Weird that people are having a hard time with this free bit of farming advice because he's making a few mistakes with the overhead. Maybe if you complain enough he can come to your farm and run the fencing for you and drive your ground rods. Take the good, forgive the mistakes, and go outside and work off all that negative energy used to post negative comments.
I tolerate most of comments as I see public comments as "online people's court" in a real democratic system as they formed a real "peoples Jury" with judge in everyones mind. cheers
I agree, that said, this is why PowerPoint has replaced overheads. A clear picture/diagram/graph already checked for errors is a better teaching/learning tool than something drawn by someone who should be worried about the presentation instead of the drawing…. And yes, I’ve taught many classes, the ones with PowerPoint presentations or pre made slide shows (for those classes I had to give before PowerPoint, cause I’m old) we’re much better than the ones where I was creating visuals on the fly….
I am a butcher who sells this guys chicken ground beef and sausage about 98 miles from his farm. We sell A LOT of his stuff. $10/lb for ground beef! People can't get enough but our customer base is willing to pay more for local grass fed/ pastured animals. This guy does well and created a buzz but the high end market needs to be accessible for the success of a business on this model.
You might want to add that he is not government subsidised, which has a lot to do with cheap beef. Our family ran an emu farm in the early 90's that failed, because although the meat was impeccable, there was no market for the 20 dollar per pound price that was needed to turn a profit.
I agree. This farm model really only works when you operate close to a community with large disposable income. If Joel has started his farm in the middle of Wyoming, he would be a statistic today.
Champagne liberals paying outrageous prices for the “right” kind of food. Around me, a lbs of carrots is $2 in the grocery store. At the farmers market it is $10. The small scale farmers are considered heroes but the farmer selling for $2 is the bad guy.
I admire his continued frugality, although very wealthy he continues his modern operation as he did in the early days so that broke guys like me know it can be done on a budget.
If you don't see the beauty of this idea, please and thank you for not going into farming. This is an overview of a pastured pig paddock set up, with some ballpark numbers. For more details I suggest harnessing the power of a search engine to learn how Salatin runs his concern.
Excellent advice, Thomas! I have read many of Joel's books and have an immense respect for this man who has learned the hard way how to maximize yields and produce top quality products without destroying the land...using our resources wisely and returning the land to a better place than it was before he started. He is an innovative genius in the farming industry of today...if you want to learn how to farm with integrity to the land and the animal and make a very good living...listen up...otherwise, please "shut up".
I've heard presentations on this and other methods, and one thing always frustrates me: The presenters never mention the astounding amount of capital they MUST have already had access to. There is no way this is a feasible start-up venture. I practice this style of pasture management on a much smaller scale so I'm not bashing it. However, in order to net $60k, he had to SPEND $210,000 on the hogs PLUS his infrastructure costs, which seem wildly low. Maybe it's just in the South here, but you'll never pay $2k for fence for a 20 acre pasture with 40 paddocks... it'd be more like $9000. Not to mention this tractor he glosses over, that'll cost ya $15-30k, and while he only mentions 2 implements (one of which costs $3000), you'll need a bush-hog to clear the brush for the fencing first and probably some other attachments in other parts of the season. His description also doesn't include mobile shelters, animal ID tags, water and feed troughs, wallowing troughs, and doesn't mention that LUCK is what provided water; if he had had to dig a well, that's another $20k. So on truly undeveloped land (with no water access), you're looking at having to first spend $285000 total ($265k if there is already a well) Joel has been doing this A LONG TIME. He already has a tractor, he obviously had money to buy 300 hogs and a cash-flow that could provide feed, water, rent, and all the other costs he omitted. NEW FARMERS that want to pursue this BETTER SYSTEM OF FARMING have got to go find this hundreds of thousands of dollars somehwhere. Where? I dunno, maybe it's covered in another video, but if someone can show how beginning farmers can do this with less than $30k of initial capital, that'd be much more helpful.
@Damnit Bobby I beg to differ I did it not that long ago. I had employment that gave me capacity to maintain interest repayments and by the time you are in you mid 20's you should have some equity in something.
Well the title of the video is “how to make $60k per year raising hogs on rented land”, not “how to start a pig-farming business from scratch”. Any endeavor will have start-up costs but there are ways to manage that. I just started four months ago. I use a 1953 Ford NAA. I paid $3,000 for it and it came with a 5’ brush hog and a 5’ box blade. I bought a pole boom for $280, a drag barrow for $399, and will be picking up a subsoiler for around $270 (Tractor Supply). I have a boar and three sows for breed stock that I bought for around $850. They will produce on average 40 piglets a year. I plan to add some more breeding stock and increase my production over time as I learn more by doing. I have net-new infrastructure costs in fencing (starting with five acres), three shelters I am building ($250 in lumber and corrugated metal), and am about to build some feeders from two IBC totes ($75/ea for used food-grade units). Those should last me several years and, over that time I plan to expand/improve so there will be incremental costs incurred over time. What I picked up from this video is that there is a nice potential incremental income that I can hit within the next 2-3 years as I build my farm. That is just on hogs and doesn’t include any other livestock (goats and sheep) or other income producers like bees (honey), etc.
Joel the market in Wisconsin at Equity on the high end is .68 per pound and that for sows and buthchers are around there as well. Please tell me how you raise a 1300 Lb pig to get nine hundred bucks??????????????????????
It is important to conciser the fact that Mr. Salatin makes ONE MILLION dollars a year from this immersive courses where those who sign up spend a couple of solid days on the farm learning directly from Joel. a nice extra bit of income for a farmer... I wonder what he makes from just his farm production.
Joel Salatin has written many books. Not sure if they lay it out in detail. I think you can find most, if not all, of Mr. Salatin’s books on Amazon. I have a couple and have really enjoyed reading them. I’ve gained an huge amount of solid farming and food information from them
I'm in Texas... there are only 4 auctions in the entire state you can sell a pig... then only once a month..maybe The thousand pig barns in the pan handle have the entire market cornered. .. If you do feral pigs you have to have a special license to sell them and they have to be live...
That's great, but where do you find buyers for all those pigs? We have 40 piglets 2 times a year and are about to lose our shirts trying to get rid of them. They literally sell for $5.00 a piece at the stockyard.
This is a great way to raise livestock and put land back to use. However, I am more interested now to find out how he markets 300 hogs at $900 each. That's the issue most growers have, they can't get rid of it once they grow it.
I agree. Selling your production is the hardest part. A website that facilitated small-scale farming sales would probably make a lot more people able to move back to the land.
