prices for piglets... Woot!

I found a local seller of the same breed (Hereford) of a gilt that I have. The CraigsList ad makes no mention of the piglets being registered, in fact, just lists them as weaner pigs.

The price is $425.

I hope they all sell for that price, which is higher than my most positive imagining.

Hopefully I can do the same this season.

Wanted to share the good news.

On the other end of the pricing spectrum, I just lined up some Yorkshire cross weaners for this spring.

Ready y'all?

How about $75 each- weaned, vaccinated, wormed, castrated, and teeth clipped.

'Heritage Breed' seems synonomous for 'way to expensive to be a real farm animal'. Unless you are the breeder...

Yah. That's why I was kind of surprised that they didn't make a bigger deal about the hereford breeding.

I think prices are going up in general though. Some people haven't gotten the word, but there's going to be a shortage. Feed costs and disease.

My business plan is to sell my non-breeder weaners for $125.

I think that with limited supply and good marketing, you could get closer to $200 a weaner for your pigs. Marketing is always the key, never underestimate how much more people will pay when you sell it right. Confidence in premium prices, and salesmanship are key to keeping small farms profitable.

This is a good link, from Walter Jeffries' website-

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/products/breeders/

Where he discusses his prices on live animals, and his business plan on either raising the himself to retail meat, or selling live animals. Insightful stuff as always from Walter.
His whole website is really a treasure. Thanks Walter!

I've been at Walter to write a book.

I know he's focusing on butchering, but I bet he could make a lot, speaking, etc.

Jeremey Weeks wrote:I've been at Walter to write a book.

I know he's focusing on butchering, but I bet he could make a lot, speaking, etc.

I like the concept.

buying piglets is in the eye of the beholder.saying you are buying to raise to butcher,and they are equaly healthy,i have never seen a piglet worth over $100.but,if you can market them to people that will pay it great.get what you can,thats the name of the game for sure,just good business.its like all business,the new folks will pay up,but keeping them is key once they have raised them.dont be afraid to offer deals to repeat customers,i have done that with good results and have been recipient of deals.i have even traded piglets to folks that needed to.best of luck.

When I need to buy piglets I plan to pay $75 each, but have gotten them for $40 to $50 each fairly often. I tried to raise my own last year and sell the excess, but I had a hard time getting over $60 each for them and had a lot of people expecting to pay $30 or so. Not doing that again. These were Hampshire and Yorkshire crosses. I might pay a bit more for a heritage breed to see if I could charge more for the end pork without having too bad of feed conversion on them. I have heard bad things about the time to mature on the heritage breeds like the Large Black which take over a year to reach market weight.

That said, because of the PED virus in the commercial pig industry I have heard six week old weaners are bringing $90/each in lots of 500 in Iowa.

We have a local friend who, as a value added venture on his pigs offers wood fired hog roasts for parties. He welded together his own hog roaster and gets his firewood from scrappy off cuts from his tree surgery work.

Jeremey Weeks wrote:I've been at Walter to write a book. ... I bet he could make a lot, speaking, etc.

Gak! I'm not a traveling man. It can be months between times that I come down off our mountain. I think I'll leave speaking to those who enjoy it.

mike clark wrote:i have never seen a piglet worth over $100.

Hmm... Piglets that thrive on pasture will save on expensive grain feed costs. We neither buy nor feed commercial hog feed / grain / corn/soy but we have been raising pigs on pasture for over a decade this way. The result of my hard selection over the years is pigs that grow without the commercial feed thus saving that cost. How much does commercial feed cost you? Add that to the price of the pig.

my few pigs grow great with virtualy a veggie diet,came as piglets from grain fed stock.I can take any piglet and start him on pasture,whey and veggies.that said walters pigs look great from what I have seen,hope to visit his farm one day.would I pay $200+ for a piglet,no,but I respect anyones right to charge what they feel they are worth.plus price is suggestive,some guys complain about 75$ for a piglet while others happily spend $400 for registered.i hope we all sell them for our best price,i also feed little to no grain,veggies and bread.mostly veggies,bread more of a treat.i did feed out two bags of corn meal,since November and one bag was given to me.and outta respect for everyone here,i haven't seen every piglet,but boy I like to see as many peoples pigs and farm set ups as I can.best to ya.

mike clark wrote:boy I like to see as many peoples pigs and farm set ups as I can.best to ya.

That's what so great about the web. We get to visit, see photos of how other people are doing things, what their setups look like throughout the seasons (a visit would only hit one season), hear their many stories and all without having to travel. Blogs and discussion forums are great!

Up here in NW Washington the price of piglets is seasonal. I can buy them for around $75-$85 in the fall and winter, but spring / early summer comes around and they jump to $125. Last year I wasn't even able to source them and went with out pork which made me really sad. I suspect that those $400 piglets are intended for breeding stock or they are just banking on the greater idiot theory. As far as feed goes I run my pigs at our produce wash station so they get tons of scraps that way and in the fall I have an organic apple cider farm that sends totes of crushed apples to us. In my experience you can not beat a whey fattened hog, I will stop and buy pork at the farmers market from the guys that run hogs along side their creameries.

Walter your a good guy and I have enjoyed your web page.willbe the boar says keep smiling.

In my experience you can not beat a whey fattened hog

The town of Parma in Italy is famous for two products: Parmasiano cheese and Parma hams.

After the curds have been separated from the whey, more milk is added to the whey to make a batch of ricotta cheese. Then the remaining whey is sent to the hog farms, to help fatten those delicious hams.

mike clark wrote:the boar says keep smiling.

That boar has a serious beard. Hair of his chinny, chin, chin!