pigs

donegal farmer

Anyman have experience with pigs and is there money to be made was thinking of buying a few breeding sows to breed and sell piglets is there money in that?

Butcher Boy

donegal farmer wrote: »

Anyman have experience with pigs and is there money to be made was thinking of buying a few breeding sows to breed and sell piglets is there money in that?

Met a man one day that kept a few pigs i asked him was there much out of them he says there was ,empty ration bags and a big pile of ****.

gozunda

donegal farmer wrote: »

Anyman have experience with pigs and is there money to be made was thinking of buying a few breeding sows to breed and sell piglets is there money in that?

Take a look on done deal. There appears to be a steady demand for rare or cross bred pigs for small scale production. Have bought some of these in the past to rear for the freezer.

Lighter soils and land ideally scrub which is overgrown is ideal for keeping pigs imo.

Make sure you have a herd number for any pigs and proper fencing as many of these breeds are expert escape artists.

_Brian

I suppose a sow would have 18-20 viable piglets a year ??

Selling weaners at €40-50 hd brings €800-1000 per sow.

Small scale backyard herd number won’t do as that only covers for up to 5 pigs. Unless that has changed recently.

Well, I couldn’t see it paying any less than sucklers as you’d keep a sow for much less than you’d keep a sucklers cow for. Poaching wouldn’t be much of a worry either

Dickie10

what are they like to but say one or teo weaners and fatten for the freezer?

148multi

Butcher Boy wrote: »

Met a man one day that kept a few pigs i asked him was there much out of them he says there was ,empty ration bags and a big pile of ****.

As above, if you have a alternative food supply there would be a twist in them, Gloucester Old spot is my favourite, good demand for GOS weaners, lovely meat.

tomplate

148multi wrote: »

As above, if you have a alternative food supply there would be a twist in them, Gloucester Old spot is my favourite, good demand for GOS weaners, lovely meat.

Would you be bogged down in paperwork the minute you own a pig?

Just wondering

I worked for a pig farmer a few years back and he said he was losing money every year.

Damo810

Would there be many factories/ butchers working with farmers producing a few every year? With it being such a specialised area what could a farmer rearing pigs do with the produce?

Birdnuts

tomplate wrote: »

I worked for a pig farmer a few years back and he said he was losing money every year.

Would that be a big commercial operation?? The mainstream pig industry highlights the end game for ever more intensive production of livestock ie. massive over production and ever smaller margins per animal, not to mention problems with antibiotic resistance diseases decimating whole farms etc.

_Brian

tomplate wrote: »

Would you be bogged down in paperwork the minute you own a pig?

Just wondering

I worked for a pig farmer a few years back and he said he was losing money every year.

We have the backyard herd number, it covered up to 5 pigs, very little paperwork involved. Triplicate movement book and a call to the department with every movement. It only takes a few minutes. Pig census once a year, can do that via an email.
Pigs tagged and numbered.

I’d say to have a few sows selling weaners would require a step up in paperwork.

_Brian

Dickie10 wrote: »

what are they like to but say one or teo weaners and fatten for the freezer?

Very easy kept, we get ours all cured rather than just pork.

Ours went off just today for the knife.
https://ibb.co/CbrMZT5

_Brian

Damo810 wrote: »

Would there be many factories/ butchers working with farmers producing a few every year? With it being such a specialised area what could a farmer rearing pigs do with the produce?

Slaughterhouse we go to will kill one pig, or a lorry load.
We had three in today, guy before us had maybe a dozen, they killed 400 by 10:30.

No idea if they would buy fattened pigs or if you need to sort your own market.

We paid €25/hd killed into sides for the butcher to work on. I’m sure it’s cheaper tue more you have.

I think Whelan has a relation rearing, butchering and selling free range pork so it can be done.

memorystick

Thinking of getting into a small number of sows. Have register and sheds. At least its cash unlike cattle sales.

Genghis Cant

_Brian wrote: »

Very easy kept, we get ours all cured rather than just pork.

Ours went off just today for the knife.
https://ibb.co/CbrMZT5

Generally what age do you slaughter them at?

Damo810

_Brian wrote: »

Slaughterhouse we go to will kill one pig, or a lorry load.
We had three in today, guy before us had maybe a dozen, they killed 400 by 10:30.

No idea if they would buy fattened pigs or if you need to sort your own market.

We paid €25/hd killed into sides for the butcher to work on. I’m sure it’s cheaper tue more you have.

I think Whelan has a relation rearing, butchering and selling free range pork so it can be done.

