When we lived in MI, we found that crossbreeds farrowed a lot better than pure breeds. We raised Mule Foot/Old Spot cross sows, and our boar was Old Spot/Red Waddle/? cross. Really long-bodied, which was great for bacon. Learning from a local breeder, we found that piglets in the spring sold for more than piglets in the fall. 125./ spring 50/fall. The demand is higher in the spring as all the 4-H and FFA kids are buying piglets to raise for the Fair.
I think of the saying, "Try, Try Again." You have a goal in mind, are adaptable in seeking your goal, and keep trying. Our daughter showed Berks in FFA - loved the breed, but tons of work. Thanks for sharing!
At first we didn’t succeed so we tried and tried 3 times lol and we are out of the berks. I am not easy to give up on something but also know when to quit 😄They are wonderful pigs and easy to raise out no problem but we were pulling stuck piglets and they just seem to have more problems than our other breeds when farrowing.
Experience comes from mistakes we make and is necessary, just a word of advice from a NONE expert, lol. I don't know the specifics of your plan when you say sell directly to consumers. BUT, a really good friend opened a little store where people could go and buy the cuts already, and what happened was that people always went for the bacon first and also the preferred cuts. But she was struggling to sell the regular, not so much desirable cuts. So she was having a bit of a harder time selling those. Make sure you have a plan to sell those cuts too. We raise GOS, and in July, we'll be bringing large blacks, too. As always, excellent video
Yes direct to consumer meaning cuts from the farm. Our plan is bacon, sausage, brats, bone in pork chops. Those are always the most popular. We have a pretty sizable customer base in the summer at our produce stand so adding pork this year and beef at the end of the year.
Loss sucks! ! ! it is painful every time.. We raise AGH and it has gone well. we too got caught up in the hey let sell piglets. Nope, never again with out non-refundable deposit.. amazing how many people who change there mind once there on the ground.
We have been having this conversation on our own homestead costs of rising "feeders" feed, etc... We also sell pork by the whole/half and we have not raised our prices in quite a while we are located in Central IL. Winters can be brutal and our set up is comparable to what you have. I'm curious what feed back you have gotten from customers on pricing based on high quality farm fresh meat. We don't want to raise our price to the point it turns people away but like you guys we want to do more than just break even.
We sell whole and half’s for $3/lb hanging weight plus buyer pays processing. We have multiple returning customers. One of our farmer friends raise’s Mangalitsa and they charge $18/lb for bacon. When someone says that’s too expensive they politely say well I guess you are not our customer. There is no way to compete with our high quality pork and a grocery store. Even our local meat market raised their prices and they are busier than ever. As we have been talking the worst case scenario is we will have lots of bacon to eat 😄
Not sure what's going on there...our Berkshires have 10-15 piglets each, twice a year, and we've only lost 5 over last 2 years. 2 stillborn, 2 crush, Eagle killed one. Our pigs stay in a shed in -40 celsius, no heat, and have never even had frostbite. They farrow outside in spring, in the shed in fall. The shed is a 4x8. With one acre of forest. We did, however, have to feed them A LOT. (Totally agree on the don't do winter grow-outs) Good luck to you guys! Oh yeah - make sure to get a deposit! Stops people from flaking out later.
We had stuck piglets during farrowing. One gilt we had to put down after working on a stuck one all day. As with anything everyone has different experiences. Sounds like you have had good luck and nice big litters! We just had bad luck with the Berkshires. We still have our Berkshire boar to breed to our Herefords.
The place we have been taking pigs only books 3 months out so it hasn’t been an issue. We even called to delay a month with this group I am taking next week and it all worked out. They were booking beef out through the end of the year so we have a date reserved in November for 2 steers.
Tossing cliff hangers at us now eh? Lol! Well, now you guys have me REALLY NERVOUS about our two new berkshires here. One, the gilt, appears to have gotten pregnant but the other has not. In terms of this horribly LONG, COLD, SNOWY winter here, they have not held weight as well even though theyre in warm shelters and fed incredibly heavy. So, time will tell. I guess from our perspective, all the girls, no matter the breed, are given a chance but when they dont get pregnant, they arent good mothers, they have MEAN attitudes in general and then the offspring dont blow us away? Any or all of those strikes are against them staying here long term. I SOOO hope you guys find the ways to make money in this industry. But, as you so accurately described in the beginning... we do stupid stuff for the love of what we do and without keeping the hard facts always in the front of our minds. This is a tough industry!
