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 cost to raise a pig. We’ll be looking at a backyard or small homestead situation, not a large commercial operation. We’ll also be looking at a weaner-to-market process, not a breeding operation. One note to start off with: when you ask, “How much is a pig?”, you actually need to ask, “How much are pigs?” Pigs are social animals, and you should never be raising fewer than two. Perhaps you could get away with it if your pig was going to be penned with cows, goats, or sheep. But don’t raise a pig all by itself! You should be able to find a friend or neighbor that wants to buy that other pig. As you’re learning about raising pigs, I’ve got a couple of book suggestions for you. You’ll want to familiarize yourself with all the factors, and both of these books are great choices to get you started. One is called How to Raise Pigs (these are all affiliate links), and it’s the first one I got started with. Whether you’re raising pigs for pets, getting started raising a 4H pig, or going purely for yummy pork, this book will help you along. The other one I recommend is Storey’s 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’s get started learning the all the factors that go into the cost to raise your pig! The Cost to Raise a Pig What factors do you need to plan for when understanding how much it costs to raise a pig? I group things into a couple of big categories. First up is infrastructure. These are the basics you need to understand and implement. Infrastructure covers: Fencing Feeders Waterers Shelter Transportation Coolers Freezers Then you have recurring per-pig expenses. These include: Piglet price Feed Bedding Health care Processing Fuel Infrastructure Your first category in your cost to raise a pig is infrastructure or operation costs. When you buy these things they become assets that will last you from year to year. You 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 example, and you expect it to last 5 years, you need to add $100 to the cost of each year of pigs. Let’s look at some categories of cost you should consider. Some of these things you may already own, and of course actual prices can wildly vary, but we’ll look at some estimates. Fencing Fencing is your biggest concern when considering your infrastructure cost to raise a pig. We use Elecronet fencing which is about $150 for 165 ft of fencing. We have several of these because we use them for the sheep and around gardens, too. You could start out with two. The price-per-foot on this type of fence is high, but we like how mobile they are. With our sheep we’ve gone through periods where we are moving the fence every day. We’ve had some of our rolls of fence for 4 years now and they have held up great and been a great investment. With electric you also have to factor in the price of energizers. Other kinds of fencing include hog panels and woven wire. Feeders and waterers We have really gone through feeding and watering equipment. It seems like every year we are trying out a different method! We have settled on a 55 gallon waterer that Joshua made that cost maybe $40 in supplies. For feed bowls we’re using heavy duty rubber bowls like these. We started out using metal bowls, but pigs are rough on everything, and the metal bowls quickly got beat up. We probably average spending $25 a year on bowls. 2018 update: We ended up building a permanent feeder as well, which you can see in the picture above. It’s probably overkill if you are only raising 2 but we’ve raised as many as 6 and feeding time can get hectic! Shelter The first year we raised pigs we used a stall in our barn 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 good price on our lumber because a neighbor of ours runs a small independent sawmill. Your pigs will need some kind of shelter, and it needs to be very sturdy. You’ll have to price out lumber in your area to estimate the cost of building something if you aren’t able to use something already on your property. Transportation How will you get 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 course. The biggest hurdle comes on the other end when you need to get 500 pounds of pig to the processor. You might be able to use your truck, or you might need a livestock trailer. You may need to buy or build ramps leading onto the truck or trailer. Coolers When you pick up your meat from the processor, you’ll need the cooler space to get it home. We’ve found that a 120 quart cooler is about one pig’s worth of cuts from the butcher. A good rule of thumb is 1 pound of meat to 1 quart of cooler space. Freezer Of course you also need the right amount of freezer space at home. This post talks about the freezer and cooler space you need. You need enough for your own meat, plus any you get stuck with because a buyer didn’t come through. We have a small...
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