# How much does your sow cost you?



## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

I'm looking into getting a sow for breeding. I feel like we spend so much buying feeder pigs a few times every year, that it might be worth it to get a sow and sell half and keep half of the litter. I haven't really considered what breed or anything, if we are going to keep purebreds or crosses. 

What kind of pen do you keep your sow in and what/how much do you feed her every day or every month? If you could estimate monthly and yearly cost that would be great! Any tips would also be appreciated. Thanks!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We have around 50 sows on pasture with accompanying boars and resulting feeder pigs. Some of those sows are in the 300 lb range. Some are in the 800 lb range. Thus they're feeding needs vary greatly. On commercial hog feed the bigger sows are more expensive if one did that but on pasture the big sows graze better - which works for you will vary with your management.

Since you said penned I take it you are also feeding them grain/hog feed. If you're feeding bagged feed then check the feed back for recommendations. It will vary a bit depending on if the sow is dry and open, gestating, lactating, etc. Sows tend to need more calories, especially during lactation, than growing pigs, also different from finishing pigs. Checking your feed bag is the best way to find that out. 

A sow must be maintained year round, even if you were to only do a single litter a year.

A sow must be bred which requires having a boar, renting a boar or doing AI - All of which are expensive. It takes a lot of sows to justify the cost of a boar.

Not all matings will produce a pregnancy.

Not all pregnancies will carry to term.

Not all piglets born will get to wean or to market size. 

Don't count your pigs before they wean...

How many pigs are you already raising per year and how many do you want to raise per year? You will find that it will cost you a lot more to have a sow than to buy feeder piglets each year unless you need the output of many sows - that's a lot of piglets. Figure a multi-farrowing cycle learning curve. Figure a sow produces 20 to 30 piglets a year. Figure a boar or AI. Figure six sows to justify a penned boar. Figure 120 to 180 piglets... Do you need that many?

The exact economics will depend _mostly_ on your cost of feed. The more you pasture the lower you can drive that but there are still some year round costs for maintaining the sow.

This article doesn't cover the costs so much as question the economics of doing it on the extremely small scale:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2013/01/14/dipping-your-toes-in-breeding/

Also see:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2011/05/10/piglet-prices/

and note some of the hidden costs of breeding.

If you're not trying to save money by having your own breeders or if you can justify six or more sows then I would say go for it. It is a lot of fun. You won't save on the cost of feeder pigs until you're doing large numbers. If you do go that way, grow into it slowly.


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

We would either keep her in her own pen and let her out back in the pasture sometimes. We can do artificial insemination instead of keeping a boar!!! She would be eating grain as well as pasture. The grain we get costs about $11 or $12 per 50 lb bag. Right now we raise about 10 pigs a year but they are sold before we even get them on the property and we have room for more. We buy our feeders from a guy who sells them for $75 each, everybody else has them for $150 each. IF we could sell them for $100 each I'm sure people would buy them. Once we get our name out there for having feeders and they start getting sold before they are weaned, maybe we will get another sow. We have room for lots of pigs I just want to test the market first. I don't want to jump right in and get 4 or 5 sows and then be screwed with a bunch of hogs I can't sell!


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

HaleyBugs said:


> We would either keep her in her own pen and let her out back in the pasture sometimes. We can do artificial insemination instead of keeping a boar!!! She would be eating grain as well as pasture. The grain we get costs about $11 or $12 per 50 lb bag. Right now we raise about 10 pigs a year but they are sold before we even get them on the property and we have room for more. We buy our feeders from a guy who sells them for $75 each, everybody else has them for $150 each. IF we could sell them for $100 each I'm sure people would buy them. Once we get our name out there for having feeders and they start getting sold before they are weaned, maybe we will get another sow. *We have room for lots of pigs I just want to test the market first. I don't want to jump right in and get 4 or 5 sows and then be screwed with a bunch of hogs I can't sell!*


Sounds like youre thinking ahead. I have checked into the AI end of keeping sows. Shipping was around $90 and the semen runs from $25 up to a couple hundred a dose. And they recommend 2 doses. That does not count the minimal equipment needed. 

My concern is missing a breeding, but even then, its cheaper than buying a boar and keeping him for just a couple of sows. Plus, you have a choice from a lot of boars and a lot of breeds.


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

See i thought that too about cheaper to buy semen than a boar but i breed at prime showing times for the best price then again in the fall just to keep them paying for them self 

BUT a sow can be in standing heat from a couple hours to 5 days and when you spend $300 on 2 doses and $90 to ship it just to have the sow only be in standing heat for 1 day thats $390 down the drain cause you get it the next day and if your brave enough to ride on her trying to get her breed when shes not standing heat it has a lesser chance of being a total waste but still dangerous and she might not even take 

So now with that said i just missed the prime time to breed her that drops the piglet price from $150 to $50-75 IF she takes next month she comes in heat 

So figure 10 piglets at $150 thats $1500 now do that at $50 its $500 or 75 its $750 PLUS you just fed the sow out again for another month not getting anything from her 

So after wasting the $390 one time and losing the pig sales we bought a boar for $500 even with feed prices which we try to keep around $250-350 a month for 18 pigs right now (well after today its 12 pigs just took 6 in to butcher)


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

bigmudder77 said:


> See i thought that too about cheaper to buy semen than a boar but i breed at prime showing times for the best price then again in the fall just to keep them paying for them self
> 
> BUT a sow can be in standing heat from a couple hours to 5 days and when you spend $300 on 2 doses and $90 to ship it just to have the sow only be in standing heat for 1 day thats $390 down the drain cause you get it the next day and if your brave enough to ride on her trying to get her breed when shes not standing heat it has a lesser chance of being a total waste but still dangerous and she might not even take
> 
> ...



