# Raising Hogs, worth it?



## PhilJohnson

I was thinking of raising some hogs to make some extra money this year. I was curious what other people's experiences have been raising pigs for profit.


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## Patt

We have been kicking around the idea too so I am interested in the responses to this one.


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## highlands

We make money at it. Realize it took a while to work out the systems and market. If you feed commercial hog feed or other grains it really bites into your margin. Look at what you're going to pay for feed as that is by far the biggest cost. The cost of feed has risen dramatically in the last few years. Can you pasture? More learning curve. Next look at what you'll need for infrastructure - e.g., fencing, etc. If you already have it this helps.

See:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2005/08/keeping-pig-for-meat.html

and

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006/07/what-is-half-pig-share.html

Which will give you some numbers but realize that costs and prices vary _tremendously_ with where you are located. If you're in high hog production areas then it may be hard to sell niche pork. Be prepared to market. What are you going to do that makes it better to buy from you rather than the "manager's special" at the super market.

If you want piglets for this summer you best get a deposit in now with a breeder. We already have reserves out into May and generally sell out through August or even September. Don't wait for the last minute to get your weaner pigs.

Have fun and good luck!

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
Save 30% off Pastured Pork with free processing: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop


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## karenbrat1

I think it really depends on your area and possible clientele. In a poor area or one where lots of pigs are raised you may have trouble getting your money out of them. In a wealthy area where people are willing to pay for humanely/locally raised food you can do quite well.

As a starter if you already know you have a market for a few of them to friends, get 5-6 weaners and just charge enough for them to where you get the one you put in YOUR freezer for free. A friend of mine does that every year along with several beeves. She could sell 2-3x as many because word of mouth has spread about how good her meat tastes, but she doesn't want to do any more than that. I raised three last year and sold the extra two to friends, who now say I have to raise them one EVERY year


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## Patt

We have raised our own from piglets for years and did just that sold them to cover our feed and processing costs. That has done well. We are thinking about going the next step and actually keeping a sow and raising a litter or 2. I am wondering how the costs of having your own piglets vs. buying them works out.


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## Feathers-N-Fur

Whether it is worth it to breed your own litters will depend a great deal on your feed costs. Our breaking even point for a litter of 8 piglets is $65. We can easily get $100-$125 for spring piglets. Fall piglets, we are very happy if we can get $50. Auction ones only get about $30. That is paying $250 per ton for feed. Is it profitable, NO. We do it because we want to. Now we are looking at changing our program to herritage pigs. We are selling all of our Yorks and Hamps and going to Berks and 1 Spot and 1 Duroc with a Berk boar. We'll see in time if that is the right thing to do.


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## highlands

When you're figuring this out, make a spreadsheet, put in all the numbers, figure it out in great detail as to what your costs will be in terms of time and money. Do the math. Figure it for one pig vs 4 pigs too. Then realize that no matter how good you are you'll get it wrong. That's just life. Reality happens. But the penciling it out is good exercise. 

Keep track of it all and after you've done it for a a batch of pigs go back and see how it compared with how you thought things would be. Run a new set of numbers.

Rinse & repeat.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
Save 30% off Pastured Pork with free processing: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop


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## ursula66

Feathers-N-Fur said:


> Whether it is worth it to breed your own litters will depend a great deal on your feed costs. Our breaking even point for a litter of 8 piglets is $65. We can easily get $100-$125 for spring piglets. Fall piglets, we are very happy if we can get $50. Auction ones only get about $30. That is paying $250 per ton for feed. Is it profitable, NO. We do it because we want to. Now we are looking at changing our program to herritage pigs. We are selling all of our Yorks and Hamps and going to Berks and 1 Spot and 1 Duroc with a Berk boar. We'll see in time if that is the right thing to do.


Do you mean $100-125 per piglet, or for the whole lot?


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## karenbrat1

I am sure they mean per piglet. It's the same in my area (northern Idaho). Spring piglets -- crossbreds usually York/Hamp -- are never under $100 because they are in high demand for fair pigs. Late summer/fall piglets run $50-65 each because the demand is much less, the fair is over and people don't want to raise pigs over the winter.


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## highlands

ursula66 said:


> Do you mean $100-125 per piglet, or for the whole lot?


