pig farming

EastTyrone

Am thinking of keeping around 30 pigs on the farm for fattening. Do you think this is a good idea? We got a grant to have a new slurry pit and cattle house put in but can't afford to put the shade up so in the mean time we are thinking of putting pig boxes over the pit.

Do you think that this will be a profitable exorcise?

BARNEYS CHOICE

It looks like pigs are going to lose a lot of money over the next 6-8 months mainly due to the price of feed (increased by €45/Ton over the last 2 months due to grain and soya price). Pig price curently is around €1.40 kg and this time of year as demand slips, so does pig price. If you are going a head with it make sure you source pigs that are healthy and vaccinated. If you are looking at fattening pigs you ideally will want pigs that are 35-40 kg when you buy them. You will also need a herd number if in the south of Ireland, not sure what the story is in the north.

EastTyrone

do you reckon it is aa good time to get into them? me and the cousin were counting up there that it will cost £21 to look after a pig £25 to buy the piglet and then anything after that will generaly be profit. with you making £90 for 1 in the factory

supersean1999

EastTyrone wrote: »

do you reckon it is aa good time to get into them? me and the cousin were counting up there that it will cost £21 to look after a pig £25 to buy the piglet and then anything after that will generaly be profit. with you making £90 for 1 in the factory

how did you come to a cost of £21 for feeding the pig, and costing £25 you will be buying them young, a pig will eat 1lb of meal for month of age minimum, so at 24 weeks just before you sell them they will be eating 2.7kg a day, your talking about 1/4 ton per pig roughly to feed them, unless you get bulk orders, of meal and breed your own pigs your never going to make money imo,

BARNEYS CHOICE

If you buy a pig at 35 kg LW, i reckon it will cost you €38. To feed this pig to reach 110 kg LW it will take approx 200 kg Feed at €265/Ton = €53. Pig + Feed costs €91. On top of this you will have other variable costs such as transport, mortality, vets, payback on housing, etc. If these variable costs are relatively low, you will make a profit depending on price you get at the factory and feed remaining at €265/T.

jap gt

i used to work in a piggery, and i can tell you there is very little profit unless you are on a huge scale, things might be cheaper in the north but 21 wont come close to fattening a pig