Pigs

Caver Dave said:
Joel Salatin... after watching his vids, reading some of docs, and speaking with some old timers... IMHO, 30% prophet/70% used car salesman.
His numbers on that $60k/20 acres gloss over the fencing/hardware costs (you'll not find it for 1/20th of his number) and totally skips other "infrastructure" (equipment, etc.) that are "must haves" and assumed you already have access to (how to move TONS of supplemental feed or how to haul them to process)
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All of those are true, but the big thing is outlet. As a side business, I dont know how you would have enough time to get all the customers, to move that much product, of top of the time to raise the animals.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
I watch some of both of them as well. Justin Rhodes does offer classes, but the cost is pretty steep. I actually have his videos/documentaries of the processing, which is helpful, but not like getting your hands in there. Sheraton Park does a pig workshop, which I have thought about taking. So does Jordan Greene. But both of them use processors so they can sell the meat, so I have not pulled the trigger yet. There are some other workshops I have seen, offered by YTers, but they all go into the charcuterie cuts and such. Billy at PermaPastures Farm has done a few of them, and I might just have to drive to TN to go to his class next time he has one. If I had the time, I would try to get a PT job at a local butcher for a while.



It has been a problem for sure, especially at the USDA facilities. NC requires that the hogs have to be inspected, to sell cuts. A few friends have looked into that, and the hoops are pretty daunting to get it started. There are some local "Custom houses" that have dates, alot sooner, but you cant sell cuts. From my understanding, it is the butchery and packaging that takes all the time. If you have a legal butcher, apparently you can get them inspected and dispatched pretty quick, if you dont need them cut.
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Hands on part takes a while, I have always had a family friend butcher my deer and we help and I've watched for years. 3 years ago he pretty much said he is getting to old his place is our but we gotta figure it out for ourselves and he will answer questions as we go. I still mess up a cut or two every time. But that's fine for me.
 
Also I think you can sell whole animals to someone and you take it to butcher and they pickup there and pay butcher bill.

Or if you want to sell cuts individually they have to be from a usda certified butcher and the usda guy is there the whole time the shop is open. Some family friends started a small scale butcher shop when they "retired" I think they are working more now than ever and have trippled their freezer and walk in cooler space and upgrading equipment as fast as they can.
 
Loganwayne said:
Hands on part takes a while, I have always had a family friend butcher my deer and we help and I've watched for years. 3 years ago he pretty much said he is getting to old his place is our but we gotta figure it out for ourselves and he will answer questions as we go. I still mess up a cut or two every time. But that's fine for me.
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I understand that for sure. I mainly am looking to learn where to cut for the primals, and the main cuts. Currently, I am not worried about being able to do all the cured meats and special cuts. We currently process poultry on farm, for our own consumption and to sell to friends.

Loganwayne said:
Also I think you can sell whole animals to someone and you take it to butcher and they pickup there and pay butcher bill.

Or if you want to sell cuts individually they have to be from a usda certified butcher and the usda guy is there the whole time the shop is open. Some family friends started a small scale butcher shop when they "retired" I think they are working more now than ever and have trippled their freezer and walk in cooler space and upgrading equipment as fast as they can.
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You can for sure sell whole or halves and use a "Custom house" where you drop the animal off, and the customer orders, pays, and picks up. Media has done a good job of discouraging pork over the last decade, and people dont have freezers anymore. Everyone wants bacon, but most people dont know how to cook many of the other cuts. One of my "retirement" goals is to open a small butcher shop, but not sure I want to deal with the public that much. For me, learning to butcher is mostly about cutting that cost from the meat. Last year, it was ~30% of my input cost.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
All of those are true, but the big thing is outlet. As a side business, I dont know how you would have enough time to get all the customers, to move that much product, of top of the time to raise the animals.
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Agreed... a local friend is working about 16 hours/day... 7 days a week processing 100-150 chickens/week *AND* either delivering standing orders or sitting at "farmers markets" in an hour+ radius, as VA law allows him to process a specific number, (birds/income? per year) without ANY local/state/fed inspections. They're moving into pork (Kune-Kune/faster growing "heritage breeds"), sheep, and buffalo, but using a variety of processors in VA/NC given the "difficulties" housing/processing/storing 250#-2500# animals...
Loganwayne said:
Also I think you can sell whole animals to someone and you take it to butcher and they pickup there and pay butcher bill.

