Our Pigs
We are raising Gloucestershire Old Spots, which are known for their hardiness on pasture, excellent foraging skills, docile temperament and superb quality of meat. They have been rotating through the forested southern end of our farm, rooting for buried treasure and startling visitors on the neighboring golf course with their snorting and bellowing.
As with the fruits and vegetables from the farm, our hope is always to cover our costs and keep the food affordable for buyers. In an effort to be totally transparent, we will tell you that the three biggest costs (in addition to infrastructure and the bulk of the labor of their care, which won’t really be accounted for here) were the pigs’ store-bought food (upwards of 1000 lbs per pig) and the price of the young piglets themselves ($100 each). We make every effort to buy the best food we can find locally, and our choice of breeder was made with careful scrutiny. Both decisions have paid off, as our cohorts of pigs are healthy and thriving.
Pigs can be bought by the whole or the half (though you can certainly split a half share with other friends or family if you prefer), and you will put down a deposit of $200 to reserve your share. The final price will be determined by the hanging weight of the animal (after it has been dressed). You pay the farm for the balance, and you pay the butcher (The Meating Place) separately for the slaughter and processing (cutting, smoking, sausage making, wrapping).
Given these costs and the challenges of keeping good local food affordable, We’ve opted to offer the purchase of these pigs on a sliding scale. You can choose to pay anywhere from $5.00 - $6.50 per pound, depending on what fits your family’s budget. The pigs are not uniform in size, and we will do our best to accommodate requests for a larger or smaller animal. While the smallest quantity we can sell is half of a pig, you’re welcome to find friends with whom you can split this share!
SAMPLE COST BREAKDOWN FOR A HALF PIG
Live weight of a pig at slaughter: ∼ 280 lbs
Hanging weight of the carcass: ∼190 lbs
Weight of a half carcass: ∼95 lbs
Deposit to farm: $200
Balance to farm (@$5.25/lb): $298.75
Butcher costs:
Slaughter and Disposal of carcass: ∼$38
$.70/lb for cut/wrap: $66.50
$3/lb for cure/smoke bacon: $15
TOTAL SAMPLE COST : ∼$618.25
HOW MUCH MEAT IS THAT?
You get to make all of the choices about how you want your share divided, including all of the cuts and the choices of sausage and cured meats.
Here’s an example of what you could get back from your half of a pig – this will obviously vary depending on the pig and your choices from the butcher:
14 lbs of Pork loin chops or roasts – you can choose thickness and packaging (chop are typically 1” thick and 2 chops/pack).
3 lbs of Spare Ribs – Ask for my recipe if you need one
9 lbs of Pork Sausage- can select sausage links or bulk sausage
15 lbs of Ham
10 lbs of Bacon
14 lbs of Pork Shoulder Roasts
5 lbs of Stew Bones and ham hocks– excellent for soups and stews and also a favorite for dogs
6 lbs of Fat – you can render this into lard to use in the kitchen
You should expect a side of pork (half of a hog) to take up about three cubic feet of freezer space. If your space is limited and that’s the only hold up preventing you from signing up, we may be able to lend you some room in our freezer here on the farm.
Email henney@workingtheoryfarm.com to learn more or to make a deposit and reserve your share!