The farmer across the road from the BOL bought three "starter pigs" in May. Basically a starter pig is a piglet that has just been weaned off of mom. They go for 50? to $1.00 a pound. I think he paid $100- for the three he purchased.
Well he feeds the pigs scraps from his table and free produce he gets from the local supermarket. He has an agreement with the supermarket that he takes away produce that they would normally throw out. It's a win win for each party. Free food for the pigs and less trash removal for the grocery store.
The pigs also get store bought pig feed to augment the other.
What normally happens is:
> The male (s) will be castrated so you will not get that strong pig flavor that is common with castrated pigs. Of
the three pigs one is a male
> Once they hit the 250-300 pound point they will be taken off and butchered. The cost for the butchering is
by the pound and will be around $50- per pig, +/- depending what you want done with the meat, e.g. bacon,
sausage, etc.
I will update this post periodically as we approach picking up the processed meat from the butcher.
Estimated cost per; from starter to processed meat:
> Starter pig $35-
> Feed $45-
> Scraps from the farm and veggies picked up from the supermarket $0
> Butchering & Processing $50-
> Total $130-
If you harvest 80% meat from a 275 pound pig that's 220 pounds or .59? a pound of meat that you raised and know what was put in their mouths.