I would suspect they meant per piglet. We get $125 as our low price which is for feeder weaners. Goes up to $230 for select piglets. Spring is the high demand time for piglets. We have reserves out through May already and each year are sold out through August or even September. I used to drop the price more in the fall but don't now. I can get $630 after raising them up to finishers as meat so I don't cut prices by very much in the fall, better to just raise them up over the winter.


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## okiemom

Wow in Ok fall pigs are about $30 and spring is about $50. large almost grown pigs are going for about $100 with papers $200

I did 3 pigs one year and just loved it. The meat for our own use was well worth it. We moved so we are not set up anymore. :Bawling:


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## linn

We sell ours as feeder pigs at about 8 weeks. We don't raise our own feed so, feeding out hogs is not feasible for us, unless we just feed one or two for our own use. I sold my feeder pigs for $18 each last fall. Prices around here have gone down in the last couple of years.


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## Gailann Schrader

Define "worth it" btw.

It depends on your personal beliefs and such too...

For me, specifically, I want to know my dinner was fed nutritionally, loved, and killed humanely. Yes, I still buy Grocery Meat. 

And although I buy Grocery Meat, I'm also quite proud of the fact that I know where, when, how and why my animal was killed and processed when I butcher my animals for the table/freezer.

And I can say I'm not adding to the tankage and such that become a problem when there are MILLIONS of animals processed. Not that they aren't dealt with humanely specifically, of course... ...and that I can feed myself and KNOW where porkchops are on a pig. And where skirt steak comes from. And what part chicken tenders come from...


Anyway. Just be aware that MY definition of worth is not necessarily your definition. And that your definition may change for you over time. Enjoy your pigs, enjoy your knowledge. It's your knowledge and no one can take it away from you. Unless we're talking Alzheimers... sad to say...


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## Patt

Wow! I can't believe the prices some of y'all get for feeder piglets.  Here in Arkansas it averages $30 per piglet. 

We have raised an average of 4 hogs a year for the last 8 years. We put 2 in our freezer and sell 2 to cover our costs. Ours have always been outside with sheds for weather and on at least some grass but we have gradually moved to all pasture now that the cows are all gone. We have a really nice mixed breed sow that we have raised from 6 weeks old. She is very friendly and so we are kicking around the idea of keeping her and raising a litter of piglets this year. 

What I am wondering is how much will we have to increase our infrastructure as the pig gets bigger and what is the real cost of keeping that mother pig while she is pregnant and over the whole year vs. just paying for 4 piglets every year? I am guessing it's probably cheaper to just buy the piglets so I was just wondering how it had worked out for others.


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## wally

Here in NC Kansas you can not raise a market hog and make any money in fact you will lose money..I can go to the sale barn every week and buy a 250 lb fat hog for less than 80.00 bring it home and feed it for 14 days to be sure the system is clean then take to the processor..the pork market here is terrible thanks to the mega pork growers


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## highlands

If you can get piglets for $30 each then that is a better price than you'll likely to do having a sow.


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## AnnieinBC

At the very least, you should be able to end up with enough pork for your family for free. We have been doing this for several years, and word of mouth is all we do. All piggys are spoken for really quickly.

I agree with Walter, if you want them, you should reserve them now and not wait. We have to reserve ours right after Christmas - they are usually ready for us to pick up the weaner pigs mid-March.


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## lonelyfarmgirl

you can get butcher hogs at the auction all day long here for 20 or 30$, however you'll pay $1.00-1.50 per pound for feeders.


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## bruceki

In western washington commercial feed is $280/ton, and it takes 1,000lbs of feed to bring a pig to market. Weaner pigs have a low price of around $50 in november, and a high of $125 in march. 

So the economics around here for a winter farrowing are approximately 300 in feed + housing + labor yields you 8-10 piglets that sell for $50, say $500 if you manage to wean 10. So you can make a small profit. Born in early january and sold in march, the math looks better -- 300 in feed + housing + labor yields you $1250 assuming a weaning of 10. 

Highlands quotes prices he's selling pigs for that are higher than any other I've seen for non-purebred weaner pigs; as with any claim on the internet take it with a grain of salt. His math is the same as mine about keeping pigs during the winter, however. I don't sell pigs in the winter; I raise them and sell them as finished pigs in the spring and summer. I do sell pigs in the spring to take advantage of the better prices. 