Or if you want to sell cuts individually they have to be from a usda certified butcher and the usda guy is there the whole time the shop is open. Some family friends started a small scale butcher shop when they "retired" I think they are working more now than ever and have trippled their freezer and walk in cooler space and upgrading equipment as fast as they can.
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That's the way most of the locals here do it... buy some fraction/whole, they drop it off at processor (after paid for animal), processor slices/dices/packages and you pickup there (after paying their cut). The last local pork we got was actually processed/packaged at SALATIN's processing plant "Salatin & Cloud" (formerly "T&E Meats) he bought back in 2008 in Harrisonburg, VA. It along with Mitchell's and Piedmont are the other usuals...
 
awheelterd said:
The line workers at Case farms knock that many out in an hour, likely more. @bigassedredjeep how many hogs does your plant do an hour?
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I dont think he meant, just processing the birds. Processing does take some time, it depends on how many people you have. The daily chores for the birds are less than an hr. It is all the property/equipment maintenance, plus working the sales network that takes alot of your time.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
I dont think he meant, just processing the birds. Processing does take some time, it depends on how many people you have. The daily chores for the birds are less than an hr. It is all the property/equipment maintenance, plus working the sales network that takes alot of your time.
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Oh I understand. It's just insane to me how fast the big boys can go through them. Dude is working all week and has raised, killed, processed and sold 150. Big plants are going through thousands per employee a week
 
awheelterd said:
Oh I understand. It's just insane to me how fast the big boys can go through them. Dude is working all week and has raised, killed, processed and sold 150. Big plants are going through thousands per employee a week
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for sure. He could likely increase his production numbers by hiring more people and buying more equipment. You can see some videos out there about Polyface's setup. It is likely the largest and most efficient "small scale" processing setup, atleast what I have seen.
 
awheelterd said:
The line workers at Case farms knock that many out in an hour, likely more. @bigassedredjeep how many hogs does your plant do an hour?
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About 25+ years ago, I serviced equipment at one of the "Holly Farms" processing plants, so well aware of what the volume they can run!
They had a dozen(?) guys unloading trailer loads of cages, hanging the birds on "neck hooks" feeding inbound. After that, another dozen operated "industrial vacuums with pointy tubes" (insert in ass, stomp the peddle, and everything IN the cavity gone... instantly! The lines fanned out from there to the cutters... the "unloading" (figuratively/literally) took seconds per bird, but that was 100s(1000s) of employees, 100+K sq/ft building, and countless MILs in very specialized equipment šŸ˜‰

paradisePWoffrd said:
I dont think he meant, just processing the birds. Processing does take some time, it depends on how many people you have. The daily chores for the birds are less than an hr. It is all the property/equipment maintenance, plus working the sales network that takes alot of your time.
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Exactly! I assisted with the first 100-ish he ever did... decent equipment, 3-4 of us working and was done in 9 hours (1 left after 4 hours, 1 left after 6 hours, we stopped for supper, and had some down time while cleaning/reheating the scalding pot and getting them cooled down to package. It's "other stuff" that takes the time...
 
awheelterd said:
The line workers at Case farms knock that many out in an hour, likely more. @bigassedredjeep how many hogs does your plant do an hour?
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My plant: (we only process/package the bacon = printing money)
500,000# of bacon a day, so: about 31,250#/hr...

The Tarheel plant: (Main harvest facility near Fayetteville)
last I heard it was around 34,500 whole hogs processed per day

The Clinton plant:
last I heard it was around 12,500 whole hogs a day
 
Check out "just a few acres farm". I like how he farms. Simple and economical, can't stand to watch stoney ridge farm. He doesn't farm he just spends youtube $$ on his hobby.

For processing I like Key packing in biscoe, but they stay booked up. I have had better luck getting in with piedmont custom meats and they have done a good job. There maybe closer places for you.
 
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