Oink oink Pigs!

[Chevy]

:wave: Can somebody anybody tell me about pigs!? Do I want to get pigs!? Is there money in them? What is the cheapest thing I can feed them? Any replies is greatly appreciated! :banana:

 

[piedmontese]

i know they stink alot.

 

[Jogeephus]

I have a few pigs but I only raise them for personal use. I enjoy them. Cheapest food I know of is corn tortillas. They love these over whole kernel corn and to make true Mexican Chorizo I think you have feed them a Mexican diet. :lol2: Oh, and they are free. As for making money, I think you'd be better off sticking with cattle cause the hog business is truly the company store program. If you could sell the meat off the farm, you could make some money.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I raise one a year to butcher ... I feed them table scraps ..no meat .. and a little corn ... in high school I raised them to sell at butcher weight .. but back then you could feed scraps and my sister worked in the kitchen of a nursing home so feed was free .

 

[slick4591]

My experience tells me there's three ways to make money on pigs.

1. Have great stock and sell them as show pigs.
2. Sell the animal for meat to individual customers.
3. Raise only quality Berkshires and sell to the Japanese.

I never made any money by selling through a livestock sale.

 

[stocky]

Make sure you have hogtight fences is the main thing. Once they get out and ruin a yard or garden, you will never want another pig.

 

[Anonymous]

Hard to make money on hogs unless you can find lots of table scraps or contract feed cheap. It cost me 2.05 per lb of meat avg to grow one out. We grow about 4 a year for our selves. They grow better on concrete than they do dirt, we keep them on full feed the whole time and it takes about 6 months to get them to butcher size. You can grow em quicker on some of those show feeds like paylean, but that stuff is pricey

 

[cowman]

Im with hooknline. We aloso grow a few a year. Its about as cheap or cheaper to buy them off the pole than it is to keep them. I seen an ad in the trader, the other day for a $1.00 lb of the pole.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, if your not concerned with what they've been eating you can but them live for $1/lb on the hoof all day long. My figures include buying the weaners and butcher cost

 

[cowman]

We butcher ourself but also have to buy the weaners, and still cant come nowhere near $1/lb. I dont see how they can do it that low with corn so high.

 

[Anonymous]

Cowman, I'm paying 64 dollars for 300 lb drums custom mix. Each one eats on avg 2 drums each to reach butcher size. We've gone to worming once a month now because of the close quarters. The concrete floor makes a big difference just in feed cost because there's no waste from getting stomped into the dirt. We use a 100 lb self feed dog feeder to feed them, just keep it full. Wash out the pens once a week...makes for pretty easy hands off raising. And they get get all the non pork scraps we have. The pigs eat as good as we do sometimes

 

[slick4591]

You can grow em quicker on some of those show feeds like paylean, but that stuff is pricey

You got that right. With those "extras" you grow a very lean hog fast with minimal flavor. We always kept our show line and our eating stock separate.

 

[VanC]

Don't know much about hogs except that my uncle had a few around when I was much younger. Are there any breeds or crosses that are better to raise for your own pork?

 

[Anonymous]

Not that I've noticed Van..either in breed or crosses they all grow out well unless you get a runt

 

[slick4591]

I hate a red hog! Something about their personalities, I think. I primarily raised Hampshire and Chester Whites and crossed them sometimes. Had the occasion to come across some Durocs at a fantastic price (free) and brought them home. I gotta say they were a whole lot better tasting than the crosses we raised or maybe I was just rejoicing in the fact that I no longer had to deal with them.

 

[andybob]

For my top hogs, I use a Landrace/Duroc F1 damline, bred to a terminal Large white boar, finish outdoors at 6 months weighing +-250lbs live, we sell direct through the farm shop and internet with an organic premium, our BBQ pigs are pure Middle White bred for flavour and sold at a premium mainly to restraunts and through the farm shop +-165lbs.
The problem with price in the USA is competing with VI companies such as Smithfields which import cheap grain and soya through their dock and storage facilities at Wilmington NC, and undercut local feed prices.

 

[cowman]

Cowman, I'm paying 64 dollars for 300 lb drums custom mix.\




Hooknline,
If you dont mind me asking, what is in your custom mix.. Just curious I think we are trying to go a differnet route. We usually feep chop, and of course all of the scraps we can get. We also feed a lot of pumpkins.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd have to ask my bulk feed supplier for the exacts because its been a few years since we set it up. I can tell you right off the bat that 2 gallons veggie oil in 300 lbs mix really help to add fat and cover. Ill get the mix details tomorrow

 

[john250]

The problem with price in the USA is competing with VI companies such as Smithfields which import cheap grain and soya through their dock and storage facilities at Wilmington NC, and undercut local feed prices.

I'm not a huge fan of the "vertically integrated" model, but my objections are mostly artistic. But where does Smithfield find "cheap" grain or soy to import? The whole world prices off the Chicago Board. Smithfield can afford people to work full time at pricing feed, so they might do better than the lone operator--or they may not. A large ethanol plant in Indiana went broke because they locked in a price for corn and forgot to lock in a price for ethanol. No one with a brain will sell a bushel of corn for less than the best bid, anywhere on this planet. Big companies like Smithfield have big adavantages. I don't know that cheap feed is one of the advantages.

 

[andybob]

John 250, when I worked for Smithfields, we had a lecture from the procurement manager supplying the mill at Rosehill NC, he explained their buying policies, including buying local feed quality corn and wheat ahead from corn belt farmers, even a few cents per ton makes a saving with the volume purchases. Imports are not always conventional grain sources, but they will buy surplus rice or even tapioca if the volume and price are right. There were many price cutting measures mentioned including re-cycling hog mortalities, using the rendered fat for an added energy source for the hogs, and the carcase meal used for the \butterball turkey rations.