Buying A Whole Or Half Pig
posted on
February 28, 2024
Are you interested in buying a whole or half pig from our farm? I will answer all of your questions about that here.
OUR MANAGEMENT:
First, we raise our pigs on pasture and they move to a fresh pasture every week. When we first bring the pigs to our farm, we use a training pen of hog paneling so the pigs learn about electric fence. We use open fields of grass, wooded areas, lowland mixed areas to pasture our pigs out in the sunshine. We buy locally raised feeder pigs from farmers like ourselves each spring and plan to butcher the pigs in the fall or early winter. This depends on the age of the pigs when we get them and when we get them, they usually are 6-7 months old when they are ready to butcher. We feed the pigs a transitional organic, no soy feed in addition to the pasture they have access too. We give them shelter and always try to have trees in their pasture for extra shade.
HOW IT WORKS:
We take pre-orders for our custom halves and wholes starting in the spring each year for processing later in the fall/winter of that year. We have a limited number of pigs available each year, so pre-ordering is the best way to reserve your order.
- We charge $4.50 per pound, based on the hanging weight plus processing costs. (2023 pricing)
- A whole pig averages 200 pounds hanging weight ($900) That will be about 130-150 pounds of take home cuts.
- Processing is usually around $1.20 - 1.45 per hanging weight pound, depending on your processing. ($240 - 290 per whole pig)
PROCESSED YOUR WAY:
- We will take your cutting instructions prior to the butcher date, so you get to determine how you want the meat cut and packaged.
- Pork is vacuum packed and sealed, and boxed.
PICKING UP YOUR PROCESSED MEAT:
- You can pick up at the farm in Ogilvie, 80 miles north of the Twin Cities, 45 miles east of St. Cloud.
- We do offer delivery to our pickup locations for a delivery fee of $30. Half orders of pork are typically 3-4 boxes (12x12x12) or whole orders 5-6 boxes. The logistics of delivery can get complicated for delivery of several customers at a time, therefore we charge a delivery fee.
RESERVE YOURS NOW:
To reserve your whole or half, we take a deposit of $100 per half now. In August we will take another deposit of $100 per half. This helps spread out the cost for you and helps us buy more feed for the pigs. The remainder of your invoice will be due when the pig is processed.
Each winter, depending on availability, we offer retail cuts of our pork that we have inspected processed. Economically, you will save money buying the whole or half pig over retail cuts. We do offer a 30 lb. bundle, which is about 1/4 of a pig, if you are looking for a smaller amount. And is priced between the bulk purchase and single retail cuts.
If you have signed up for our Newsletter, you will receive the notifications for pre-ordering our pork!