Pigs are traditionally known as mortgage lifters -- you can make a dependable profit off of them if things go as they should. But with any new venture, you should expect to have some learning to do, which means that for the first few years you may not be as efficient as you hope. (=lower weaned pig count per litter born, etc)


Pig husbandry is a fairly low overhead operation that can be used as a teaching tool for children, as additional income, or as a relatively easy form of self-raised meat. I'd rate pig husbandry as being the next step up from chickens. The daily work is similar -- check the food and water, fill the feeder, scratch their ears, toss them a treat now and then, and call the farm kill guy in october. 

Entries from my blog: 
Pigs and profits

cost of raising pigs (2008 version)


Bruce / ebeyfarm.blogspot.com


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## lonelyfarmgirl

we try real hard to keep our feed costs down. we spend a fair amount of time gleaning and picking up what ever we can get for free or next to nothing. we wont buy in commercial feed. not worth it, and I want to know what my pigs are eating. today, it was apples, rice, baked potatoes, melon rinds, and deer carcass. they eat the bones like potato chips. it was all free + gas money and time.


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## Emma88

So take pity on the lowly soon to be pig farmer. We live in Northwest Montana on ten acres raising chickens, geese, ducks and rabbits. We are looking into getting two weaner pigs this spring to butcher in the fall. Donât know what kind but they will most likely be a Yorkshire mix. 

Iâve been reading around this site, and many others, but have a few questions. Yes we are trying to get our hands on that book every one recommends âSmall Scale Pig Raisingâ, but it is currently out of the library and will be back in a few weeks. I like the idea of the âuniversal feedâ but how much are we going to go through? I know there are many factors as to what else we feed them. Our tentative plans of right now are a movable pen. We really donât have the funds to get the electric fence system we want, buy we figured a pen on skis could be pulled with the truck. 

Being so far north we donât have farms that grow much more than alfalfa and a few kinds of grain, so truck loads of pumpkins or yams are not in our future. We will be able to provide a large amount of veggies from our garden, all the hay they want along with the pasture grass/weeds, and maybe bread from an outlet. 

I know, I know, a lot of jaw wagging to get to a few questions right?! 

How much grain will two piggies go through, would it be worth it to buy a ton of the mix? 
Do the new weaners need some thing more, at first, then grain and scraps? 
Do we need to supplement with minerals/vitamins along with the grain?

Give me a few more minutes and Iâm sure I can come up with a few more questions.


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## lonelyfarmgirl

what you need is a balanced diet. you feed all grain, you are going to have some fat pigs. like any other creatures, they are babies. they need protein, and carbs for fast growth, plus vitamins, minerals and nutrients. we have never bought a mineral supplement, but we feed a balanced diet. if you dont you might need that. I dont know.
when our pigs were approaching the 200# mark, they were eating more than a 5 gallon bucket of feed per day, each.


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## highlands

Emma88 said:


> Give me a few more minutes and Iâm sure I can come up with a few more questions.


Get the book "Small Scale Pig Raising" by Dirk van Loon. Generally available used on Amazon for $10 or less. Excellent book. Now is winter, the time to read, read, read. 

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## Emma88

"Being so far north we donât have farms that grow much more than alfalfa and a few kinds of grain, so truck loads of pumpkins or yams are not in our future. We will be able to provide a large amount of veggies from our garden, all the hay they want along with the pasture grass/weeds, and maybe bread from an outlet. 

I know, I know, a lot of jaw wagging to get to a few questions right?! 
How much grain will two piggies go through, would it be worth it to buy a ton of the mix? "


Can I get a ball park on how much grain?

We are waiting on the book from the library.


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## ScottMT

Hi All, Emma and I are new to this site but not new to raising animals. We raise Rabbits, Chickens, Ducks and Geese. Emma and I are trying to figure out if 2 pigs will eat a ton of grain before it goes bad. We both understand that it all depends on a whole bunch of things.

So, lets see if this help. We currently have 6 rabbits, 4 female and 2 male. We feed rabbit pellet and hay. We go through 80# of feed and 1/2 of a bale of hay in a month. So, that is about 14lbs of pellet and 5lbs of hay per rabbit per month. 

Can anybody give us an idea of how much you feed your pigs in a month or from weaner to butcher. 

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Scott


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## Lazy J

In commercial operations on ton will feed three pigs from 50 lb to market. In your situation one ton will probably feed two pigs since the feed won't be optimally formulated to meet the pigs' changing nurtrient requirements.

Jim


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## Gailann Schrader

...besides, as Walter points out... WHEN you get tired of feeding them or cannot afford to feed them anymore? BUTCHER THEM. There's no "magic" weight other than the optimum meat-to-bone ratio that puts them at about 220# - 250# or so. 