Yes, if you have a good hearty breed. We have American Guineas. I just went out to feed them this afternoon and everyone was doing great. It rained all day yesterday ahead of a cold front that dropped the temps from a high of 77 two days ago to a low of around 25(F) last night. Ours live in the woods and I provide hay bales that they burrow into for warmth.
Sorry I pushed the wrong button....I hope you've received the first part of this message or this part won't make sense. My question is do you use different recipes of the master blend formula for different stages in the plants development? And do use the master blend on all your vegetables or do you have or blends?
You can tell by some comments here witch one are commercial farmer with big investment and those that are small scale business and have better quality meat that they can sell for a much higher price.
Yea.. And how big is this market for quality meat sold at a higher price? There's a lot Joel doesn't talk about and these numbers are anecdotal and ridiculous. He's just selling hope to people who will never farm anything..
Hi guys ive recently done some research and i hope to start a small farm soon, this is a very good video. The only part I didnt undestand was how he grosses 900 per pig, to me thats just mindblowing. Anyone know where I can look into how to gross that much per pig, or where he explains more in depth on his process? Thanks Guys.
After seeing this I'm really thinking of attempting. I used to raise confinement hogs as a teenager. The places I'm thinking of renting are 20+mins. away. I'm afraid if a tree would go down on the electric fence. Anyone have any thoughts on safe guarding so I won't have to always be worried about pigs escaping and causing damage to neighbors property?
Agreed. I missed anything about feed. Maybe the paddocks have plenty of growth year round. out here in the arid west, this wouldn't work without feeding. BUT...I'd love to know how to maximize our space for some added farm income.
He does feed them. Other videos show that. Also, we visited the farm in the summer of 2020. He loads a ton of food in a feeder in each paddock. He uses that to know when to move them. When they eat the 2000lbs, he moves them. As the pigs grow out, they create more disturbance which means they should be left in the paddock a shorter amount of time. Of course, they consume the feed faster so it all works out as a simple “timer”.
Joe, i love your books.Im from Witbank, South Africa. Is it possible to Pasture raise cornish X in our Winters. We average 38F min and 20F max. No snow and maybe very light frost some times. Hardly no rain but the Pasture can get half dry if not watered
I’m sorry Cullen, I forgot to emphasize that John Suscovich’s video deals with broiler/meat chickens, but he NETS $60, 000 yr., with a lot less start up money. He does utilize many of Mr. Salatin’s techniques
I am in pig country North Missouri. Lots of pigs and lots of corn. 30-50 lb feeders..30-40 bucks per head....250 lb. butchers 42-45 cwt......250 x .45 =$112/hd. minus $40 for feeder price=$72 minus corn 11 bushels till 250 11x 3.2=$35 72-35=$37 soybean meal $20 per pig .....37-20=$17 minus straw for bedding, trucking&fuel, water, fencing, wormer , medicated feed, vaccines like nu-flor & oxtratetracycline, 5 deaths per 100 hogs.. Maybe 5-10 bucks per head profit..Nope folks you see there is not much money in old fashioned hog farming in the midwest,, I must be a madman..But at least the kids are learning...agronomics of the embattled farmer....
Hey Kauboi0 - this is just a 10 minute "teaser" excerpt from our online Salatin Semester, which includes an additional 18 hours of video material, 6 call-ins with Joel &/or Daniel Salatin and student forums. You'd get your questions answered for sure... Course starts October 23rd - link is in the video or in the comments section above.
You do not need to fence in the whole area. You running a acre at a time. build a fence around that acre then the next area. When they get moved. Take up the fence around the first area and move it.
altha 2014 Joel's all about minimizing human effort. So with the system illustrated in the video, you only have to open a gate. I agree it could be done with less material cost, but it would increase your labor cost tremendously.
+Derek Murawsky good point I was wondering the same thing. So basically you only need to pay for extra material, hog fence is cheep, and 3 guys for one week to put this in. Than show up everyday or so and fill feed and check waterers and test the fence . Than a few extra hours to move em on down every week or 2. Brilliant.
+Derek Murawsky plus- if you own i know for sure- not sure on renting- but if the perimter fence is put in the USDA had a program where they will pay for internal fencing-( yes- there is a word for it) and water systems.... i was looking at sheep a while back-- and even at 200 a sheep it is worth doing- i didnt know too much anbout the renting thing-- im lazy if i build something i want to do it one time-- plus land lords just suck
Now are there any plants that need to be removed prior to placing the pigs? Or do we paddock off the area and let them run free in whatever the lay of the land? Are there any types of land that should be avoided grade/aspect wise?
Before you think about calling me a ney sayer I'll let you know that I and my father have been raising pigs in FL since I was knee high. NEVER seen pigs being bought at that price. Free range concept is nice idea with electric fence hate to tell ya brother not going to happen. Tried it they still get out. Save yourself time and money and go to tractor supply and buy the 16 ft panels and some posts and be done with it. Also unless you have a certified usda butcher on staff processing costs will kill u let alone finding a market to buy. We wind up just hauling pigs to market when Walmsrt and windixie reps are there. So competitive these days so if ur not part if the good ol boys your screwed.
If you can't make money raising pigs, then don't raise them. It works for Salatin and farmers in my area. Work on your marketing skills. First thing I would ask is why is your product not worth paying premium prices for? You can buy a gallon of coffee at circle k cheaper than at starbucks or organo gold. Why? Marketing and maybe a better product. Don't cry about the success of others. You can't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. Open your mind and educate yourself.
Where in Fla., are you Bobby? Weeners in Lakeland fl for $40, cut, and I didn't look hard. In Florida and ignoring Publx but doing bidness with W/D? Man, that ain't Florida. :)
Not going to happen. hahahahahaha It IS happening, you are just stuck in conventional farming and commodities farming. Get your head out of your ass and look around. There is a better, more profitable way to farm than the way you do it.
Bobby's right. He's real world, hands on. If you think a couple of strands of low electric fence with pasture grass grounding them out the entire way are going to keep 50 pigs in, *you've never had pigs*.
Seems like the naysayers are really good at telling other how the CANNOT do something, where the video is a first person account of how he DID do something...
Can someone tell me why you would divide the pigs up into smaller groups? Why not keep all the pigs together and move them faster on larger paddocks? Also is it possible to do this large scale work with the american guinea hogs to better utilize grass forage instead of grains? I know the time to fill out is longer.
only reason i can thing of is, the pigs could start to be agressive. could develop pack mentality and start to hurt grass and themselfs more? just a guess. i am curious. answer pls
there's a lot of details missing, I'd say... What about huts/shelter? What was the weight of the pigs at the beginning and end of the "production cycle"? How much extra-feed did they get?....
