While I do know of rare cases where commercial hogs were fed odd ball human food, Keebler cookie crumbs and Hersey chocolate bars, home raised hogs are far more likely to ingest odd stuff. A popular advocate of pastured pork often fed old bakery waste, cheese plant waste, whey, digested brewer's grains and cooked eggs. Reasonable to believe any area with pigs and chickens will include a few hens getting gobbled up, live or post mortem.
Clearly, raising your own pork puts you somewhat in control of what and how they are fed.
A deposit should cover the cost or value of a 40 pound feeder pig. The cost at butcher should cover the cost of your pig's feed and the feed of your friend/customer. Add the cost of killing, gutting and skinning. Customer pays the butcher to smoke hams, bacon, cut, wrap and freeze their hog.
Since the hanging weight will vary, the cost should be geared to price per pound. Charging market prices is likely going to cost you money. I cannot imagine being able to sell at auction prices and cover my costs.
In some cases friends want your pork because they want to know where it came from, value humane treatment and are not concerned about cost. In reality, most just think that by cutting out the middlemen and buying in bulk, they will get a bargain. They will be sad when they find out you can't provide that price break.
But collecting $40 to $80 up front, protects you from a customer that backs out at slaughter time. If they don't have the deposit now, they sure won't have the money later. Continuing to feed pigs while you wait for them to come up with the money is a waste both ways. But you should be able to sell cut and wrapped pork by using that deposit as a discount.
Also, figure out what you'll do if the pig dies. This is where economy of scale helps. If you are raising your own pig, plus one for a friend, a death means you don't get your pork. But if you are raising a dozen pigs, ten for friends, one for you and a spare that you can market at butcher or protection if one dies.
Clearly, raising your own pork puts you somewhat in control of what and how they are fed.
A deposit should cover the cost or value of a 40 pound feeder pig. The cost at butcher should cover the cost of your pig's feed and the feed of your friend/customer. Add the cost of killing, gutting and skinning. Customer pays the butcher to smoke hams, bacon, cut, wrap and freeze their hog.
Since the hanging weight will vary, the cost should be geared to price per pound. Charging market prices is likely going to cost you money. I cannot imagine being able to sell at auction prices and cover my costs.
In some cases friends want your pork because they want to know where it came from, value humane treatment and are not concerned about cost. In reality, most just think that by cutting out the middlemen and buying in bulk, they will get a bargain. They will be sad when they find out you can't provide that price break.
But collecting $40 to $80 up front, protects you from a customer that backs out at slaughter time. If they don't have the deposit now, they sure won't have the money later. Continuing to feed pigs while you wait for them to come up with the money is a waste both ways. But you should be able to sell cut and wrapped pork by using that deposit as a discount.
Also, figure out what you'll do if the pig dies. This is where economy of scale helps. If you are raising your own pig, plus one for a friend, a death means you don't get your pork. But if you are raising a dozen pigs, ten for friends, one for you and a spare that you can market at butcher or protection if one dies.