Three Hogs Butchered Today - time to review the business side

The last three hogs from the very first litter here on the famr were butchered today. The hogs were right at seven months old. So far the timing of everything in our hog business is working out nicely.

The hogs will weight in at about 210 to 220 hanging weight, and have about an inch to inch and a quarter of back fat. All good numbers for this breed.

Here are some interedting numbers concerning the business side of hog farming. I like to split their lifespan of 6 to 7 months in half to calculate feed costs. Over hte fist three months the pigs consume on average about 3 lbs of feed per day. This counts a month or two of nursing. for hte last 3 to 4 months they consume about 7 lbs of feed per day.  That makes a total feed consumed per hog throughout a 7 month lifespan to be :

270 lbs + 840 lbs = 1110 lbs of feed which produces a hog of about 225 lbs.

This represents about a 4:1 feed conversion ratio over the lifespan.

Thus you can see why we need to keep the cost down through use of organic produce through cllecting, donations, and growing, plus the sprouting of whole grains which are cheaper than commercial organic feed.

There is two balancing concerns in the world of farming - quality and cost. At the end of hte day, the farmer has to make a profit or he can not continue to produce. Likewise, the quality of hte product produce has to be maintained to a level that people are happy to pay the price asked. This is a carefuly balancing act that must be viewed and reviewed  from both the consunmer and business side. In addition to this is the scale factor that asks, ho much product can be produced to incease profit without compromising quality. (in Farming, unlike factories, quality is in direct relation to scale, the higher the quantity, the more difficult it is to maintian quality).

For now, we are happy with our pricing model, our cost, and the quality we are able to produce. This primarily due to the fact that we do not depend on any single veture to produce the profit for the farm. If we did, the scale for htat venture would reduce quality to a point where it is not sustainable. Instead, we are branching out into a wide variety of products, species, and offerings. That, in my opinion, is one of  the secret formulas for sucess in farming today, the one that matches the traditional family farm of a century ago.