Raising livestock - Cost Breakdown on raising feeder pigs

[@margiel4299]

One good thing is you know what you got, you raised them. So no recalls or worry about what’s in it. When I was a kid ( many many moons ago) we raised our pigs,cow’s, chickens,turkeys. We butchered them and took care of them ourselves. My grandfather even had me help him make scrapple. It was all fresh and he had his own smoker. Cut out the middle man and was cheaper. A lot of work but for a family of 8 it was worth it he always said. But yous are very busy so having it done was worth it. In my opinion. You can eat it and not worry👍. Enjoy that yummy meat. Have a great day. See yous in the next video 👍

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Very true indeed.

[@davidmerrill9534]

Good video, very informative. My wife and I live in North Carolina and we are going to buy a home next year with 20+ acres and will be starting a homestead. So watching your videos help out a lot with our planning. Thanks, and keep doing what your doing

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

good luck! it's definitely a marathon. not a race. we're doing a lot of things for the first time, so lots of trials and errors 🤣

[@paulshimer1870]

You guys need to buy your feed in bulk. And raise them to 250-290 lbs. Look around for your feeders, i am in iowa and i used to find feeders for $40 per head. I used to run a farrow to finish operation years ago:). So shop around to see what you can find for feeders, and give them slop as well: left overs and garden waste as well.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Fir sure! We've learned

[@donnabeard7901]

I have always enjoyed watching Chip and pigs ❤️

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Right? Can't go wrong

[@MrDavidlfields]

Good video. Thanks for sharing. For pricing, go with average current local prices. No one can say you are cheating them if you are selling pigs you raised by hand. You’ll learn as you go. Great video. Thanks again for sharing.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

So glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for the feedback

[@joannspaldingaubrey6365]

Our greatest teacher is life. You’re doing fine💕💕💕🇺🇸

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

yes, live and learn

[@bettyyoder8692]

Arms family Homestead referred us to your website.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Hi Betty. Thanks for stopping in. Hope you enjoy the channel

[@DownunderFarmandForge]

G’day mate, nice honest feedback on the pricing. Look at Greg Judy on YT for pasture set up, if you can run them through the woods on mast it will decrease the bill a lot. Try for something like a tamworth or IPP for an animal that will gain on rough forage. Of course keep trying for fruit stand, bread store etc for supplemental feeds. Also look at bulk purchase of feed, not sure if you can get it in bulka bags there but will bring down the feed costs.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yes, most definitely. We were walking the land yesterday to take a look. Will check out Greg Judy, thanks!!

[@DownunderFarmandForge]

Hidden Oaks Homestead no dramas mate he has some awesome tips on running fence and water

[@stephene.8737]

Just found this video a year after you put it out. Going to look to see if there’s an update on your pig adventure! I’m doing my research now to hopefully one day soon start raising my own pigs!

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

It's an adventure for sure. We're still raising more 😁

[@FlomatonFamous]

Great video, what price point are other homestead/pasture raised farmers selling at? When people buy from you they are looking for quality not cheapest price. I know the price of pork has went way up. Keep sharping those skills.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

yes, it needs an in depth look. overall we can definitely get to a point where we break even, between pricing and saving on high cost items such as initial purchase and reed

[@robinturpin6823]

I'm a new sub and I enjoy the videos I've seen you guys do so far. Glad Jan sent me y'all's way.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

hi Robin, welcome! nice to hear from you. we really love hearing from everyone and appreciate feedback, good and bad. we're here to learn and share

[@thebackyardtradesman7017]

Very informative! Looking forward to following along to see how you keep the costs down!

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

👍

[@EdsAttentionToDetail]

This is good to think about.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yes, definitely making improvements

[@bettyrandall8243]

Never saw pigs like that.There cool looking.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

They were pretty sweet

[@TheAbleFarmer]

Nice honest video. I am going begin my pig journey in spring of 2021. You know what you need to do. Up that price a little. I had 3.25 per lb hanging weight in my head. Pastured pork is worth that. My feed store has 4 or 5 different pig feeds depending where you are in the process. Keep up the good work, enjoy those chops!

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, we definitely need to look at a few angles

[@1boortzfan]

Great video, all learning has a starting point. You'll catch on.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

yes, for sure! it was a trial run

[@herb-n-buckethomestead5874]

I just joined your channel thank you for being upfront,honest, and welcoming . I saw your goat's do you raise them for meat as well as dairy. I would be interested in the cost of goats. Thank you

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Right now our goats are all for milk. Maybe one day we will give meat goats a try. Thanks for watching.

