How Much Does It Cost to Raise A Pig? (Updated for 2018)

How Much Does a Pig Cost?

When you're starting out with livestock it can be hard to judge what your costs are going to be. If you're getting started with pigs, let me walk you through your expected toll to raise a pig. We'll be looking at a backyard or pocket-sized homestead situation, not a large commercial functioning. We'll also be looking at a weaner-to-market process, not a breeding operation.

I note to commencement off with: when yous ask, "How much is a pig?", you really need to enquire, "How much are pigs?" Pigs are social animals , and you should never exist raising fewer than 2. Perhaps you could get abroad with it if your hog was going to exist penned with cows, goats, or sheep. But don't heighten a pig all by itself! You should be able to find a friend or neighbor that wants to purchase that other hog.

Equally you're learning near raising pigs, I've got a couple of volume suggestions for you. You'll want to familiarize yourself with all the factors, and both of these books are great choices to become you started.

One is called How to Raise Pigs (these are all chapter links), and it's the first one I got started with. Whether you're raising pigs for pets, getting started raising a 4H sus scrofa, or going purely for yummy pork, this volume will help you along.

The other one I recommend is Storey'due south Guide to Raising Pigs. The whole Storey's Guide series is a reliable source of information on raising all kinds of homestead animals – bees, goats, chickens, and more!

Now let'south go started learning the all the factors that get into the toll to raise your squealer!

The Price to Heighten a Pig

What factors exercise you need to program for when agreement how much it costs to raise a pig?

I group things into a couple of big categories.

Starting time up is infrastructure. These are the basics you need to sympathize and implement. Infrastructure covers:

• Fencing
• Feeders
• Waterers
• Shelter
• Transportation
• Coolers
• Freezers

Then you take recurring per-pig expenses. These include:

• Piglet price
• Feed
• Bedding
• Health care
• Processing
• Fuel

Infrastructure

Your showtime category in your cost to raise a pig is infrastructure or operation costs. When yous buy these things they get assets that will last you from year to year. You lot need to include their cost in your yearly or batch estimates because the initial costs are so high. If you spend $500 on fencing, for instance, and you expect it to terminal 5 years, you need to add $100 to the toll of each year of pigs.

Allow's look at some categories of cost you should consider. Some of these things yous may already own, and of course bodily prices tin can wildly vary, but we'll await at some estimates.

Fencing

Fencing is your biggest business organisation when because your infrastructure cost to raise a pig. We utilize Elecronet fencing which is about $150 for 165 ft of fencing. We have several of these because we employ them for the sheep and around gardens, also. You could outset out with two. The price-per-pes on this type of fence is high, but we like how mobile they are. With our sheep we've gone through periods where nosotros are moving the argue every day. We've had some of our rolls of contend for 4 years now and they have held up bully and been a great investment. With electrical you likewise accept to factor in the price of energizers. Other kinds of fencing include grunter panels and woven wire.

Feeders and waterers

We take really gone through feeding and watering equipment. Information technology seems similar every twelvemonth we are trying out a dissimilar method! We have settled on a 55 gallon waterer that Joshua fabricated that price maybe $40 in supplies. For feed bowls we're using heavy duty rubber bowls like these. We started out using metal bowls, only pigs are crude on everything, and the metal bowls quickly got trounce up. We probably boilerplate spending $25 a year on bowls.

2018 update: Nosotros ended upwardly building a permanent feeder likewise, which yous tin meet in the picture to a higher place. It's probably overkill if you are simply raising two but nosotros've raised as many as 6 and feeding fourth dimension can get hectic!

Shelter

The start twelvemonth we raised pigs we used a stall in our befouled as their shelter. Now that we've moved the pigs out into the pasture, Joshua built them a shed. It was roughly $300 in materials. We get a adept toll on our lumber because a neighbor of ours runs a small independent sawmill. Your pigs volition need some kind of shelter, and it needs to be very sturdy. You'll take to price out lumber in your surface area to approximate the toll of building something if yous aren't able to utilize something already on your property.

Transportation

How volition yous become your piglets home? They can go in the bed of a truck with cattle racks on, or you could put them in a large dog crate, depending on how many you're buying, of form. The biggest hurdle comes on the other end when y'all need to go 500 pounds of pig to the processor. Yous might be able to apply your truck, or yous might need a livestock trailer. You may need to buy or build ramps leading onto the truck or trailer.