I love the technique but it really only works if you have a well or a water source on the property. Or if you’re already leasing one next door like he said. He also doesn’t say how he markets those 300 pigs. I just think if someone watches this video and decides to try the concept they might run into some trouble when they go trying to sell those 300 pigs at the end of it. I’m thinking maybe he has some kind of major pork producer nearby that he was able to work out a deal with or something. But ppl are foolish if they think they’re gonna go get 300 pigs on 20 acres of someone else’s land and think they’re gonna make 60K.
I am really interested in how he markets this meat, does he go through middlemen, does he sell straight to main distributor, etc. Great vid and I totally got the diagram, despite some interesting drawing skills.
he is a direct market farmer... He has food co-ops set up that he sells through. It seems like it is a very small loop hole in the fda usda over-regulated food market. Technically these people come to him and ask if they can buy pork chops and he is able to supply it. Of course I don't know all the ins and outs of his system nor do I know all of the laws this is just my attempt to summarize what he does.
I worked for a guy way back in the 80's that sold directly to people. Standing orders every year all year long. Hogs weren't pastured but penned maybe at most head during pek time. I wouldn't say they were rich, but were very well off. Never had a problem fixing or buying equipment or seed for fields. Although the equipment wasn't new new, probably by that time 15 or so years old, but always took care of it. Super nice people, one of their sons had a house on the farm and helped. They even hauled them to market or to butcher. Summer time they always had small livestock trucks running up and down the road.
Keep in mind this only works IF you have the market for that number of pigs at the price you need. I love Joel but, he glosses over that all time. You would need a market that's paying 4-6 hundred a pig. That's not easy to find. The going rate is more like $150-$250.
So how did YOUR ground your electric fencing as cattle farmer wet vs dry vs snow all require more grounding techniques, what about voltage watts and sustained watts hogs are resistant
And what is the annual income every year for the last 10 years? I have seen farmers make a lot of money for a few years only to suffer losses in other years.
How about a waste plan? That many animals in a small area will generate a lot of waste runoff.....and what about land remediation? Covered in the lease agreement? I do like the ability to pull up stakes quickly......where was the feed stored? I assume it was transported in as needed to feed....how about a feeding plan? It's more work(and complicated) than you think.......even free range plans are complicated, if you expect good production. Farmers are planners.......
That's the thing, these pigs were only in these paddocks for a week or two. There was no massive waste runoff, it was assimilated into the soil and made that land more fertile from the pig's passing.
Two weeks for 50 pigs in half an acre of marginal land? Are you kidding?! Do you have any idea what 50 pigs would do to only a half acre of *any* kind of land in 2 weeks? This is snake oil sales!
@@42lookc 50 pigs in 1/2 ac. For 2 weeks is actually perfect... in scrub. They would uproot it without burning it it . That's about right for perfect tilling. That land would be improved 1000%
Based on Canadian agriculture, this is not feasible. Total profit per pig is only 5-15 dollars at an operation of this size. Land value is also way higher here, rentals are at 240/acre in most areas now with decent forage. Also, there's the whole cost of raising and breeding the pigs, which would need its own facility, personnel and vaccinations. If this is a feedlot type setup which is how it sounds, it isn't very well setup for finishing hogs quickly as both pastured hogs and beef add weight much slower than in a facility. My two cents, if it works for him keep on keepin on man
It's cheaper if you want some 'organic pork' to go to any farm over-run with wild hogs. .They'll be glad to let you hunt,usually.Or you can get guaranteed guided hunts,too.
@@mikefrash just go to central Georgia, find a church after some farmer hires a hog catching group, and at the church pick up some free organic wild hog meat there since it cant be sold.
What this is hog wash, todays market price, 3/26/15 at Peoria is $35.00/cwt agebb.missouri.edu/mkt/bull7c.htm finished hog weighs 200 - 220 pounds x $35,00. This guy is so far off I've raised hogs market fluctuates a lot might be $48.00 when you start your pigs and $35.00 when you sell them.
Farmer Dan This is why he sells his specialty pork to people/companies who are willing to pay the premium. He's a brilliant marketer taking advantage of a minimally supplied market segment. This technique won't work forever, but it's a great way to capitalize on the current market trend for "Pastured Pork".
with that logic a guy could go buy 200 pound hogs at the sale for $75 and put them in a brush thicket for a month and them sell them as pastured pork for $1000 a piece. but we all know the 60k is bullshit and nobody is gonna pay much more than market price period hes just getting all these idiots excited about these fairytales
Pretty sure there is certification for this. Do you really think someone is going to listen to you because you tell them they're pastured. I'm gonna say no. Typically, when people are looking for organic or pastured, they look for certifications. Not just because you say so. Also pretty sure its not a large investment if any at all, never reLly looked so why wouldn't you just do it?
His certification is known as farm transparency, you're welcome to stop by anytime, 365 days a year. His guests do the certifying by having a look at the process with their own eyes. It connects people to the food they are consuming and costs nothing. Doesn't get much better than that IMO.
this could be bad news in some ways. anyone remember supply and demand? back in the mid- late 80's hogs were going so cheap that the farmers stopped selling to get the prices up enough to make a profit? flood the market with pigs and the bottom drops out just my 2c
Yes. Videos are released one per week, over four weeks and available until the end of week six. Call ins with Joel and Daniel will be recorded and posted for download. Details under "schedule" heading on the course page. Call us if you have any other questions. 403-770-9789.
How in the world is Salatin getting "$900 a pig"? Today, the price of pork on the hoof is $.64/lb about $150 head. Be careful taking this at face value1
His numbers weren't explained very clearly to me. He said there were 6 people invested on the 20 acre project. Did all 6 people have to put in 160 person hours? Did the $60,000 get divided in the end among the 6 people for a net of only $10,000? Water is usually expensive in areas where only scrub grows do to regional water shortages.
Has anybody Googled wholesale hog prices? I found a range of 70 t0 98 cents a pound. When I was in school, ideal slaughter weight was around 150 to 175 pounds. That is about $170 per hog. How did he get $900 per pig? My guess is that his big income is from lecturing.
+tom jackson Salatin isn't far from the DC metro region. The area includes some of the top-10 richest counties in America -- in MD and VA. Salatin's business targets this wealthy/well-off group of folks who love to travel 60 minutes to 2 hours to 'breathe in' this farm and buy very expensive meat. Not saying Salatin's products are not of very good quality, but they are expensive. I'm an hour away and no one from my farming community travels there. Salatin's customers are from the DC metro area. They're urban/big suburb dwellers, mostly Progressives -- this is NEVER mentioned nor addressed in his business model.
In which case the 60 K is from 20 acres, AND a slaughter house, and a meat packer, and a distribution chain with cold storage and trucks, and a sales force, and a million governments permits and certificates. What is the chance of one of those poor schmucks paying to hear his lectures having that know how and capital?