In my case, I have no deadline to meet. I will be raising them for personal use . And I have a couple of boars I like for my project that only cost $30 a dose, so Ill be out $150. If we miss, I will still be ahead on keeping a boar.

In your case I guess I can see how having a boar can put you ahead, but, I have seen sows miss with a boar too. Just saying. 

And after saying all that, Karla and I have talked about it and will probably get a boar for the first couple of litters. So I can watch sow in heat behavior and get a feel for making the call. Then we'll grind him into sausage.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

bigmudder77 said:


> See i thought that too about cheaper to buy semen than a boar but i breed at prime showing times for the best price then again in the fall just to keep them paying for them self
> 
> BUT a sow can be in standing heat from a couple hours to 5 days and when you spend $300 on 2 doses and $90 to ship it just to have the sow only be in standing heat for 1 day thats $390 down the drain cause you get it the next day and if your brave enough to ride on her trying to get her breed when shes not standing heat it has a lesser chance of being a total waste but still dangerous and she might not even take
> 
> ...


I agree with you, with one exception. If that prime time litter is due to kids wanting pigs for the 4H show, AI might be a better deal than the boar you bought. You'll almost always get better pigs from one of those high priced semen boars than you can expect to get from some local boar. For just raising and eating, not that big of a deal. But if you can get some great feeders from a top quality AI boar, perhaps have one of yours make Grand Champion, you'll have a chance to grow the show pig part of your business. Those $150 feeders sure sound better than the $50 ones.:sing:


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

After looking into AI I ended up deciding to get a boar because I didn't want to get that personal with my pig. He ate more than I expected...and put the sow on a diet! Good thing because she was waaay too fat to get pregnant (ex thought feeding her free feed was best but she got pretty pudgy). He got her preggers with fiiiiine set of piglets.

I had planned on butchering him thus justifying the cost of feeding him and buying him but I fell in love with Mr.Pig. So I sold him. I'm hoping to work out an arrangement with the people i sold him to for visits.

If you know other pig people it may not be a bad idea to get a boar and share it. Now, that does open the herd up to disease...but if you guys only keep that boar between your farms it shouldn't be too bad.


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

I forgot to answer the question! My sow is an easy keeper...one bag a week does her good. I didn't realize the boar would require 3 times as much feed! (Require...or just wolf down before anyone else could get some? )


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

This is all great advice guys  I think our plan is to get two bottle babies and raise them on goat milk (we have an unlimited supply) so they will be friendly when they are of age to breed. Also, bottle babies tend to be smaller so hopefully we wont have too big of a sow on our hands? We will AI both, see who is the better mother, and then sell/butcher the one we don't like. I honestly would rather pay extra for AI than keeping another monster pig! As for the piglets, we will sell them for around $100-$150 each and feed out some for our customers. Do you guys think that sounds ok?


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## henryhereford (Mar 18, 2013)

I am by no means an expert but this is what we did last year on a very small scale pig operation which seems to be working for us. We have VERY small goals for this first year. We bought 5 feeder pigs (females) from a very nice farm that has very nice piggies. We raised them up to market wt. and kept 2 to breed that we thought would be good moms, good temperment, good growers, etc. We didn't feel comfortable with the whole AI thing (just personal choice, nothing against it) We were able to find a farm that had a couple of 8 week old uncut males. We've never had a boar, so we really wanted to get a young one that we could socialize and raise up being used to us. That also saved us the large expense of buying a huge grown proven boar. We got our little guy for $100. Yes, it was a total risk whether or not he'd be viable and that stuff but he has fathered 1 litter so far and we are expecting his 2nd very soon. Small first litter (6 piglets born) but i'm cutting everyone some slack as they are all newbies. I think getting to raise him up ourselves was a great thing for us as he has turned out to be a total puppy dog! I never turn my back on any of them but to be honest I would prefer to be in the pen with him than with our pregnant girls who have gotten very fiesty! We haven't found that he's eating us out of house and home either, he's on a good deal of pasture and gets fed twice a day like everyone else with grain/corn. The only time he eats more is when he's in with the girls and "hogs" the food dish. Even then that's only for about 6 weeks at the most. Are we going to MAKE any money this year? Nope, but depending on what this second litter brings I think we will be able to break even on our 3 that we'll raise for the freezer which in my opinion is successfull, especially when you add in all the good they have done for our land as far as cleaning up the scrubby areas, fertilizing the pastures etc. We have a pretty large veggie stand here as well so it's a great way of cleaning up the veggies that don't sell while helping out with the feed bill. So people are correct in saying that it's hard to really make money at it unless you have a good number of sows, but in my opinion going small scale with piggies as a way of diversifying your farm can be very beneficial as well. I could be totally wrong here but this is what seems to be working for us. Good luck!


