small area you will have to clean the pig pen every single day and do pooper scooper duty many times a day in the summer and pray that it never rains. You will have to keep it dry dry dry. Hog lots and pig pens stink. There is no two ways about it. If you keep a pig contained in a very small space you will have a smell reguardless of what you do to clean it. In the right wind directions everyone will know you have a pig or something you are hiding.

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

Thanks for all the replies, and thanks to others asking questions. You're asking things I may not have thought of.

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Quote:
Yep, What she said!!!!!

I kept last summers pig in a 20X20 area and had to scoop the poop every single day. He made his own mud by emptying his water (twice a day). I'm not going to raise another until I get a cement slab poured so I can clean it better.

Our pig feed was supplemented with extra garden veggies, and spoiled ice cream mixed into commercial feed. He spent a lot of time rooting through the bowl picking out his favorites and spilling the commercial into the mud. So I started mixing his veggie puree and ice cream into the pellets so the pellets would absorb the other stuff. Zero waste after mixing which cut down on feed cost.