Are you keeping all the meat from those 3? Sounds profitable if you had a front to sell it through.

Base price

Genghis Cant wrote: »

Generally what age do you slaughter them at?

From memory - large whites/landrace around 80kg/lw or 9/10 months old. Traditional breeds may go over fat at this stage.

_Brian

Genghis Cant wrote: »

Generally what age do you slaughter them at?

7-9 months.
Have to be sure they don’t go over ~95kg as it costs extra to kill them. At 100kg they are too big for the kill line and have to be fully killed by hand which is slow heavy work.

_Brian

Damo810 wrote: »

Are you keeping all the meat from those 3? Sounds profitable if you had a front to sell it through.

We’re a house of four and we would probably eat 1.5-2 pigs a year.

They’re for three houses, we will keep a bit more than one pig.

Butcher Boy

_Brian wrote: »

7-9 months.
Have to be sure they don’t go over ~95kg as it costs extra to kill them. At 100kg they are too big for the kill line and have to be fully killed by hand which is slow heavy work.

i find when we are killing any male over 6 to 7 mths there is boar taint in them thats why we wont kill any full males over 6 mths,

glanman

outdoor free range don't have boar taint issues. think it is something to do with enzymes and bacteria reacting in one way that gives boar taint if they are not rooting outdoors

i keep a litter of cross rare breed outdoor each year. get at 8 weeks, weaned, and kill at 8-9 months.

feed on organic meal. meat is completely different to commercial. brown colour to the meat cooked vs white dryness of commercial.

try not to keep into nov/dec or later as they put on fat as the winter does on and also the ground turns to slop and is not fun for anyone.

many local butchers will kill and cut pigs for you.

need good fencing as they are very inquisitive. great fun to keep though. will rescue any piece of over grown ground back to bare bones.
.
keep a few, have neighbours/family/friends lined up for the meat. work out your breakeven and price accordingly, everyone will get good value out of it.

tractorporn

glanman wrote: »

outdoor free range don't have boar taint issues. think it is something to do with enzymes and bacteria reacting in one way that gives boar taint if they are not rooting outdoors

i keep a litter of cross rare breed outdoor each year. get at 8 weeks, weaned, and kill at 8-9 months.

feed on organic meal. meat is completely different to commercial. brown colour to the meat cooked vs white dryness of commercial.

try not to keep into nov/dec or later as they put on fat as the winter does on and also the ground turns to slop and is not fun for anyone.

many local butchers will kill and cut pigs for you.

need good fencing as they are very inquisitive. great fun to keep though. will rescue any piece of over grown ground back to bare bones.
.
keep a few, have neighbours/family/friends lined up for the meat. work out your breakeven and price accordingly, everyone will get good value out of it.

I got a pig number last year with a view to rearing a few weaners outdoors but I havent had the time to fence the place properly.

Would a couple of weaners outside clear up some rough ground or would they make pure muck out of it?

gozunda

tractorporn wrote: »

I got a pig number last year with a view to rearing a few weaners outdoors but I havent had the time to fence the place properly.

Would a couple of weaners outside clear up some rough ground or would they make pure muck out of it?

Two low strands of electric fence on a mains supply will keep them contained in my experience.

Pigs will root out overgrown scrub, briars and any rough land gone wild. Trick is to move them when they've done their job.

_Brian

Butcher Boy wrote: »

i find when we are killing any male over 6 to 7 mths there is boar taint in them thats why we wont kill any full males over 6 mths,

We’ve had some and they were fine. I know another family kept some and were unhappy, but they were on concrete all the time. Ours have a reasonable outside area and love it.

Hard Knocks

What all cuts do you get?
The sausage & rasher do be nice

davidk1394

Used do a 2 here a year for the freezer. Gas little lads running around the yard but when they grow up they’d eat all around them. Very little with regards paper work. It’ll cost you money to finish pigs for the freezer but the main reason we done them was for the experience and I knew what went into the pigs. Pork chops and sausages were beautiful

glanman

gozunda wrote: »

Two low strands of electric fence on a mains supply will keep them contained in my experience.

Pigs will root out overgrown scrub, briars and any rough land gone wild. Trick is to move them when they've done their job.

ya good white tape electric fence and we also have a visual barrier behind like netting or pallets or things like that. I do find the white tape looses its effectiveness over time after a few windings up

a lb per day per month is the meal level, up to 5 months and keep it steady then

memorystick

Thinking of buying a few weaners from a good piggery. Super stock- lean muscly landrace type and putting a saddleback on them in time. Would this work?