+tom jackson Just like any business it takes a lot of work to start out. Unfortunately most people would rather just whine about it than put in the time. I've been using Salatins methods for meat chickens for 3 years now, and net $12 profit per bird. Yes it took years to get to this point but it was well worth it and I'm glad i read his books.
We get on average, $2,200 per hog. Our cost per hog is now down to $650 per hog which includes butchering. This is all because of efficiencies we have set up. It took us almost 2 years to get all these efficiencies in place. We butcher our hogs at 275 pounds.
A strong fence is expensive, and not mobile. This is rented land, so he doesn't want to improve it in a way that he couldn't take with him if he ever left. I don't know the details, but I'd bet it would take more than 160 man hours and $2000 to install pig-proof solid fence, instead of the high tech electric fence. So this was his best solution to profit from this land.
Based on what Joel said in one of his books. If you rent land and put thousands of dollars in fencing infrastructure. You'll lose that money when the owner kicks you off. Unless you put something in the contract to factor in depreciation over a certain amount of years and paying off the farmer if kicked off within X amount of years. Electric fencing is cheap and mobile and probably better then a sturdy fence because it will keep predators away. He raves about it a lot and I'm guessing it was a god send because his father used it.
Okay I can see that you didn't receive the first part of my message....can you tell this is my first comment ever? (first part of message). Thank you for all your videos....they are all great you are a very good teacher and I have watched many of your vids. I am at the point in my gardening where I am starting to mix my own organic fertilizer formulas based on your MasterBlend ratios. It is not easy to use your exact formula (4: 18: 38) but 4:16:36 easily is a 1:4:9 ratio. By making specialized composts I can isolate the N, P, K elements ( leaves only for N, mushroom compost for P and potash for K) and then using the ratio 1:4: 9 I can pretty close to your MB formula. First question, am I on the right track here? Then by changing the ratio I can develop different blend for different stages in a plants development, i.e., a seeding formula, a growing formula, and a flowering/fruiting formula. Second question, do you manipulate the MB for different stages in a plants life? Thank you for your time!
Most feeder pigs are 250 on the hoof when harvested. He figures $900 in cost per pig and he makes $200 per pig...that is equivalent to $1100 per pig...on the hoof. Who is going to pay that price for a pig? After slaughter, you do good to get 180 pounds and that includes bone. At an average of $3 per pound (I'm including ground pork, pork chop, loin, sausage etc in my figure), that's only $540 RETAIL. This means that a grower would most likely wind up selling them at $300 or so for the retailer to turn a profit. I'm trying to wrap my head around his figures. BUT if he's talking about he butchers and sells them himself, still....that's $1100 divided by 180 pounds ...that's over $6/lb he charges for his meat. Kinda pricey. Don't get me wrong, I think the world of Joel Salatin, but I can say that these prices for pork here in Louisiana would go over about as well as a turd in a hurricane.....
If you are raising hogs feeding them with no chemicals or nothing people will pay that much for them. I grow veggies on the side organically and they pay 3 times as much in the store. I charge them the same price and make good money doing it
You must live in an area where people are health conscious. I hate to say it but where I live, most people are more interested on gorging themselves at Golden Corral or a pizza buffet than eating healthily. Sad, ain't it? All I can do is try, right? Thanks for the input!
I do Golden Corral when I'm in Tampa I do even eat somewhat healthier there. I do have a salad, I have one good plate of meat and veggies, First, Then do the salads, Then 1 desert, I do not eat anything else the rest of the day. . When we go up to our farm in NW Florida between Tallassee and Panama city about an hour and a half drive each way. so we eat better, There are a couple Greasy spoon restaurants that we eat at. Well in our town we have two restaurants each one across the street from the other at the caution light on main street. you can stand at one end of main street and see someone at the other end the town is so small
900.00 was the gross that would encompass profit and cost. You then have to deduct 200.00 profit multiplied by 300.00 to get 60,000 net he is claiming. In his scenario the expenses of feed and fencing come out of the processor's cost, which may be true if you are a contract farmer. I suspect he looked at the numbers from a meat processing plant and erroneously thinks that 200.00 the farmer gets is all net when that is the farmers gross. I fear a lot of people will get burned by this video, it has just enough information to be dangerous. People need to ask themselves; if pork is so profitable why have so many pork farmers gone bankrupt? Middle man meat processing plants push this propaganda because the excess pork supply decreases raw material cost and increases their profit margins. Even if you want to get into pork farming, make sure it is supplemental income you get during high pork prices and you can withstand economic downturns. Think about swine flu, PED, strong dollar shutting down exports, rising supplemental feed cost, pigs go over desired weight and loose value due to circumstances beyond your control, predators, thieves, escapes, wild boars attacking your boars and spreading brucellosis. Cost of vehicle and trailer to get pigs to market, is their a buyer anywhere near you that can take 300 pigs at ideal weight? Honestly, there is a lot more to consider and that is why one need to read all the books they can before you enter any venture.
Agree< Plus the guy he lease it from has to supply the water which keeps the well running all the time thus running up his power bill. Then he is going to have to worry about hog waste, the land want be any good for a long time after that for anything else. The only was he can make more money is to use the hog waste as power.
Men, all of the negative comments about budget and how you need to spend many money are ridiculous. Im from Spain, and here regularions and law is so bad for people who want to start pastured something. I am willing to start with pastured poultry this summer. Made the pens (300 each) rented land (108/month) buyed a prefab wood house for the brooder (1500) and i will borrow water from a house i have nearby. All the other costs are feed,chicks,wood shavings, feeders,waterers.... I mean,its not a high investment. And you can cover the investment with the first summer. And little by little keep growing. Thats my goal. And i think everyone can do this.
hi Mr Joel salatin.. I'm jocelyn, I'm 32yrs of age.. I'm here in Malaysia work at imbasan tenggara a farm piggery.. Sir Joel can i work on your farm.. plsss... plssss...
does not mention how you electric fence all those paddocks through trees, bushes. and brambles. nor does he mention the hogs being lose 90% of the time. Hard to believe he get $900 per hog either
In Land aplenty TX that would be a year. In the overpopulated East, you would pay that monthly. If money is tight, find people who will rent land cheap or free to you so they can reduce taxes via an ag exemption.
Joshua pollard, 100 per acre per month (12) x 40 acres totals $48,000 to rent 40 acres of out of production, overgrown cropland each year. 100 per acre per year x 40 acres totals $4000. Joel mentions that the leaser paid off property taxes with lease income. Do you think the farmer whom rented Joel the land would turn down $4000 a year for these 40 acres?
