Raise twice a year/what do I call it?
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Two litters?
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I would say that your sows farrow twice a year. That is an important bit of information for the consumer who is concerned about animal welfare. In conventional, indoor hog operations, the sows are pushed to be pregnant or nursing year round, so they average closer to 2.5-2.8 litters a year. The sows will be pregnant for roughly 4 mos (3 mos, 3 weeks and 3 days, as the oldtimers say). We also only breed twice a year, which gives our sows a good bit of down time between pregnancies.
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If you are going into Business, you might want to check with your customers. Are they willing to pay a bit more for your increased cost per litter compaired to your competition that is likely breeding more often? If they don't want to pay for your sow's "vacation", you'll need to have other ways to cut costs and stay in business.
In some northern locations it might make sense to keep some sows open in the coldest months, squeeze two litters into the warmer weather.
In your location, perhaps two litters close together in the winter and give her a break in the July Aug heat spell.
In some northern locations it might make sense to keep some sows open in the coldest months, squeeze two litters into the warmer weather.
In your location, perhaps two litters close together in the winter and give her a break in the July Aug heat spell.
Walter,
Can you please provide info on how many sows you breed to have 52 weeks of batches? Also, are you able to plan breeding and gestation with pastured pigs? I would think that the boars get after sows in heat...!
Thx!
PS: love the greenhouse project!
Can you please provide info on how many sows you breed to have 52 weeks of batches? Also, are you able to plan breeding and gestation with pastured pigs? I would think that the boars get after sows in heat...!
Thx!
PS: love the greenhouse project!
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We have about 40 breeding sows divided into two herds with four boars. I do not plan their breedings. Rather they breed as they come into heat and it works out such that we have plenty of piglets, unless I do something foolish like I did this spring and sell too many as piglets. Ah, well, that $100 in hand was ever so tempting...
This produces many pigs of many ages from the size of piglets up to finishers. Each week we then select the ones we need for orders and take them to the butcher. This gives us the ability to pick, for example, a suckling pig, two roasters, a customer over sized finisher and two finisher pigs for commercial wholesale cuts. Usually this works out fine although on occasion I won't have that week what someone calls up and orders. Most people order a few weeks to even months ahead so it usually works out well.
The reason we run the boars free with the herds is that it is way too much like work to monitor each sow's heat, move her in with a boar, move her out, move her back in 12 hours later, move her out, feed so many separate groups as separate breeding management would require, etc, etc. I like to keep things as simple and efficient as possible. The boars are rather good at detecting heat - saves me the trouble of checking pig butts on 40 sows every day.
Some people worry about overly aggressive boars. I have a solution for that - to market, to market they go. Boars who are overly aggressive get culled early, before they even reach finisher age. After a few generations of breeding you alter the genetic component of the pig's temperament such that you're left wit the more docile, tractable animals. Same goes for sows. It's not worth keeping dangerous animals around who could hurt me, my family, our LGDs, etc. You want to be a breeder? Play nice.
On the greenhouse / winter farrowing shed we've poured the first section of the knee walls. Monday, weather permitting, we'll pour the next section. While we wait we're working on our cottage. We keep getting snow but it melts. I'm hoping it won't stick for another few weeks.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
This produces many pigs of many ages from the size of piglets up to finishers. Each week we then select the ones we need for orders and take them to the butcher. This gives us the ability to pick, for example, a suckling pig, two roasters, a customer over sized finisher and two finisher pigs for commercial wholesale cuts. Usually this works out fine although on occasion I won't have that week what someone calls up and orders. Most people order a few weeks to even months ahead so it usually works out well.
The reason we run the boars free with the herds is that it is way too much like work to monitor each sow's heat, move her in with a boar, move her out, move her back in 12 hours later, move her out, feed so many separate groups as separate breeding management would require, etc, etc. I like to keep things as simple and efficient as possible. The boars are rather good at detecting heat - saves me the trouble of checking pig butts on 40 sows every day.