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Bottle fed piglets have very high mortality rates and bottle feeding has absolutely no advantages as it pertains to temperament at maturity. Buy weaned pigs from a farm whose sows are known to have good temperaments themselves and raise them normally, handling them regularly. They will naturally tame down as they age and with consistent and fair handling be plenty tame for you at farrowing time. 

Also, purposefully stunting your sows as young gilts so as not to have to deal with them at a normal mature size will only serve to undermine your breeding efforts later. Sows require good body capacity to carry healthy litters to term. If you don't want to deal with large, mature hogs don't breed, keep buying feeders and let someone else handle it. It makes no sense to try to launch a breeding operation and shoot yourself in the foot right out of the gate.


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

We have a boar were keeping from a litter that we did ai with a top show boar and really to me he is looking almost as good as his dad does still only 4. Months old so hard to tell but the way he is growing he might make some good pigs but idk hes got time yet 

plus is we grow about 85-90% of what we feed we just gotta pay the storage and drying fees on it till we need it so again it helps but when corn was at $8 a bushel it was hard to keep it and not sell most the feed any animals


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

Thanks Olivehill, I totally didn't even think of that.:smack
I think I'll do some shopping around at pig farms in the area and see if I can find any with nice sows, and boars too for that matter. Any other advice? There is somebody who has purebred, registered Hereford hogs that look like nice pigs. What breeds do you guys suggest?


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

HaleyBugs said:


> Thanks Olivehill, I totally didn't even think of that.:smack
> I think I'll do some shopping around at pig farms in the area and see if I can find any with nice sows, and boars too for that matter. Any other advice? There is somebody who has purebred, registered Hereford hogs that look like nice pigs. What breeds do you guys suggest?


I really like Yorkshire. That what i have. They are a lean hog. However i have some people asking me for a hog with a little more marble meat. So looking for a nice pure bred Hereford sow. Just depends on what kind of meat you want.
Old spot,Hereford,Large black,Poland China,Berkshire are all lard type hogs.
Yorkshire,Duroc,Hampshire,Landrace, Chester white are lean type , or bacon hogs.


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

i like the durocs but we havnt been able to find a purebred one that isnt 3 hours away 

we have yorks and hamps and some duroc crosses but id still like to find a purebred one

and if you get a boar if you want him to be pretty nice get him young and raise him up be out there in him pen as hes growing up he will get use to you that way when breeding time he wont be as fast to attack you still never fully trust him but all the ones we raised have been way better than the 2 we bought before 

it also makes it easy if he gets out to get him back in unless the girls are in heat then good luck


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

We for sure don't want any pink pigs, I don't want to deal with sunburns! I'm always the one rubbing 50 SPF on the pink ones every couple of days and I do not want to do that again lol. I like the Hereford's coloring, and there really isn't anything else to get around here.


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## Hooba39 (Feb 16, 2010)

HaleyBugs said:


> We for sure don't want any pink pigs, I don't want to deal with sunburns! I'm always the one rubbing 50 SPF on the pink ones every couple of days and I do not want to do that again lol. I like the Hereford's coloring, and there really isn't anything else to get around here.


We are about 2-3 hrs away in South Haven. Let us know if we can help you out any?

www.hinzhogs.com


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

I will definitely let you know Hooba39! Beautiful webiste btw!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

HaleyBugs said:


> We for sure don't want any pink pigs, I don't want to deal with sunburns! I'm always the one rubbing 50 SPF on the pink ones.


We have hundreds of 'pink' pigs and never see any sunburn. We are in a very similar climate to you. Long periods in the summer of clear skies. When it is hot out the pigs frequent the wallow and the shade - they never sunburn.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

HaleyBugs said:


> We for sure don't want any pink pigs, I don't want to deal with sunburns! I'm always the one rubbing 50 SPF on the pink ones every couple of days and I do not want to do that again lol. I like the Hereford's coloring, and there really isn't anything else to get around here.





highlands said:


> We have hundreds of 'pink' pigs and never see any sunburn. We are in a very similar climate to you. Long periods in the summer of clear skies. When it is hot out the pigs frequent the wallow and the shade - they never sunburn.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> ...


I raised Yorks while in High School, and long after and the sun and temps down here have to be worse day in and day out than up there.

I never had an issue with sunburn on pigs. Provide shade and they'll do the rest. It would be a cold day you know where before I rubbed lotion on a hog.


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

Both my boss and I have rubbed sunblock on our pink ones. They have a big a frame shelter that they can go into, and they have a wallow they lay in sometimes. They still manage to get burnt on their backs


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