Butchering Costs - Pig

[PeskyWabbits 464]

Hello

I have just had 3, 8 month old boars butchered.

I estimate they were about 15 stone each - it is hard to get them on the bathroom scales.

 

Last year I had 2, appx 18 stone pigs slaughtered and butchered.

Slaughter was £20 (slaughter and delivery to butcher)

Butchering was £50 per pig. With more sausages - 5 varieties, than joints.

 

This year it is £85 per pig.

More joints less sausages.

The joints all look quality, scored rolls, decent sized pieces, vacuum packed.

The sausages - 4 varieties, 1 KG bundles, in freezer bags

 

Is this to be expected or is the butcher going upmarket and charging up market?

 

Thank you

 

Pesky

[Rabid 1,936]

Think it depends on your area mate, slaughter and butchery here, on porkers about the same size £70 is about right, and you say how you want it but the more sausages you have they charge a little more for casings and mix

[ginger beard 4,653]

.will ask the butcher tomorrow but i do know that with your own pig,sausages are £2.20/kg just to make them.sausage skins are fecking dear.vac packing is a top spec.why not just get it all freezer bagged or just get it butchered and pack it yourself.?£85 sounds expensive though.

[forest of dean redneck 11,769]

Just to hijack the thread,whats people's views on how much would it cost to feed a pig to a decent butchering weight using a slow organic type method.

A local farm shop was on about doing a pig share type club ,pay half when piglets farrowed then other when it's slaughtered.

[Mister Gain 1,764]

If you have got the time you could try saving the butchers labour costs by butchering them yourself. Plenty of info on t'internet nowadays to show you how easy it is, Youtube is your friend and Scott Rea gives excellent tutorials on primal cuts, boning and rolling joints (meat LOL), even the butchers knots, even how to cook it. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheScottReaproject/videos

 

Making your own sausages isn't that difficult either, but requires some initial outlay for a half decent grinder/mincer and a sausage stuffer, but should last you years if you buy decent kit. As mentioned earlier, casings are not cheap but if you shop around you can pick up commercial seasonings for a reasonable price, some with rusk already added, or go along the route of making your own personal seasonings. http://www.scobiesdirect.com/ do loads of stuff and I would recommend them.

 

Making your own dry cured bacon is another option and is so easy and no special equipment is needed other than the commercial dry cure mix.

 

 

[ginger beard 4,653]

.will ask the butcher tomorrow but i do know that with your own pig,sausages are £2.20/kg just to make them.sausage skins are fecking dear.vac packing is a top spec.why not just get it all freezer bagged or just get it butchered and pack it yourself.?£85 sounds expensive though.

upto a dead weight of 60kg...slaughter £20,boned and rolled and vac packed £26 and 50p for each joint and £2.20 for every kg of sausages made. upto a dead weight of kg....slaughter £23,boned,rolled and vac packed £31 and 65p for each joint and again £2.20 for each kg of sausages made.

[PeskyWabbits 464]

Thanks for the replies. A neighbour, up the road has been quoted £70 for butchering his, these will be in freezer bags. He hasn't mentioned sausages, so I wonder if he will get these made from offcuts.

 

I am running up Pig Club, this is how it works:

 

Members pay for the pigs - currently £20 for 3 month old weaners.

Members pay for all the feed. They are encouraged to source legal food - eg nothing from the kitchen but milk, bread and veg and fruit is ok.

I supply the environment - hut, fencing, field and do most of the donkey work.

I also have an eggs for veg exchange going with a volume gardener, just to ensure variety and boost the food available.

 

We are doing it for the love of keeping pigs, not any commercial gain.

Anyone who has done this on a small scale will know how expensive this is. £9 for a 25 KG sack of wheat etc. I think you would really struggle trying to do it organically with just veg. Remember they do need protein. Commercial wheat is 'Sow & Weaner' 17% protein, 'Grower' 19% protein, 'Super Grower' 22% protein

 

But the end result is a high quality meat.

 

It works out at about £200 per member. They get half a pig in return.

I help with the vets bill and slaughter and butchering but I get a whole pig or more.

 

The variables are - if the pigs are underweight at slaughter time and need longer, therefore more food.

Vets visits. This year we had a poorly pig so add £ to the bill.

If the butcher charges more - like he has this year.

 

Thanks again

 

Pesky

[Squeamish5 309]

What a fantastic idea!!!!!

[ginger beard 4,653]

£200 for half a pig.?that is for commercial gain.go to any slaughterhouse and get a whole 65ish kg pig for about £130.reared just as well and pay the butchering cost and you'll be £'s in.