Some people worry about overly aggressive boars. I have a solution for that - to market, to market they go. Boars who are overly aggressive get culled early, before they even reach finisher age. After a few generations of breeding you alter the genetic component of the pig's temperament such that you're left wit the more docile, tractable animals. Same goes for sows. It's not worth keeping dangerous animals around who could hurt me, my family, our LGDs, etc. You want to be a breeder? Play nice.
On the greenhouse / winter farrowing shed we've poured the first section of the knee walls. Monday, weather permitting, we'll pour the next section. While we wait we're working on our cottage. We keep getting snow but it melts. I'm hoping it won't stick for another few weeks.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
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CeresHil,
I do track pregnancies and keep an eye out for who's going to go soon, who's still open, etc.
During the warm weather the sows go out into the far margins of the paddocks and make nests when they are ready to farrow. This is the ideal. It is easy for everyone.
During the winter we have dens, open sheds and other shelters. Over the years we've experimented with a lot of different ways of getting through the deep snows. See:
[ame]http://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Asugarmtnfarm.com+winter+housing[/ame]
This year we're building a 70'x30' combination greenhouse / winter farrowing space that is an open three sided shed. Tomorrow we pour more walls. You can read about that here:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/labels/Greenhouse.html
Cheers,
-Walter
I do track pregnancies and keep an eye out for who's going to go soon, who's still open, etc.
During the warm weather the sows go out into the far margins of the paddocks and make nests when they are ready to farrow. This is the ideal. It is easy for everyone.
During the winter we have dens, open sheds and other shelters. Over the years we've experimented with a lot of different ways of getting through the deep snows. See:
[ame]http://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Asugarmtnfarm.com+winter+housing[/ame]
This year we're building a 70'x30' combination greenhouse / winter farrowing space that is an open three sided shed. Tomorrow we pour more walls. You can read about that here:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/labels/Greenhouse.html
Cheers,
-Walter
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9,746 Posts
Sows typically give about two to to 2.3 litters a year free running with the boars in the herd. I have several sows who do better than that and one sow who does much better than that and. I'm working on moving the herd towards their abilities. It's a breeding target. Sows who do the worst get culled when new gilts from the best sows come up to take the new slots.
We get about 8 to 10 piglets per litter but some sows consistently do 14 piglets per litter and one of the sows, who is also in the faster litters per year, does 15 piglets per litter. Again this is a target for breeding so sows that do the worst get replaced with new gilts from the best sows. A related breeding goal is moving our herd from the current 14 tits to 16 tits.
Keep in mind that those are but a few characteristics when looking for breeding sows. Temperament, weaning weight, how well they keep their condition in winter, pasture-ability, recovery time, length and other factors also determine who gets to be a breeder and who stays.
When I say 40 sows, that is an approximation. Some days we have 37 sows, some days we might have 45. The number changes with culling and bringing up of new gilts into the breeding herds. I simply use the number 40 as it is a convent approximation. Likewise we have about 200 pigs on the farm but that is also a number than can swing from time to time because that includes many small piglets through growers, roasters, finishers and breeding herd. Our goal is to gradually grow to the point where we are selling ten pigs a week.
We keep more sows than we need because I don't schedule things like clockwork. Sows often clump up their breeding in cohorts with a lead sow leading the estrous. This can create lows and highs in supply. We sell the extra piglets to people who want to raise up their own pigs, generally as summer pigs for fall slaughter. I find it best not to count my piglets before they wean.
We run our herd on about 15 acres or so. Currently we have about eight acres in the south field, four acres in the home field and nine acres in the north field. Each field is divided into paddocks for the herds. The pigs get less than the total as some of that is devoted to small ponds, some to buildings, some to our cottage and some to our gardens.
We are in the process of expanding our fields to 40 acres for pasture plus another 20 to 30 acres which will become hay fields in a few years and then another 30 or so acres that we may also open up to hay fields later. This coming month we'll be clear cutting those sections of forest. A century ago these areas were pasture and hay fields - soon they will be again. My plan is also to use a strip of the forest along the boundaries to give the livestock sheltered area in addition to the open pasture.