This is farmland or even not so. This is not NY city were people are willing to pay incredible rents to be living like hogs in an unhealthy environment. I prefer the smell from the hogs and the beauty of the nature. Wouldn't it be better to slaughter some of are so called "political leaders" in stead of those funny hogs. I definetely would buy a Clinton hamburger if she wouldn't be so unhealthy.
To Cullen Slim Brown, I’ve seen a TH-cam video made by John Suscovich(that’s also the name of his TH-cam channel) that really lays it out, in hard facts and numbers, that might interest you. Video title is: Is pastured Poultry Profitable.
Surely he would also just be able to use electric fence on the 4 half acre plots in use plus the subsequent one on the rotation. Sounds like this was an illustrative example of what could be possible rather than something that actually happened
Because then youll have problems with disease and add vet costs, since theyll all hang out in one area in their manure. Also, while foraging if allowed the whole area they would just wipe out their preferred food source while leaving the rest to overgrow, making you have to buy feed. Rotational grazing allows time for forage to regenerate before the next pass. Rotational grazing is also used for landscape restoration, which he didn't really go into. Those pigs brush cleared, weeded, tilled and fertilized that field for the farmer.
I'm calling bs on this and I'm not being negative. I'm just not buying any of it. This guy shouldn't drink before presentations. He never explained the business plan properly and his mistakes made it unenjoyable to follow. Also, why would he be rotating pigs to begin with when he can just grow them all at the same time? Free is free and you know what you get for free right?
If this guy came to me with this as a Business plan... he needs a hell of a lot more numbers... borrowed water doesn't work, Stock and Vet bills, actual Man hours ... Don't know what he is selling but it right up there with a Time Share
Weird that people are having a hard time with this free bit of farming advice because he's making a few mistakes with the overhead. Maybe if you complain enough he can come to your farm and run the fencing for you and drive your ground rods. Take the good, forgive the mistakes, and go outside and work off all that negative energy used to post negative comments.
Negative people tend to focus so hard on whats wrong they miss out on all the good parts.
Excellent remark, should have posted it myself
I tolerate most of comments as I see public comments as "online people's court" in a real democratic system as they formed a real "peoples Jury" with judge in everyones mind. cheers
I agree, that said, this is why PowerPoint has replaced overheads. A clear picture/diagram/graph already checked for errors is a better teaching/learning tool than something drawn by someone who should be worried about the presentation instead of the drawing…. And yes, I’ve taught many classes, the ones with PowerPoint presentations or pre made slide shows (for those classes I had to give before PowerPoint, cause I’m old) we’re much better than the ones where I was creating visuals on the fly….
In the first 30 seconds the ally he drew down the middle wasn't in the exact middle of his diagram. therefore I can't trust anything he says!
I am a butcher who sells this guys chicken ground beef and sausage about 98 miles from his farm. We sell A LOT of his stuff. $10/lb for ground beef! People can't get enough but our customer base is willing to pay more for local grass fed/ pastured animals. This guy does well and created a buzz but the high end market needs to be accessible for the success of a business on this model.
Joel is great!
You might want to add that he is not government subsidised, which has a lot to do with cheap beef. Our family ran an emu farm in the early 90's that failed, because although the meat was impeccable, there was no market for the 20 dollar per pound price that was needed to turn a profit.
I agree. This farm model really only works when you operate close to a community with large disposable income. If Joel has started his farm in the middle of Wyoming, he would be a statistic today.
@@NoName-ex4rfDo it in Seattle, NYC, or Los Angeles.
Champagne liberals paying outrageous prices for the “right” kind of food. Around me, a lbs of carrots is $2 in the grocery store. At the farmers market it is $10. The small scale farmers are considered heroes but the farmer selling for $2 is the bad guy.
I admire his continued frugality, although very wealthy he continues his modern operation as he did in the early days so that broke guys like me know it can be done on a budget.
If you don't see the beauty of this idea, please and thank you for not going into farming. This is an overview of a pastured pig paddock set up, with some ballpark numbers. For more details I suggest harnessing the power of a search engine to learn how Salatin runs his concern.
Excellent advice, Thomas! I have read many of Joel's books and have an immense respect for this man who has learned the hard way how to maximize yields and produce top quality products without destroying the land...using our resources wisely and returning the land to a better place than it was before he started. He is an innovative genius in the farming industry of today...if you want to learn how to farm with integrity to the land and the animal and make a very good living...listen up...otherwise, please "shut up".
Jeannie Watson is
I've heard presentations on this and other methods, and one thing always frustrates me: The presenters never mention the astounding amount of capital they MUST have already had access to. There is no way this is a feasible start-up venture. I practice this style of pasture management on a much smaller scale so I'm not bashing it.
However, in order to net $60k, he had to SPEND $210,000 on the hogs PLUS his infrastructure costs, which seem wildly low. Maybe it's just in the South here, but you'll never pay $2k for fence for a 20 acre pasture with 40 paddocks... it'd be more like $9000. Not to mention this tractor he glosses over, that'll cost ya $15-30k, and while he only mentions 2 implements (one of which costs $3000), you'll need a bush-hog to clear the brush for the fencing first and probably some other attachments in other parts of the season. His description also doesn't include mobile shelters, animal ID tags, water and feed troughs, wallowing troughs, and doesn't mention that LUCK is what provided water; if he had had to dig a well, that's another $20k. So on truly undeveloped land (with no water access), you're looking at having to first spend $285000 total ($265k if there is already a well)
Joel has been doing this A LONG TIME. He already has a tractor, he obviously had money to buy 300 hogs and a cash-flow that could provide feed, water, rent, and all the other costs he omitted. NEW FARMERS that want to pursue this BETTER SYSTEM OF FARMING have got to go find this hundreds of thousands of dollars somehwhere. Where?
I dunno, maybe it's covered in another video, but if someone can show how beginning farmers can do this with less than $30k of initial capital, that'd be much more helpful.
Not super hard to get finance for anything if you make a good case to the bank. In Australia most livestock agencies offer finance for stock.
@Damnit Bobby I beg to differ I did it not that long ago. I had employment that gave me capacity to maintain interest repayments and by the time you are in you mid 20's you should have some equity in something.
How much does it cost for his seminars to go to
Well the title of the video is “how to make $60k per year raising hogs on rented land”, not “how to start a pig-farming business from scratch”. Any endeavor will have start-up costs but there are ways to manage that.
