How much meat is in a whole pig? This is a common question for both the aspiring farmer, and new farm customer.
As the slow food movement grows, more and more families are either deciding to grow their own pork, or buy their pork from a local farm.
For the last 5 years we have raised our own pigs. We have found pigs to be an excellent addition to the homestead, and a lucrative farm enterprise.
Thinking about raising or purchasing a whole pig? Want to know what you will get back in meat?
We picked up our pigs from the butcher today. Here is what we got from one pig in the bunch. Hanging weights were around 200 Lbs.
Usable meat: 160 Lbs
Chops, Ribs and Steaks- 61 LBs
- 26. Loin Chops (each chop is a half pound, 2 per case)
- 27 Shoulder Steaks (one pound each)
- 4 Sirloin Chops
- 4 Spare Ribs
Ham 30 lbs
Sausage 25 Lbs 25.0
Bacon 19 Lbs
- 15 lbs of bacon
- 4 lbs Jowell Bacon
Oddiments – 24 LBs
- .3 Tail
- 2.6 Leif Lard
- 10 lbs back fat
- .8 Heart
- 4.00 Feet
- .7 Tounge
- .5 Kidneys
- 3.0 Liver
- 6 Lbs Hocks
What age did you slaughter the hog? What was the approx feed cost?
hi
🙂
In a perfect situation at 5-6 months of age.
Lord! Your video makes me want to run away form any pig before it eats my wallet! Why not just feed them on extra eggs, milk, weeds, and old bakery bread? Then they’re nearly free to raise and they have a more complete, omnivorous diet.
Because they will not get what they need to grow and bulk out in a healthy Manor. It will take 18 months to get the same results.
Because you cant do that. They wont get the proper nutrients and the meat will not be as good. They need corn in their diets.
They absolutely do not need corn. Hogs are omnivores. They do extremely well on forage and a small amount of scraps or hog feed. Pigs NEVER would have consumed corn on their own. Humans added that.
They need the lysine in corn for growth. These aren’t wild pigs we’re raising, they’re domesticated and rely on grains (with the exception of a few breeds).
I raised champion hogs on corn and barley mix including blood meal.I do not think you would get ffa champion hogs fed on slop and weeds.
We do that as away to save money. You can get expired or out dated food and produce form some stores and restaurants but you still need some grains and hay then finish on grain helps out all the animals on the farm. Hope it helps
feed ’em trash… they’ll taste like trash.
guaranteed.
British person here (reading a zombie novel, wondered how many people one pig would feed) my grand father, a potato farmer kept one or two pigs just for family food, and have to agree: omnivorious, eat anything (goats are good too) and they get slops, which is in UK, the beer ‘slopped over’ at a pub. Maybe because I was a kid, this pig’s meat was the best tasting ever. OK, lived a year, not 6 months, wandered freely, mushrooms, acorns, potatos, peas, and old grain (very little corn/maize in UK) old bread, and slops. Best ever!
PS, As a teenager, lived in Spain, and ate free range chickens, delicious!
You don’t understand how much food it takes to feed out a pig clearly. Those scraps are a good supplement. But unless you are the most wasteful person ever you are going to have some scrawny pigs
Excellent video
Is the hay you mentioned just for bedding ?
I have 3 pig this year ( first time raising pigs) and my pig yard ( about 200 sq ft ) is decimated after about 8 weeks. I’m planning to move them to a new area. Any tricks to maximizing the area they use use ? Thanks
Tom
PS. How do I suscibe to your site ?
Hay is just for bedding. Pigs do decimate! Just be ready for it! Subscribe to the links on the homepage Tom, thanks!
use straw for bedding .clean often a lot more than what you clean them.Hogs will not usually crap where they sleep, however keep their pens clean.
I know I am late to the game, but we rotate about 6 lots for our pigs on about 8 acres. They do decimate; but if you let the lot recover, it is well fertilized and grows beautifully, and will be ready for the next rotation.
This is so helpful we let our kids do pigs for 4 H (fist time doing pigs or 4 H) and now we need a private buyer and are overwhelmed
I raise or me and family raise pigs for meat. The cost of our 3 pigs this year is 201.76 for each pig( approximately). 3 feeders: 2 feeders about 50 to 60 pounds from 1 sow and another 35 to 40 from another sow. hanging weights 240,220, and 200. I used approximately 800 lbs feed each pig. We also grow sweet corn for sale and have garden. The pigs also get sweet corn we don’t sell garden veges and some old bread from bakery. Also when they are finishing I cut back on the grain and grind corn stalks and make a silage and mix that with grain. We don’t use medicated feed no vaccinations and no paylean. In the end its cheaper to buy pork in the store or almost as cheap to buy a whole hog from the butcher here. But, we know what we have. We enjoy raising them.
PIgs should have a complete diet otherwise the pig will not grow correctly.
I know its cheaper but pigs are the most adorable things ever and so funny!! It’s so worth it you know what your getting I haven’t went to a grogery store in almost 3 years i have eveything i need here…
Ours eat barley… pig supplement and old milk/spur cream they will not eat no table scraps lol only bannnas lol $ 300 each month for a 3500kg bag of barley plus the other stuff..
Ya know, that has to be one of the best impromptu “how to” videos, funny (the end), succinct, and some really good feedback on what this endeavor may be like. I always wanted to know how this was done and you answered all of my questions in a short period of time. Well done. Thank you very much 🙂
Homesteady never disappoints! Started googling for a good estimate and immediately found your article! Thank you so much for a good breakdown of the meats you got from your pig!
Yay! This comment made me smile 🙂 Glad to have helped Jordan! Are you guys raising a pig? or Buying a whole or half?