You can read more about how we graze the pigs here:
[ame]http://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Asugarmtnfarm.com+intensive+rotational+grazing[/ame]
and specifically about acres per pig here:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/10/how-much-land-per-pig.html
We have more than just pigs grazing that land although they do make up the bulk of the livestock. There are also sheep, chickens, geese and ducks.
Most of our land is fairly steep. As a visitor today noted that we have a hill farm. This makes pasture a good use of the land where field crops would be much more difficult to raise in any serious volume. The sections that will become hay fields are virtually all we have that is level and will be rotated between hay, pasture and crops. Fortunately they are at the bottom of the slopes of our mountains so they get a lot of water wash which brings down nutrients to them and the soils there are quite deep and rich. On most of our land the soils are shallow with ledge close to the surface. What I have done over the past decades is to terrace our land in the home fields area so that we have good spaces for large gardens. Those gardens feed us as well as feeding the livestock in the late fall and winter.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs & Sheep
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
We get about 8 to 10 piglets per litter but some sows consistently do 14 piglets per litter and one of the sows, who is also in the faster litters per year, does 15 piglets per litter. Again this is a target for breeding so sows that do the worst get replaced with new gilts from the best sows. A related breeding goal is moving our herd from the current 14 tits to 16 tits.
Keep in mind that those are but a few characteristics when looking for breeding sows. Temperament, weaning weight, how well they keep their condition in winter, pasture-ability, recovery time, length and other factors also determine who gets to be a breeder and who stays.
When I say 40 sows, that is an approximation. Some days we have 37 sows, some days we might have 45. The number changes with culling and bringing up of new gilts into the breeding herds. I simply use the number 40 as it is a convent approximation. Likewise we have about 200 pigs on the farm but that is also a number than can swing from time to time because that includes many small piglets through growers, roasters, finishers and breeding herd. Our goal is to gradually grow to the point where we are selling ten pigs a week.
We keep more sows than we need because I don't schedule things like clockwork. Sows often clump up their breeding in cohorts with a lead sow leading the estrous. This can create lows and highs in supply. We sell the extra piglets to people who want to raise up their own pigs, generally as summer pigs for fall slaughter. I find it best not to count my piglets before they wean.
We run our herd on about 15 acres or so. Currently we have about eight acres in the south field, four acres in the home field and nine acres in the north field. Each field is divided into paddocks for the herds. The pigs get less than the total as some of that is devoted to small ponds, some to buildings, some to our cottage and some to our gardens.
We are in the process of expanding our fields to 40 acres for pasture plus another 20 to 30 acres which will become hay fields in a few years and then another 30 or so acres that we may also open up to hay fields later. This coming month we'll be clear cutting those sections of forest. A century ago these areas were pasture and hay fields - soon they will be again. My plan is also to use a strip of the forest along the boundaries to give the livestock sheltered area in addition to the open pasture.
You can read more about how we graze the pigs here:
[ame]http://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Asugarmtnfarm.com+intensive+rotational+grazing[/ame]
and specifically about acres per pig here:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/10/how-much-land-per-pig.html
We have more than just pigs grazing that land although they do make up the bulk of the livestock. There are also sheep, chickens, geese and ducks.
Most of our land is fairly steep. As a visitor today noted that we have a hill farm. This makes pasture a good use of the land where field crops would be much more difficult to raise in any serious volume. The sections that will become hay fields are virtually all we have that is level and will be rotated between hay, pasture and crops. Fortunately they are at the bottom of the slopes of our mountains so they get a lot of water wash which brings down nutrients to them and the soils there are quite deep and rich. On most of our land the soils are shallow with ledge close to the surface. What I have done over the past decades is to terrace our land in the home fields area so that we have good spaces for large gardens. Those gardens feed us as well as feeding the livestock in the late fall and winter.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs & Sheep
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
Walter, I was reviewing your comment above and would like to go over my assumptions from it:
can I assume you are raising approximately 800 piglets per year from your 40 sows? I figured 2 litters of 10 per, grossing about 160000 lbs of meat? ( I assumed 200 lbs per hog...)