I just started four months ago. I use a 1953 Ford NAA. I paid $3,000 for it and it came with a 5’ brush hog and a 5’ box blade. I bought a pole boom for $280, a drag barrow for $399, and will be picking up a subsoiler for around $270 (Tractor Supply). I have a boar and three sows for breed stock that I bought for around $850. They will produce on average 40 piglets a year. I plan to add some more breeding stock and increase my production over time as I learn more by doing. I have net-new infrastructure costs in fencing (starting with five acres), three shelters I am building ($250 in lumber and corrugated metal), and am about to build some feeders from two IBC totes ($75/ea for used food-grade units). Those should last me several years and, over that time I plan to expand/improve so there will be incremental costs incurred over time.
What I picked up from this video is that there is a nice potential incremental income that I can hit within the next 2-3 years as I build my farm. That is just on hogs and doesn’t include any other livestock (goats and sheep) or other income producers like bees (honey), etc.
Where I am in Oklahoma feeder pigs are like around $50.00. So that would be $15000 not $210,000. Them some high dollar hogs your buyin.
Joel the market in Wisconsin at Equity on the high end is .68 per pound and that for sows and buthchers are around there as well. Please tell me how you raise a 1300 Lb pig to get nine hundred bucks??????????????????????
Joel Salatin for president
It is important to conciser the fact that Mr. Salatin makes ONE MILLION dollars a year from this immersive courses where those who sign up spend a couple of solid days on the farm learning directly from Joel. a nice extra bit of income for a farmer... I wonder what he makes from just his farm production.
Probably not enough to be self sufficient. I couldn't take him seriously after he said he sells hogs for $900 each.
Did I miss the purchase price of the piglets? Because there was no cost mentioned. Luck that water and electricity was free?
do you have a how to guide to do this start to finish? I love the concept.
do you feed the pigs off of the scrub or do you supplement with feed?
I'll be interested in a guide as well!
Joel Salatin has written many books. Not sure if they lay it out in detail. I think you can find most, if not all, of Mr. Salatin’s books on Amazon. I have a couple and have really enjoyed reading them. I’ve gained an huge amount of solid farming and food information from them
I'm in Texas... there are only 4 auctions in the entire state you can sell a pig... then only once a month..maybe
The thousand pig barns in the pan handle have the entire market cornered. ..
If you do feral pigs you have to have a special license to sell them and they have to be live...
You need to sell direct if you want a premium.
That's great, but where do you find buyers for all those pigs? We have 40 piglets 2 times a year and are about to lose our shirts trying to get rid of them. They literally sell for $5.00 a piece at the stockyard.
This is a great way to raise livestock and put land back to use. However, I am more interested now to find out how he markets 300 hogs at $900 each. That's the issue most growers have, they can't get rid of it once they grow it.
I agree. Selling your production is the hardest part. A website that facilitated small-scale farming sales would probably make a lot more people able to move back to the land.
Great advice from salatin!
Anw, How about the rain ? Is it okay to leave the pigs under direct rain ? Thanks
Yes, if you have a good hearty breed. We have American Guineas. I just went out to feed them this afternoon and everyone was doing great. It rained all day yesterday ahead of a cold front that dropped the temps from a high of 77 two days ago to a low of around 25(F) last night. Ours live in the woods and I provide hay bales that they burrow into for warmth.
Sorry I pushed the wrong button....I hope you've received the first part of this message or this part won't make sense. My question is do you use different recipes of the master blend formula for different stages in the plants development? And do use the master blend on all your vegetables or do you have or blends?
You can tell by some comments here witch one are commercial farmer with big investment and those that are small scale business and have better quality meat that they can sell for a much higher price.
Yea.. And how big is this market for quality meat sold at a higher price? There's a lot Joel doesn't talk about and these numbers are anecdotal and ridiculous. He's just selling hope to people who will never farm anything..
Exactly
As a beginning farmer, how do you finance the cost of the feed, processing, animals, fencing, etc., to get the the return in the end? Thanks!
What type of grass is used? I'm in SC looking to use my 10 acres a bit more intelligently. Thank you.
Hi guys ive recently done some research and i hope to start a small farm soon, this is a very good video. The only part I didnt undestand was how he grosses 900 per pig, to me thats just mindblowing. Anyone know where I can look into how to gross that much per pig, or where he explains more in depth on his process?
Thanks Guys.
Try upscale neighborhoods and restaurants. Also, I suspect the "Salatin" name adds 20%.
@@NoName-ex4rf that 20% makes for the Salatin name makes sense. Thanks
What is the difference, between person hours, and man hour, Could not get that part?
After seeing this I'm really thinking of attempting. I used to raise confinement hogs as a teenager. The places I'm thinking of renting are 20+mins. away. I'm afraid if a tree would go down on the electric fence. Anyone have any thoughts on safe guarding so I won't have to always be worried about pigs escaping and causing damage to neighbors property?
Gps fencing collars
Agreed. I missed anything about feed. Maybe the paddocks have plenty of growth year round. out here in the arid west, this wouldn't work without feeding. BUT...I'd love to know how to maximize our space for some added farm income.
He does feed them. Other videos show that. Also, we visited the farm in the summer of 2020. He loads a ton of food in a feeder in each paddock. He uses that to know when to move them. When they eat the 2000lbs, he moves them. As the pigs grow out, they create more disturbance which means they should be left in the paddock a shorter amount of time. Of course, they consume the feed faster so it all works out as a simple “timer”.
Joe, i love your books.Im from Witbank, South Africa. Is it possible to Pasture raise cornish X in our Winters. We average 38F min and 20F max. No snow and maybe very light frost some times. Hardly no rain but the Pasture can get half dry if not watered
Any way you look at it most people don't have the initial amount of money to get started.
+HITLERY True, but I think you could start small and scale it up as you made money.
+HITLERY That is why loans were created...
Thats why working and saving were invented. This is a very low cost operation. Also it was designed to be added to an already existing farm.
I’m sorry Cullen, I forgot to emphasize that John Suscovich’s video deals with broiler/meat chickens, but he NETS $60, 000 yr., with a lot less start up money. He does utilize many of Mr. Salatin’s techniques
I am in pig country North Missouri. Lots of pigs and lots of corn. 30-50 lb feeders..30-40 bucks per head....250 lb. butchers 42-45 cwt......250 x .45 =$112/hd. minus $40 for feeder price=$72 minus corn 11 bushels till 250 11x 3.2=$35 72-35=$37 soybean meal $20 per pig .....37-20=$17 minus straw for bedding, trucking&fuel, water, fencing, wormer , medicated feed, vaccines like nu-flor & oxtratetracycline, 5 deaths per 100 hogs.. Maybe 5-10 bucks per head profit..Nope folks you see there is not much money in old fashioned hog farming in the midwest,, I must be a madman..But at least the kids are learning...agronomics of the embattled farmer....
