First Piglets of the Year

1/15/2014

We had our fist farrowing of the year last week, five live pigs born to the sow in the above picture (one pig was dead). A week later, everyone is doing fine. I'm trying out group farrowing, knowing that it may not be best solution based on others experience. So far so good. The other sows and the boar give the farrowing sow plenty of space (they are in the barn when the above picture was taken, but out of the shot to the right). No signs of crushing thus far. This sow gave birth to 10 piglets last May that all died, so I'm pleased that she has at least delivered 5 live piglets. Nonetheless, 5 piglets is too little, so eventually she will have to be culled as/if my herd continues to grow (It is also possible that the boar has issues as well, I suppose). I haven't decided whether to keep this piglets as butcher pigs or sell them as weaners in 7 weeks. Selling weaners are a net loss, but the cost of growing pigs to market without deposits is prohibitive for me this year because of cash flow issues. I'll be doing a post looking at the economics soon.

Finally, a video of the week old pigs playing in the hay.

6 Comments

George

1/15/2014 02:06:50 am

You can't raise 5 pigs to market size due to not having enough cash on hand? That seems.... ill planned. I thought you were working pretty much full time right now?

Jeff

1/15/2014 03:22:12 am

I'll explain more soon, but to give you an idea, it costs about $1200 to raise those 5 pigs up to market weight and I currently have $1600 in the farm account. It's not ill planning, it's the economic reality of a farm business.

George

1/15/2014 07:13:07 am

Yep... well... $400 still buys ya a lot of veggie seed and turkey poults ;)

I think you'd be shooting yourself in the foot by not raising to market weight. And can't you infuse the farm w/ a little cash from the 9-5 job?

Jeff

1/15/2014 07:29:28 am

I'll talk more about this soon, but I've already injected about 10k into the farm, and I'm wary to put much more into it. I have no desire to run a money pit.

George

1/15/2014 09:20:48 pm

I await your money post...

I will say some of you 10k is investment in assets like greenhouse, tractor/implement, steer, boar and sows.. I wouldn't count those as a loss yet. I guess you gotta reevaluate your goals for the next 1-3 years and where you see things going.

I spent 10k on my first farming endeavor years ago, equipment, greenhouses, tools, fencing, permits, insurance, testing, animals etc etc. It's not hard to do at all when you are beginning.

bruce king link

1/16/2014 11:47:57 am

What price would you have to sell those weaners at to make a profit with this sow?

They're the right age for fair pigs, and the market for fair pigs can be pretty good. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get between $150 and $300 per pig as a fair pig. More if you can come up with a good story.

The pig market this year will be very tight. I heard that a major commercial pig producer lost 1 million pigs this year due to the virus going around. That's a huge, gaping hole in the supply chain.

First Piglets of the Year

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