Thx
can I assume you are raising approximately 800 piglets per year from your 40 sows? I figured 2 litters of 10 per, grossing about 160000 lbs of meat? ( I assumed 200 lbs per hog...)
Thx
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Ceres Hil,
I'm going to give you a complicated answer since you're looking to do a business plan. I would suggest using conservative numbers since especially initially you'll probably not do as well as the assumptions you have there. Being pleasantly surprised if you do better is always a joy.
We sell a lot of piglets in the late winter through late summer so that changes the numbers you have considerably. This gives diversity of market base. Our goal for finishers, which I feel is quite doable with the 40 sows, is to raise about 520 per year producing about 52,000 lbs.
The 200 lbs of cuts per pig you used in your numbers would require very big pigs. 200 / 0.72 / 0.67 = 414 live weight. We currently aim for a 225 to 250 lb live weight. On a pig there is about 72% loss from live to hanging and then about 67% loss from hanging to commercial cuts that sell for the good money. The rest in the second part are mostly bones, skin, fat and such that don't sell for much. Often I can sell all the pigs end to end but not every week. The occasional overflow of tails, ears, heads and such goes to feed our pack of livestock guardian dogs who herd and protect the pigs.
Yield is further complicated because we sometimes have had periods when we needed to slaughter pigs at smaller weights to get meat to regular customers for their standing orders due to age gaps in our herds. That is where reality impinges. Part of it is that it is hard to turn people down in the spring who want to buy piglets. $100 for a piglet. Cash in hand and all that.
Do keep in mind all that is approximate and changing over time. The numbers get a fair bit more complex because we sell live piglets, suckling pigs, roasters, whole pigs, half pigs, retail cuts, hot dogs, kielbasa, smoked hams and bacon. Each has a different age of sale, processing cost and sale price. Also complicating it is that we sell both at retail and wholesale prices which are about 2x different.
Slaughter and butchering is a large bite on the total if you hire it out rather than having your own butcher shop. Keep that in mind. Check your local processing costs as this varies greatly. You'll need the higher priced commercial cutting with vacuum packing to sell in stores, probably under USDA inspection.
Lastly, 10 piglets weaned per litter is a bit high. We often see that but not always. I would not suggest you use that as an average for your proposed herd. I see a lot of people on the forum talk about litters of six. Industry wide it is about 8. We do a little better. I have some sows that routinely wean 14. Not all sows do that well and the losers get culled - I'm selectively breeding toward a goal of higher numbers weaned but it takes years. Like with everything, breed the best of the best and eat the rest.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
I'm going to give you a complicated answer since you're looking to do a business plan. I would suggest using conservative numbers since especially initially you'll probably not do as well as the assumptions you have there. Being pleasantly surprised if you do better is always a joy.
We sell a lot of piglets in the late winter through late summer so that changes the numbers you have considerably. This gives diversity of market base. Our goal for finishers, which I feel is quite doable with the 40 sows, is to raise about 520 per year producing about 52,000 lbs.
The 200 lbs of cuts per pig you used in your numbers would require very big pigs. 200 / 0.72 / 0.67 = 414 live weight. We currently aim for a 225 to 250 lb live weight. On a pig there is about 72% loss from live to hanging and then about 67% loss from hanging to commercial cuts that sell for the good money. The rest in the second part are mostly bones, skin, fat and such that don't sell for much. Often I can sell all the pigs end to end but not every week. The occasional overflow of tails, ears, heads and such goes to feed our pack of livestock guardian dogs who herd and protect the pigs.