[@jrallmond9481]

Love the video! Thank you.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

You're very welcome 🙏 thanks for stopping in

[@arccroses9061]

We raise Tamworth and crosses over here in Chipley, FL. We have sold to a couple of people in Milton area. Wonder if those pigs had come from our lines. Too funny. My husband said don't forget to calculate fuel costs into your equation that you arent spending to travel to grocery store for meat. Also if you are getting feed from a feed store ask if they have a 40% concentrate. I think the one I get is HMC. I mix it with the regular food to give them that boost. Can also get the spent brewery grain to feed your pigs, if you go to the breweries yourself they just give it to you. Better feed conversion due to it being already fermented so pigs get more nutrition from it than just mixed grains. Had a customer tell Me about it. He was getting it in Fort Walton Beach area. You may have some closer to you. Mix that with the concentrated pellets to bulk up your piglets. Fall here is also a good time for foraging piglets due to acorns and other fallen nuts and wild fruit.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

All really great suggestions. Thanks so much! We keep learning

[@noonerstrickland1743]

Good job, just enjoy the adventure.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Thanks, it IS fun

[@WildcatHollowFarm]

If the name of your homestead is any indication, you have the perfect place for pigs....in the forest. Hogs LOVE acorns. And they are free, helps cut the cost over all down.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We haven't been lucky with grocery stores and free feed, but looking at other options

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We don't trust them fully free ranging. We need to get some rotational electric fencing up

[@thechettrivlogs5664]

Keep it up awesome video love to watch u guys

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

glad you enjoy

[@lesliestout3479]

Howdy from west Texas!

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

howdy 🤠

[@daniels7971]

Dont be reluctant to share. Like so much you do, it help us all.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Daniel S, don't mind at all. Lessons learned, moving forward 😁

[@daniels7971]

@@HiddenOaksHomestead and dont look back. Just remember the lesson learned....

[@indiojoaquin4229]

Every year we harvest a pig for the holidays, and we pay 360-475 per pig. That’s a really good hooked up price for 2 bucks a pound. Either way, I’m enjoying the vids

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Thanks for the feedback. We can definitely build in some efficiencies to make it a better deal overall

[@RosySideFarm]

I’m trying to keep track of everything now to see the actual cost. It’s easy to forget about the money you spend.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Especially when it's wrapped into other feed costs

[@iwantosavemoney]

Keep track of all expenses set goals for feed go as automated as possible but don’t use it as an excuse to not check on them everyday big feeders are not cheap either but it is an investment have 7 or 8k in these systems seems high but you bring the labor down and it is scaleable ps buy the biggest grain buggy you can afford you can always put less feed in it if need be.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Very true

[@garrieparsons2265]

Did you deduct process fee ???

[@trotterfamilyhomestead4878]

Nice video, thanks for sharing! Couple of pointers..try getting to a point where you can buy feed in bulk and keep good records!! I've found the length of time raising/feeding the pigs is the most effective way to adjust cost. Bigger isn't always the better bang for your buck, good record keeping will help you trend towards a better price per pound. Will subscribe and see how it goes next time. PS..there is a video on my channel of a feeder you might be interested in making, should be easy to find since sadly it's the only video I've done so far.. LOL

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Hey! We have lots to learn for sure 😁 we're confident we'll be getting better at it. Found a co-op where we can buy in bulk, also working on partnerships with breweries etc, so that'll bring the cost down alot. Working on efficiency

[@kennynewell85]

Hey guys , Kenny from Pensacola. What meat processor did you guys use? Pigs are next for me. Thanks for any info. Great video.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We use Oakes in Chumuckla. 😉

[@victoriablicharski8308]

for max raise in the fall an winter you can ask your local supermarket for day old bread too good to feed all your animals

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yes ma'am. We have a local bakery we ouck up from

[@neoncatfish3585]

I would say you need to break down the meat by the price of what it would cost you to replace what you got! Like pork ribs are more than $2 a pound! I think if you break it down by each cut the meat you got it would come out probably breaking even! Y'all stay safe!

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

You got a good point there

[@waveoflight]

Mistakes are a very good thin to happen to you. Repeating the mistakes is very bad. Very respectable of you not to change your price after the fact. Next time you will dial it in to break even. You both will win in the deal.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yes, we live and learn

[@GrantMcIntosh]

Looks like you should be at $4 instead of $2. Good job explaining. 👍

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

$4 is above market, but we do need to adjust pricing and cut down on cost

[@GrantMcIntosh]

@@HiddenOaksHomestead homegrown has more value than market in my opinion.