If you have little money? Butcher them early. If you have lots of hay and cast-off goodies (like whey, free bread & veggies, etc.) feed them longer.

The QUALITY of the meat will be amazing. Either way.


I raised some turkeys one year. The difference in the taste was incredible. I'm not sure I'd like to raise turkeys all the time? Because they are two-legged hogs and can get a little aggressive, but the flavor. Oh my.


If you can't get bread in the Summer (and remember it'll go moldy very quickly in the Summer - I know this for a fact) then raise your hogs in the winter. If you start them late, feed them root crops from the garden in say late summer and then finish them with hay, gleaned grain, day-old breads and such? You can cut your feed bill. You don't HAVE to grow pigs year-round. Some folks do, but you only need 6 months for commercial hogs! By that thought, if you get them in September and butcher in February? You don't have to mess with them in the Spring Summer. Unless you WANT to...


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## highlands

If you're looking to keep the feed costs down, and this goes for more than just pigs, consider planting extra crops. We do it all by hand - it is pretty quick just broadcasting seed for most crops and a few that need poking like pumpkins. We plant beets, turnips, pumpkins, sunflowers, sunchokes, mangels and cole crops. All of these are very easy to grow even in our poor mountain soil on steep slopes.

Even better is to terrace the land, something we do a little each year and have the animals do by the way we have the fencing setup. This helps to improve the nutrient and water capture and retention of the land. We use our winter paddocks as large gardens for growing crops for the animals. Almost free feed.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## ScottMT

Thanks all for the information. We realize that a diet of nothing but grain would not be enough, balanced or nutritionally optimized. Our rabbits and chickens get kitchen and garden scraps daily on top of grain and the chickens free range. The pigs will get the same including pasture. As stated before, the pigs will be getting more than just grain.

With so many of you raising pigs and being frugal about it, we were actually looking for some cost estimates. We have some info on how much you're all paying for a ton of feed because you have posted rough estimates. What we are really looking for is how much you all go through in a season, from weaner to butcher. Since some of you have been doing it for some time or at least one season, you know how much grain you have used. This doesn't depend on anything because you've already done it. These numbers are what we are looking for and I think the OP is looking for the same. 

Your help is greatly appreciated.:1pig::1pig::help:


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## DenMacII

This is our second year of raising pigs. Last year we raised two, and this year, just one. Our biggest mistake the first year was going to the feed store weekly to buy our pig feed and grain one or two bags at a time. Even though the pigs had pasture, and loads of good stuff from our garden, the cost of buying grain and feed retail was twice as much as buying in bulk - and became quite a cost over run.

This year we picked up a pig off of Craig's List - a nice duroc already up to 100lbs. This family had purchased the pig at the State Fair as a pet not realizing how big he would get and that he would 'rototill the yard' as they put it. We drove two hours to a mill that only sells organic feeds and purchased what we calculated we needed to get him to weight - for half the cost of what we were paying for the same feed buying it at the feed store. Our calculations came in right on target and he is headed off to the butcher on the 10th. 

We plan to keep the whole pig, less selling a small amount to close friends to cover our butchering costs. We expect to be out of pocket less than $2.00 a pound for the meat that ends up in our freezer.

Long story short...if you can find bulk, buy bulk. Best of luck to you.


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## Patt

We have been raising pigs for 7 years now and I don't think we have done it exactly the same twice.  So I will tell you what worked for us: we get them in the Spring once the chickens are laying well and the goats are producing lots of milk. We get a 50 bag of oats and we feed the piglets oats boiled in milk with eggs and scraps. That bag lasted for a couple of months. By then we were into Summer and we had garden stuff and plenty of pasture. They received almost no grain at all over the Summer because they had so much to eat and 2 1/2 acres to range over. We kept them into the Fall because we were seriously considering keeping one as a breeding sow. Fall wasn't too bad but once we got our first frost costs shot up because they needed feed every day and they were now very big pigs. And big pigs need a lot of feed! 

I think probably the reason why nobody can give you exact figures is because the majority of us don't have them. We try different things and experiment and most of us aren't good at paperwork or just don't have the time to actually figure exactly what we spent and exactly how many pounds of feed it takes to finish a hog. And then of course there are a ton of variables that would make each batch of hogs different anyways.