Yield is further complicated because we sometimes have had periods when we needed to slaughter pigs at smaller weights to get meat to regular customers for their standing orders due to age gaps in our herds. That is where reality impinges. Part of it is that it is hard to turn people down in the spring who want to buy piglets. $100 for a piglet. Cash in hand and all that.
Do keep in mind all that is approximate and changing over time. The numbers get a fair bit more complex because we sell live piglets, suckling pigs, roasters, whole pigs, half pigs, retail cuts, hot dogs, kielbasa, smoked hams and bacon. Each has a different age of sale, processing cost and sale price. Also complicating it is that we sell both at retail and wholesale prices which are about 2x different.
Slaughter and butchering is a large bite on the total if you hire it out rather than having your own butcher shop. Keep that in mind. Check your local processing costs as this varies greatly. You'll need the higher priced commercial cutting with vacuum packing to sell in stores, probably under USDA inspection.
Lastly, 10 piglets weaned per litter is a bit high. We often see that but not always. I would not suggest you use that as an average for your proposed herd. I see a lot of people on the forum talk about litters of six. Industry wide it is about 8. We do a little better. I have some sows that routinely wean 14. Not all sows do that well and the losers get culled - I'm selectively breeding toward a goal of higher numbers weaned but it takes years. Like with everything, breed the best of the best and eat the rest.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
Something else I've found here in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, is that the availability of a butcher is seasonal. We had the chance to purchase a boar to butcher in late September (partly because Walter is eloquent about the taste being as good as a neutered male), but were unable to find any butcher willing to take care of it until the end of January. It subsequently went to be a breeding boar at another farm, so I guess it was just as well for the pig!
We've run into this problem nearly every time we wanted to pay to have someone else butcher for us, so we've given up and just do it ourselves. I didn't want to do this pig myself, since it was nearly 500 pounds, and I just wasn't set up for it.
I guess the hunting public takes up whatever space there is at the local butchers' in the fall and winter. However, if I was producing meat for resale, I would need to make some kind of arrangement with a local butcher for regular service.
Kit
We've run into this problem nearly every time we wanted to pay to have someone else butcher for us, so we've given up and just do it ourselves. I didn't want to do this pig myself, since it was nearly 500 pounds, and I just wasn't set up for it.
I guess the hunting public takes up whatever space there is at the local butchers' in the fall and winter. However, if I was producing meat for resale, I would need to make some kind of arrangement with a local butcher for regular service.
Kit
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749 Posts
We have the same problem. Our butcher said the problem isn't space, it's the law. They can't process our cattle when they have wild game in there. You may be able to find one who is willing to do it for you on off days. Kind of a long shot but we know a guy who used to butcher and he liked the idea of working for us when we couldn't get it into the shop. I wouldn't do that if I needed steady slaughter work though.
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I would rather not, that would be suicide.
Ah, you meant slaughtering livestock, of course.
(Sorry, I could not resist after having miss-read that the first time!)
You can slaughter an animal you raise yourself for your own consumption, the consumption by your family, by non-paying guests and farm workers.
There is a new law (2008) about on-farm slaughter of livestock for sale but it is not yet implemented from my understanding.
There is an exemption for slaughter of up to 1,000 poultry per year for sale.
Otherwise, to sell the meat, you are supposed to have it slaughtered and butchered in a state or USDA inspected facility.
This is all in transition and the above is my understanding. See the actual regulations to be sure.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
Ah, you meant slaughtering livestock, of course.
(Sorry, I could not resist after having miss-read that the first time!)
You can slaughter an animal you raise yourself for your own consumption, the consumption by your family, by non-paying guests and farm workers.
There is a new law (2008) about on-farm slaughter of livestock for sale but it is not yet implemented from my understanding.
There is an exemption for slaughter of up to 1,000 poultry per year for sale.
Otherwise, to sell the meat, you are supposed to have it slaughtered and butchered in a state or USDA inspected facility.
This is all in transition and the above is my understanding. See the actual regulations to be sure.
Cheers
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org
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