[@DustyGoatHomestead]

How mont feet of fence did you use keep the pigs in? We have one for out goats but I was thinking of putting up different grazing areas permanent fence to rotate.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We used a 100 ft premier 1

[@nonasloanpatterson7929]

Did you figure your pig that you kept when you were figuring those costs because you came out of it with the meat in your pig Which if you have kept it you would’ve been able to sell it so you still came out a pretty good if you figure 2 dollars a pound you would’ve probably had to pay for your pick

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Hi Nona, we did consider that. we live and we learn. There's definitely a few things we need to tweak

[@CrookedWoodsFamilyOrchard]

love the pigs, still learning to talk. lolololol we raised pigs for a few years with free food from bashes and frys it was great till we had to start buying feed

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

🤣🤣

[@aneloperez4610]

What did you do with the head, skin, fat and innards?

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

I wasn't able to get it back from the processor.

[@aneloperez4610]

@@HiddenOaksHomestead I’m sorry about that. Lard, trotters, cracklings, jowl bacon, natural casings, dog treats or food from the ears, snout, and organs. I loved your video. I look forward to seeing more.

[@larryparish5984]

Check out "The Fit Farmer" on KZbin. He visited Joel Salatins farm (Polyface Farm) & did some interviews with Joel & some of the interns at Joel's farm. He made a series of videos on different aspects of how Joel did things on his farm from raising crops to rotational grazing of his cattle & pigs & chickens. They also do all their own processing at Polyface (I believe), chickens & ducks for sure. Another good channel to check out would be "Stoney Ridge Farmer". Also, "Prepsteader Bob" did a 3 video series on building "Super Soil" for your garden. Bob also stopped by my place right before Christmas last year to help me with setting up my outdoor shower. I believe Bob also stopped & gave Hank a hand with some projects he had at his place. Well, that should be enough homework for you at this time & I'm getting tired, it's 2:00 am & I have a Dr. appointment tomorrow. Take care.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

thanks for this. Most of this we already follow, but Bob is new to us

[@leannekenyoung]

That was really interesting! Thanks for sharing I’ve noticed a lot of channels don’t include their costs etc because they don’t want to have people comparing prices around the country/world. But a couple of things that I thought would be interesting to know as well, in addition to the feed that you gave them, did you give them any hay or straw for bedding? Is that necessary for pigs? Also what was the cost of the processor? I noticed you didn’t include that as part of your cost? Also I didn’t hear if you mentioned about the lard? Did you get the lard from the butcher to render down? Apparently it’s amazing. Just curious. Thanks for sharing.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

No bedding was necessary. Pigs like to root out a small whole to lay in or lay in mud. We paid about 120 dollars total for processing, I didnt go into it, because there are so many different little charges that it could probably be its own video. 🤣. Lard wasn't an option on their cut sheet and I didn't even think to ask about it. Thanks for watching.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

pigs are pretty simple. they're happiest in mud. We actually need to look for another butcher. the one we used had very limited options

[@yarnhappykim9294]

Congratulations on all the meat,

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Thank you! Bacon for breakfast tomorrow

[@yarnhappykim9294]

@@HiddenOaksHomestead you are very welcome and enjoy your bacon

[@lindagray3995]

I would like to know how much you had to pay for processing your pig. Thank you.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We paid $0.75/lbs

[@georgeclevyiv6771]

Saw this video of your cost breakdown, and if you’re going to sell I Half a pig for two dollars a pound you should tell them they would have to pay for the processing of the half pig and then you would’ve broke even if not come out ahead. A guy I watch a homesteader thelivingtradition Homestead did the pig math.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

thanks for the advise, and thanks for stopping in. we're on our second round of raising pigs now. made some improvements. be sure to check out the new videos

[@iwantosavemoney]

Just a suggestion try to get them close to 300 pound that will help a lot free feed them learn the up sale key words pasture raised a no steroids or antibiotics non-GMO food if that’s what you feed humanely harvested state, inspected food that’s so you can resell it. These are all up sells some sell as much as 5-7 dollar a pound if I get 3-4 am happy but buying feed in bulk is one of the keys but those bins are not cheap but if you are in it for the long haul it will save you time and labor and money but they are a investment.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yes, agreed. We definitely learned

[@johnhinson9866]

You really need to talk to Lumnah Acres about feeder pigs and feed, etc.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

😁

[@silver_salvage_savage]

It cost approximately $2.58/lb to raise the meat at cost. If you charged $3/lb you could maybe get a free pig if you raised 15 instead of 3....... Don't know what the feed consists of but if you can grow it yourself or allow them to graze, you could lower the feed costs.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We've definitely made some adjustments

[@georgiabee755]

what was the cost for processing?