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## JimB

I know there is many ways to raise pigs. I have seen it I have raised them on large scale operation for myself and as 1 or 2 for table pork at home. If a person wants to raise pork cheaply so it doesnt cost them anything or much. First is to see wether or not anyone else needs or wants any. If not DO NOT get to many if your family can use 2 grow 2. Second find a feed mill close to you as possible they can make feed to order if you buy purina at the local feed market you will pay 3 times as much as you should. Third when you feed pigs to market there is a varying % of protien in the feed so you do not waste money it goes like this. In pig lbs this is how we on the frugal commercial side (I also mean all natural) do it 0-100 lbs they need 14- maybe 15% protein feed, 100-175lbs they need 12% protein feed, 200+lbs they need 10% protein feed. Yes I know somethat feed hogs 18% til the end there money not mine I like mine in my pocket not in hog poop. Then to stretch it a bit further feed em scraps from the table, garden, even after you pick your corn you can give em the stalks and they will eat what they want of them. Go to the day old bread stores and get there throw outs we pay .25 a lb for over due cakes,donuts and such use your imagination but keep it legal. As far as space to raise hogs in the all natural setting I go on a standard of 18 sq feet of pen room or pasture room for my feeders, 65 sq feet for a boar and 85 sq ft for gestating sow and 115 sq ft for lactating sow with litter. Like this I dont medicate, no prohormones in feed all vegetarian, no antibiotics all natural. It works pigs are happy so am I.


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## ScottMT

Thanks for all of the information.

If anybody else is looking for more specific numbers, please let me know as I have found a few books that list amounts of feed to take a pig from weaner to butcher. Yes, it all depends but it will help you get an idea of what is involved.

Scott:dance::dance:


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## jirwin

We started raising just 2. We now raise batches of 10. They graze they gardens in the fall, get free choice hay and a ration of local grown corn and soybean ground with some salt and mineral in it. This batch I am charging $1.25 lb live weight + processing. Other in our area charge more, I am making profit at this rate, I would like to see they're numbers! Try to buy bulk and local, many farms have a hammermill (feed grinder) and will be much cheaper and better for your local economy than buying bagged commercial feed.


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## Patt

ScottMT said:


> Thanks for all of the information.
> 
> If anybody else is looking for more specific numbers, please let me know as I have found a few books that list amounts of feed to take a pig from weaner to butcher. Yes, it all depends but it will help you get an idea of what is involved.
> 
> Scott:dance::dance:


I will just be interested to hear how it went for you once you have raised your first batch and how close to the book it worked out.


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## 65284

We bought 4 40 pounders last June @ $1.10 per pound. We fed them out on a lot of surplus Jersey milk, grass, hay, garden surplus, orchard surplus, and a little bulk ground corn they got zero sack feed. We brought home 446 pounds of frozen pork. We sold more than enough to pay all expenses, kept more pork than we will eat before next butchering, and a tidy bit of pocket money.


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## JimB

65284 that is good free to me is what I shoot for and any extra is the iceing on top. For those wanting to raise hogs to make money checkout the niman ranch programs. The only stipulation they have is you have to be within 14 hrs of there sioux center slaughter plant. They guarantee .51 a lb live weight with a .05-.11 cent a lb extra depending on the month not like regular commercial farms.


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## Wisconsin Ann

I don't raise pigs (yet..getting our first ones in a month) BUT I can point you to a couple of online sources that talk about how much feed. One is Walter's blog, which he put a link to in his first post on this thread. There, he references using 800# of grain per pig to butcher.

The other is a 4-H project about pigs, that says, in part, "_Assuming you have a place for your pig to stay, the remaining costs associated with the project are fairly reasonable. The largest expense may be in buying the piglet. In our area, an eight week old pig, weighing around 40 - 50 pounds, is $80. Feed typically runs about $8 - $10 per 50 pound bag, and one bag will usually last two growing pigs about a week. You will also want to buy some straw or wood chips for your pig to sleep on. An estimate for growing a market pig (approximately 12 weeks) is $200._"

Obviously, both of the above are talking about straight grain/feed without supplementing with whatever you find for free or raise. 

Our neighbor raises hogs (mainly Landrace, with a couple of Hampshires) mainly for butcher. And for the occasional 4-H kid. Right now pork is so low that he's nearly ready to give them away. He does have customers who buy 1/2 a hog (or whole) every fall, and that's when he makes money to keep going. His farm raises corn and some wheat, so a lot of his feed costs are diesel and sweat, not cash.


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