Coolers

When you selection up your meat from the processor, you lot'll need the cooler infinite to become it dwelling. We've found that a 120 quart cooler is about one pig's worth of cuts from the butcher. A expert dominion of thumb is 1 pound of meat to ane quart of cooler space.

Freezer

Of course yous likewise need the correct amount of freezer space at dwelling. This post talks near the freezer and cooler space you need. Y'all demand enough for your own meat, plus any y'all get stuck with because a buyer didn't come up through. We have a small chest freezer in our kitchen that we bought new. Nosotros too take a gigantic one nosotros bought used off of Craigslist that lives in the basement.

Recurring Costs

The other large category of costs is recurring each time yous do a batch of pigs and in full general goes up equally the number of pigs you enhance goes upward.

Piglets

How much is a babe pig? We have gotten weaner piglets for every bit inexpensive equally $35 a piglet in our area, and prices can go up to $200 a piglet or more for registered heritage breed piglets. For a weaner-to-market operation I wouldn't recollect you lot'd be buying $200 piglets, just be wary of cheap ones, too. One year we got a "good deal" that turned out not-then-good when the pigs had gotten an infection as babies that led to them non growing very well.

Feed

Feed is your biggest price. Our pigs accept tended to have a feed conversion ration of between 2.v and three. That ways it takes us ii.5-3 pounds of feed to abound i pound of grunter. This yr (2014) we're buying our feed for $15 a 50 pound bag. It takes united states of america betwixt $150-$200 of feed to grow our pigs to market weight. You can salvage some coin if you have a free source of food supplement like whey from a dairy. Keep in mind that your kitchen scraps won't have any issue at all. It's too few calories to make a difference.

Bedding

You might buy straw bales for bedding for your pigs. Nosotros pay about $5 a square bale and I usually end up buying five-half dozen bales for a batch of pigs.

Health care

We have very few wellness care costs will our pigs. We deworm when nosotros first get piglets, and 1 year nosotros had to treat for mites.

Processing

Our processor charges a $35 kill pecker and $0.55/lb hang weight for USDA processed and packaged meat. That comes to around $125 a hog. You should beginning exploring your processing options early. Small processors are deficient these days, and they may have long wait times. You'll desire to empathise their policies and process early in the game. Of course you tin also do the killing and butchering yourself if you are a brave soul or if you have a knowledgeable person to help you lot out. Then your costs will exist things like knives and butcher paper.

2018 update: My processor currently charges a $40 kill pecker and $.60/lb hang weight, which comes out to about $138 a pig.

Fuel

Every bit fuel costs ascension your feed costs will rise, just in that location'due south another surface area where you need to consider fuel costs. Information technology is expensive to drive from identify to identify, and you need to be factoring that into your cost estimate. It is a common area to overlook. Betwixt picking upwards the piglets, driving to the store for feed and supplies, delivering pigs to the processor and then picking up the meat, we approximate that we drive 280 miles on behalf of a batch of pigs. Take the price of fuel in the area and the fuel mileage on your vehicle and you'll discover a number that might exist bigger than you'd guess.

The Price to Raise a Pig

The total amount it will cost to raise a pig depends on a lot of factors. The price of fuel in your area and the price you lot tin can become the feed make a big difference. Your infrastructure costs will be more than spread out if you're doing 20 pigs than if yous're doing 2. But let me outset out giving you one example of how much it tin toll, and and so nosotros'll go over some of those various factors.

Hither is the bottom line estimate for Joshua and me here at The Wallow in 2022 raising the minimum of 2 pigs:

$l 10 ii – Toll of piglets
$200 10 2  – Feed cost
$250 – Fuel cost
$200 – Infrastructure (fencing, housing, etc) and misc (health care, bedding, etc)
$125 x two – Processing fee

Total = $600 toll to raise a pig for a 275 lb pig at market place weight. That will give united states of america about 130 pounds of meat and extras, which works out to nearly $4.62/lb beyond all cuts.

2018 update: All of these prices have been remarkably stable. My processor charges a few dollars more than these days, but feed costs have stayed almost exactly the same!

Do you have any other questions near the cost to raise a pig?

(Originally published March 6, 2018)

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Source: https://www.babyschooling.com/homesteading/cost-to-raise-a-pig/

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