[Rabid 1,936]

Thanks for the replies. A neighbour, up the road has been quoted £70 for butchering his, these will be in freezer bags. He hasn't mentioned sausages, so I wonder if he will get these made from offcuts.

 

I am running up Pig Club, this is how it works:

 

Members pay for the pigs - currently £20 for 3 month old weaners.

Members pay for all the feed. They are encouraged to source legal food - eg nothing from the kitchen but milk, bread and veg and fruit is ok.

I supply the environment - hut, fencing, field and do most of the donkey work.

I also have an eggs for veg exchange going with a volume gardener, just to ensure variety and boost the food available.

 

We are doing it for the love of keeping pigs, not any commercial gain.

Anyone who has done this on a small scale will know how expensive this is. £9 for a 25 KG sack of wheat etc. I think you would really struggle trying to do it organically with just veg. Remember they do need protein. Commercial wheat is 'Sow & Weaner' 17% protein, 'Grower' 19% protein, 'Super Grower' 22% protein

 

But the end result is a high quality meat.

 

It works out at about £200 per member. They get half a pig in return.

I help with the vets bill and slaughter and butchering but I get a whole pig or more.

 

The variables are - if the pigs are underweight at slaughter time and need longer, therefore more food.

Vets visits. This year we had a poorly pig so add £ to the bill.

If the butcher charges more - like he has this year.

 

Thanks again

 

Pesky

A great idea, and one I like, knowing the food that goes into them is ideal, but...£200 for half a pig, I think the costings are out if it isn't for commercial gain.

 

Just realised £9 for 25kg's of wheat, that's a right Royal rip off, I pay £2 a bag direct from my mates farm and that's what he sells at for all his feed wheat. I can buy it screened, dusted and bagged from the local feed shop for £5 a bag, and they sell to the general public.

[PeskyWabbits 464]

And any money left over at the end is returned to members.

 

The main cost is food. Members are encouraged to source as much as they can. We have missed out on the local micro breweries, those are already spoken for.

 

Members are told the fixed cost - slaughtering. They could do their own butvhering if they wanted.

We get apples but they tend to be at this time of year when pigs are going through half a bag of wheat each per day.

 

Using commercial feed, we would have to buy in bulk to get it any cheaper, but then where do you store it?

If I get a container big shed, that would have to have dual purpose, else it would go on the Pig Club bill.

 

Remember, we all work full time in non-farming occupations. This is a bit of fun. I do have Pig Club wannerbees queuing up.

Last year it was 2 pigs - 2 members and me. This year 6 pigs - 7 members and me. Maybe 12 pigs next year. But that is a lot of food to source or store.

 

I have planted spuds and jerusalem artichokes in last year's field to help with next years supplies

 

I paid the butcher today. He said he had miscalculated the bill.

 

It is actually £66 per pig. Much better

[forest of dean redneck 11,769]

Our local farm shop was on about in January farrowing a litter of saddleback or saddleback cross ,150 a piglet all food ,land rental paperwork etc covered, then in about sept/oct when they ready,take them to slaughter butcher them and it's another 150, so that would be 300 quid all in for a whole pig .And I think they are organic rated,we can just phone an visit the pig when it's convenient.

[PeskyWabbits 464]

Thanks for the replies.

It goes to show that if you are trade you can really get the costs down.

I will see if I can deal directly with a feed source. There is Keith Drake in Honley, near Huddersfield.

 

I thought I was making a good saving, going a bit further to get a bag at £8.

 

Because the onus of buying the feed is with members, they have the choice of looking elsewhere.

Again, most are in non-farming jobs. It is all so different for them.

 

Pesky

[smithie 2,443]

200 quid for half a pig. You have 6 pigs and 7 members.. do you get the other 5 half pigs?

[Rabid 1,936]

Just speak to a local arable farmer, they are usually happy to sell a bag of wheat or two, my mate usually has 50 or 60 ton stored over winter, I just go and see him and get a few hundred weight sacks at a time.

 

Speak to Heygates farm feed for pig food, they deliver all over the country, I have an account and it works out a lot cheaper for sow nuts and anything else you need.

 

(If you get really stuck I can order any food on my account for you) but it really is quite simple to open an account.

 

Ps, you don't really need to buy in bulk to get it cheaper, I see guys buying two bags a time collected and it's approx £3 a bag cheaper, I buy a ton at a time and it's £5 a bag cheaper, 4 ton delivered loose is even cheaper.