Baymule's 500 Pound Boar!

[baymule]

Wilbur cost $100. We spent about $50 on corn. Processing was $592 for a total of $742. Hanging weight was 506 pounds. Since we saved the fat and soup bones, I don't think there was much waste. I recently rendered lard and have 12 quarts, so I am giving the fat to a friend who wants lard. Using 500 pounds, cost per pound is $1.48 for some darn good meat. Not too shabby.

I see older hogs and boars on Craigslist quite often. Sometimes they have a hefty price on them because people think that their valuable breeders hold great value. Nope. I watched a Hampshire boar go from $350 to $50. Nobody wants older hogs and they sure don't want big old boars. We'll take that risk. I feed them good, no sows around to get their hormones up and they taste just fine. I know that at some point, I might wind up with a stinky carcass, but I'll take that risk.

 

[Nyboy]

I know you posted photos of butchering a hog with your neighbor. It is worth paying $600 for you not to have to butcher ? I have no idea of time and work it takes but $600 seems a little pricey.

 

[ninnymary]

Wilbur cost $100. We spent about $50 on corn. Processing was $592 for a total of $742. Hanging weight was 506 pounds. Since we saved the fat and soup bones, I don't think there was much waste. I recently rendered lard and have 12 quarts, so I am giving the fat to a friend who wants lard. Using 500 pounds, cost per pound is $1.48 for some darn good meat. Not too shabby.

I see older hogs and boars on Craigslist quite often. Sometimes they have a hefty price on them because people think that their valuable breeders hold great value. Nope. I watched a Hampshire boar go from $350 to $50. Nobody wants older hogs and they sure don't want big old boars. We'll take that risk. I feed them good, no sows around to get their hormones up and they taste just fine. I know that at some point, I might wind up with a stinky carcass, but I'll take that risk.

How much does pork meat go in your area? I'd like to see how much $ you saved. I'm sure it's a lot but just do a rough estimate.

Mary

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

That would be a calc to run on Excel. Bacon costs, sausage costs, ham prices, and then solid meat prices. Then break it down into approx lbs for each category, and then you'd have a good cost comparison.

 

[ninnymary]

That would be a calc to run on Excel. Bacon costs, sausage costs, ham prices, and then solid meat prices. Then break it down into approx lbs for each category, and then you'd have a good cost comparison.

That’s too much work. All I want is just one category comparison.

Bay has already used the $1.48 figure.

Mary

 

[baymule]

How much does pork meat go in your area? I'd like to see how much $ you saved. I'm sure it's a lot but just do a rough estimate.

Mary

That would be a calc to run on Excel. Bacon costs, sausage costs, ham prices, and then solid meat prices. Then break it down into approx lbs for each category, and then you'd have a good cost comparison.

Mary, it would take just what murphysranch said.

Jimmy Dean pan sausage at Walmart is $2.98 a pound. Bacon is $4.98 a pound. Pork roast $1.78, Pork chops $4.58
I got those prices off their web site.

@Nyboy my tractor would not have been able to lift Wilbur off the ground for me to skin, gut and quarter. It would have taken many days to get him processed. We had him slaughtered USDA inspected so we can sell some.

 

[ducks4you]

There are probably no cost savings for me to butcher my chickens, OR butcher the roosters that I buy locally. When you care for the animal that you eat you KNOW how they are raised, that is, that the turnout isn't full of manure, and you KNOW what THEY are eating.
I have become obssessive about daily changing out my chicken's water bc they walk through it and I eat that water when I eat their eggs. I buy high quality complete feed, provide a bowl for grit and calcium and feed back egg shells. I also know the treats they get, which is mostly grass, weeds, bugs and tomatoes during the growing season, stale bread, apple and other fruit cores during the winter, even the used orange and lemon slices from Sangria, which they LOVE, though I have never seen them stagger.
Arguably commercial chicken growers feed the cheapest feed that they can. Just BC for example, my mare will reach over her stall and chew on a container of pine shavings doesn't mean that I would EVER feed her that! Just BC a chicken COULD survive on sawdust, doesn't mean that there is any real nutrition in it and sometimes processed wood is fed to the chickens that we buy in the store.
Similarly, many pigs are housed in a cement cage 24/7, much like you keeping your dog in a crate all of the time. Baymule's pigs get to be outside and roam. Even if the turnout is small a pig with turnout and fresh air works their muscles and it is better meat. Also, pigs like to graze on grass and THAT makes the pig and the meat healthier.
That is why you raise your own meat.

 

[canesisters]

Well said. It's not so much about saving money, because often it's cheaper at the grocery. But the grocery can't sell the piece of mind that comes from knowing that the package of pork chops was happy and well fed and cared for.

 

[baymule]

Mr. Jim, the owner of the slaughter facility was worried that the meat would be tainted, Wilbur being a BIG old boar. He said that sometimes they cut into a carcass and it stinks. The meat just has a smell. But he said that Wilbur didn't have a smell and the carcass was clean.

So yes, what they eat is what we eat and the healthier the animals are, the better the meat is.

 

[seedcorn]

While I agree that raising your own and processing your own should be the safest and best solution, commercial AG feeds a controlled diet that makes for the healthiest animal. A healthy animal produces the best. Feed ingredients may change based on cost of goods but never at the cost of animal production.