Hey Kauboi0 - this is just a 10 minute "teaser" excerpt from our online Salatin Semester, which includes an additional 18 hours of video material, 6 call-ins with Joel &/or Daniel Salatin and student forums. You'd get your questions answered for sure... Course starts October 23rd - link is in the video or in the comments section above.
You do not need to fence in the whole area.
You running a acre at a time. build a fence around that acre
then the next area. When they get moved. Take up the fence
around the first area and move it.
altha 2014 Joel's all about minimizing human effort. So with the system illustrated in the video, you only have to open a gate. I agree it could be done with less material cost, but it would increase your labor cost tremendously.
+Derek Murawsky good point I was wondering the same thing. So basically you only need to pay for extra material, hog fence is cheep, and 3 guys for one week to put this in. Than show up everyday or so and fill feed and check waterers and test the fence . Than a few extra hours to move em on down every week or 2. Brilliant.
+Derek Murawsky plus- if you own i know for sure- not sure on renting- but if the perimter fence is put in the USDA had a program where they will pay for internal fencing-( yes- there is a word for it) and water systems.... i was looking at sheep a while back-- and even at 200 a sheep it is worth doing- i didnt know too much anbout the renting thing-- im lazy if i build something i want to do it one time-- plus land lords just suck
Now are there any plants that need to be removed prior to placing the pigs? Or do we paddock off the area and let them run free in whatever the lay of the land? Are there any types of land that should be avoided grade/aspect wise?
Did not have to build the whole fence on the property could had done an acre at a time and move it over as you need to
Before you think about calling me a ney sayer I'll let you know that I and my father have been raising pigs in FL since I was knee high. NEVER seen pigs being bought at that price. Free range concept is nice idea with electric fence hate to tell ya brother not going to happen. Tried it they still get out. Save yourself time and money and go to tractor supply and buy the 16 ft panels and some posts and be done with it. Also unless you have a certified usda butcher on staff processing costs will kill u let alone finding a market to buy. We wind up just hauling pigs to market when Walmsrt and windixie reps are there. So competitive these days so if ur not part if the good ol boys your screwed.
If you can't make money raising pigs, then don't raise them. It works for Salatin and farmers in my area. Work on your marketing skills. First thing I would ask is why is your product not worth paying premium prices for? You can buy a gallon of coffee at circle k cheaper than at starbucks or organo gold. Why? Marketing and maybe a better product. Don't cry about the success of others. You can't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. Open your mind and educate yourself.
Where in Fla., are you Bobby? Weeners in Lakeland fl for $40, cut, and I didn't look hard.
In Florida and ignoring Publx but doing bidness with W/D? Man, that ain't Florida. :)
Interesting. We get almost 30% more than Joel charges and have a waiting list. Have for years.
Not going to happen. hahahahahaha It IS happening, you are just stuck in conventional farming and commodities farming. Get your head out of your ass and look around. There is a better, more profitable way to farm than the way you do it.
Bobby's right. He's real world, hands on. If you think a couple of strands of low electric fence with pasture grass grounding them out the entire way are going to keep 50 pigs in, *you've never had pigs*.
Is the market there? Seems almost to good to be true a $900 per hog?
Seems like the naysayers are really good at telling other how the CANNOT do something, where the video is a first person account of how he DID do something...
Can someone tell me why you would divide the pigs up into smaller groups? Why not keep all the pigs together and move them faster on larger paddocks? Also is it possible to do this large scale work with the american guinea hogs to better utilize grass forage instead of grains? I know the time to fill out is longer.
only reason i can thing of is, the pigs could start to be agressive. could develop pack mentality and start to hurt grass and themselfs more? just a guess. i am curious. answer pls
He really did not need to build a fence around the who parcel of land.
If he is constanly moving the hogs over, just move the fence as well.
permanent fencing saves a LOT of time, thousands of hours per season. plus permanents fencing uses MUCH less plastic
there's a lot of details missing, I'd say... What about huts/shelter? What was the weight of the pigs at the beginning and end of the "production cycle"? How much extra-feed did they get?....
Money is not everything but the health and happines of the animals is way more important
I love the technique but it really only works if you have a well or a water source on the property. Or if you’re already leasing one next door like he said. He also doesn’t say how he markets those 300 pigs. I just think if someone watches this video and decides to try the concept they might run into some trouble when they go trying to sell those 300 pigs at the end of it. I’m thinking maybe he has some kind of major pork producer nearby that he was able to work out a deal with or something. But ppl are foolish if they think they’re gonna go get 300 pigs on 20 acres of someone else’s land and think they’re gonna make 60K.
I am really interested in how he markets this meat, does he go through middlemen, does he sell straight to main distributor, etc. Great vid and I totally got the diagram, despite some interesting drawing skills.
he is a direct market farmer... He has food co-ops set up that he sells through. It seems like it is a very small loop hole in the fda usda over-regulated food market. Technically these people come to him and ask if they can buy pork chops and he is able to supply it. Of course I don't know all the ins and outs of his system nor do I know all of the laws this is just my attempt to summarize what he does.
I worked for a guy way back in the 80's that sold directly to people. Standing orders every year all year long. Hogs weren't pastured but penned maybe at most head during pek time. I wouldn't say they were rich, but were very well off. Never had a problem fixing or buying equipment or seed for fields. Although the equipment wasn't new new, probably by that time 15 or so years old, but always took care of it. Super nice people, one of their sons had a house on the farm and helped. They even hauled them to market or to butcher. Summer time they always had small livestock trucks running up and down the road.
Keep in mind this only works IF you have the market for that number of pigs at the price you need. I love Joel but, he glosses over that all time. You would need a market that's paying 4-6 hundred a pig. That's not easy to find. The going rate is more like $150-$250.
how come the video stopped when audience had the chance to ask questions?
audience picked out too many flaws in the B grade seminar
Its a piece of a series you can buy I think.
So how did YOUR ground your electric fencing as cattle farmer wet vs dry vs snow all require more grounding techniques, what about voltage watts and sustained watts hogs are resistant
I would like to hear about the process of acquiring six groups of 50 pigs and all that goes into that, so you could do what's in this excellent video.
And what is the annual income every year for the last 10 years? I have seen farmers make a lot of money for a few years only to suffer losses in other years.
We’re can you possibly find land 100 dollars per acre
How about a waste plan? That many animals in a small area will generate a lot of waste runoff.....and what about land remediation? Covered in the lease agreement?
I do like the ability to pull up stakes quickly......where was the feed stored? I assume it was transported in as needed to feed....how about a feeding plan?
It's more work(and complicated) than you think.......even free range plans are complicated, if you expect good production.
Farmers are planners.......