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We paid a little over 200 for our pig. Processing costs were paid directly to the butcher by the customer and the meat was picked from the butcher by customer as well.

[@georgiabee755]

@@HiddenOaksHomestead good set up! count us in next round!!!

[@katherineparker2324]

How much was hay

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

For bedding, we re-used from other areas. So no additional cost

[@cypressblue8877]

Not sure if you saw the dog names I sent in here are 3 Santana .. Taya ... Ryoshi some female names. First was my GS name ha Actually Cypress is her CKC name I had to pick out of 105 PGA gulf tours so Cypress Point was the pick call name was Santana, Austin was my male. Good luck picking your name. *** I would say $225.00 is a gr8t price for 3. They grow to 300 lbs. b4 slaughter, you will have a lot of meat. OH crap they didn't grow fast? Check out a few of Arms feed for his pigs they were growing fast. Learning curve sucks, but wise the next time eh. Sad when ppl. can't be honest to give you proper info. Enjoy your channel, slowly catching up. Stay safe & take care of you all. Thanks for sharing eh :))

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

They came around

[@barbararigglebaker4938]

If you figure out how much you would pay for the meat you got from the third pig. I think, even if it is on sale, you actually made/saved money. Meat isn't cheap. You know what went into the meat too.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Thats probably true. We will need to look at the numbers a bit more

[@daniels7971]

Like we say, Live and learn. You need to sell some to your fans. I'd love to eat some of your Pork Chops! Hahahaha I'd really like to buy some!

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We will start another round of feeder pigs soon. We want to set up more permanent structures first though

[@kathygirlygirl4109]

Chip, check out Living Traditions Homestead and you will find great info on pigs.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

thanks! will check

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

thanks, will do

[@joshuaperry4112]

Bud, even in the massively inflated economy of today, you sold those pigs for just over the USDA wholesale price. 01/05/24 wholesale live price is .91/lb, about 1.90/lb hanging. I dont know what you were thinking, charging 2.00/lb, but a half pig should go, at a minimum, 3.50/lb. That covers you and your pig is the profit, landing about 33% profit (which, not so coincidentally, is the standard cost of labor for business) WalMart charges $4.48/lb on picnic hams. Keep that in mind next time youre thinking "am I overcharging?" I dont know, are you better than WalMart?

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

We've definitely learned from it

[@joshuagarner1654]

Did you factor in butchering costs?

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yeah

[@iwantosavemoney]

We eat sheep and are pigs and buy food in bulk with 3 ton trailer we get it so cheap and we buy bigger cuts of cows and break it down are self we have a camber vac machine that we used for the first time a couple weeks ago ago and it saved use about 400 to break the ribeye and hamburger down are self about 70 pounds about 1.5 hours for 400 worth of savings getting paid 400 for 1.5 hours worth of work is truly awesome we do this 2 more times and are chamber vac machine is paid for who and then we can buy 800 worth of meat and save 800 dollar it is going to be gloriously awesome. Your saving will increase if you keep a few sows and a bore of they have 7/10 each litter you keep 2-5 for your self and sell the rest as feeders or as grow outs you can get paid a little to feed your family the very best you can and have over abundance to help others. Are feeders sell for 125-150 so not a bad price for feeders here 2 litters a years 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days so you could have litters a year I guess but am not ready for that 😆

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Its good pig math

[@GrowingLittleCountryhomestead]

Breaking down the cost is always a pain. So much to consider, when I first raised meat chickens, I lost my ass cause I went the whole non gmo route and it was to expensive. The price for bird wasn’t what people wanted to buy them for. I had to sell for $6 a lb to cover cost of feed and it was ridiculous. Maybe if I lived in California and people are willing, but not here in Indiana.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Things have changed

[@stonefly7158]

Tarp under all your oak trees that have acorns on them and save them to feed the pigs next year to save on feed costs

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

we have very thick underbrush still, so working through it a little at a time. Having full time jobs doesn't make farm life easy

[@elizabethmeyer9257]

Oh my gosh. If your pigs are eating acorns. You have a specialty meat. Road dog, Kevin Rutherford satellite radio let's truck. Is promoting that kind of ham pork. Keto diet people eat it.

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Thats a GOOD POINT

[@hotsweetlady20011]

NEED FEED ALOT OF SCRAPS LEFT OVERS

[@HiddenOaksHomestead]

Yes ma'am