That's the thing, these pigs were only in these paddocks for a week or two. There was no massive waste runoff, it was assimilated into the soil and made that land more fertile from the pig's passing.
Ryder Hughes only in *each* paddock for a week or two. Bear in mind each group of pigs had 5 acres cut into 10 paddocks to itself.
Two weeks for 50 pigs in half an acre of marginal land? Are you kidding?! Do you have any idea what 50 pigs would do to only a half acre of *any* kind of land in 2 weeks? This is snake oil sales!
@@42lookc 50 pigs in 1/2 ac. For 2 weeks is actually perfect... in scrub. They would uproot it without burning it it . That's about right for perfect tilling. That land would be improved 1000%
I'd like to hear more about where they market their pork and poultry to. Private selling/ farmers markets?
I nominate Joel Salatin for the head of the Department of Agriculture!
no fucking way this guy is a snake oil salesman
Chris Koenig what’s your reasoning?
Based on Canadian agriculture, this is not feasible. Total profit per pig is only 5-15 dollars at an operation of this size. Land value is also way higher here, rentals are at 240/acre in most areas now with decent forage. Also, there's the whole cost of raising and breeding the pigs, which would need its own facility, personnel and vaccinations. If this is a feedlot type setup which is how it sounds, it isn't very well setup for finishing hogs quickly as both pastured hogs and beef add weight much slower than in a facility. My two cents, if it works for him keep on keepin on man
cam zman rv
It's cheaper if you want some 'organic pork' to go to any farm over-run with wild hogs. .They'll be glad to let you hunt,usually.Or you can get guaranteed guided hunts,too.
Bo Bo BoBo huh I’ve never tried this. Such a good idea will definitely give it a shot!! Thanks
@@mikefrash just go to central Georgia, find a church after some farmer hires a hog catching group, and at the church pick up some free organic wild hog meat there since it cant be sold.
I net $120k/year on 20ft x 20ft of land I own.
Brothels don't count.
What/how did you feed pigs? Protect them from elements? Protect from predators?
how often do you move the pigs
What this is hog wash, todays market price, 3/26/15 at Peoria is $35.00/cwt agebb.missouri.edu/mkt/bull7c.htm finished hog weighs 200 - 220 pounds x $35,00. This guy is so far off I've raised hogs market fluctuates a lot might be $48.00 when you start your pigs and $35.00 when you sell them.
Farmer Dan This is why he sells his specialty pork to people/companies who are willing to pay the premium. He's a brilliant marketer taking advantage of a minimally supplied market segment. This technique won't work forever, but it's a great way to capitalize on the current market trend for "Pastured Pork".
with that logic a guy could go buy 200 pound hogs at the sale for $75 and put them in a brush thicket for a month and them sell them as pastured pork for $1000 a piece. but we all know the 60k is bullshit and nobody is gonna pay much more than market price period hes just getting all these idiots excited about these fairytales
Pretty sure there is certification for this. Do you really think someone is going to listen to you because you tell them they're pastured. I'm gonna say no. Typically, when people are looking for organic or pastured, they look for certifications. Not just because you say so. Also pretty sure its not a large investment if any at all, never reLly looked so why wouldn't you just do it?
His certification is known as farm transparency, you're welcome to stop by anytime, 365 days a year. His guests do the certifying by having a look at the process with their own eyes. It connects people to the food they are consuming and costs nothing. Doesn't get much better than that IMO.
this could be bad news in some ways. anyone remember supply and demand? back in the mid- late 80's hogs were going so cheap that the farmers stopped selling to get the prices up enough to make a profit? flood the market with pigs and the bottom drops out just my 2c
I saw .12 cents a pound. The owners refused to sell them.
Around 4,000 hogs per group and that is considered a smaller commercial operation
Yes. Videos are released one per week, over four weeks and available until the end of week six. Call ins with Joel and Daniel will be recorded and posted for download. Details under "schedule" heading on the course page. Call us if you have any other questions. 403-770-9789.
Can I access this course at my own pace and start anytime? It's Oct 24th already
How in the world is Salatin getting "$900 a pig"? Today, the price of pork on the hoof is $.64/lb about $150 head. Be careful taking this at face value1
His numbers weren't explained very clearly to me.
He said there were 6 people invested on the 20 acre project.
Did all 6 people have to put in 160 person hours?
Did the $60,000 get divided in the end among the 6 people for a net of only $10,000?
Water is usually expensive in areas where only scrub grows do to regional water shortages.
Has anybody Googled wholesale hog prices? I found a range of 70 t0 98 cents a pound. When I was in school, ideal slaughter weight was around 150 to 175 pounds. That is about $170 per hog. How did he get $900 per pig?
My guess is that his big income is from lecturing.
+tom jackson Salatin isn't far from the DC metro region. The area includes some of the top-10 richest counties in America -- in MD and VA. Salatin's business targets this wealthy/well-off group of folks who love to travel 60 minutes to 2 hours to 'breathe in' this farm and buy very expensive meat. Not saying Salatin's products are not of very good quality, but they are expensive. I'm an hour away and no one from my farming community travels there. Salatin's customers are from the DC metro area. They're urban/big suburb dwellers, mostly Progressives -- this is NEVER mentioned nor addressed in his business model.
In which case the 60 K is from 20 acres, AND a slaughter house, and a meat packer, and a distribution chain with cold storage and trucks, and a sales force, and a million governments permits and certificates. What is the chance of one of those poor schmucks paying to hear his lectures having that know how and capital?
+tom jackson Just like any business it takes a lot of work to start out. Unfortunately most people would rather just whine about it than put in the time. I've been using Salatins methods for meat chickens for 3 years now, and net $12 profit per bird. Yes it took years to get to this point but it was well worth it and I'm glad i read his books.
+tom jackson and I'm doing so in a Rural area with low population density.
you hit the nail on the head
How much can one make taking a pastured pig to market?
We get on average, $2,200 per hog. Our cost per hog is now down to $650 per hog which includes butchering. This is all because of efficiencies we have set up. It took us almost 2 years to get all these efficiencies in place. We butcher our hogs at 275 pounds.
Is that hundred dollars an acre per month?
Why is electric fencing so important? Surely a good strong fence would do the job and not add onto the bills.
A strong fence is expensive, and not mobile. This is rented land, so he doesn't want to improve it in a way that he couldn't take with him if he ever left. I don't know the details, but I'd bet it would take more than 160 man hours and $2000 to install pig-proof solid fence, instead of the high tech electric fence. So this was his best solution to profit from this land.
Bigfoots like BACON !!!
Based on what Joel said in one of his books. If you rent land and put thousands of dollars in fencing infrastructure. You'll lose that money when the owner kicks you off. Unless you put something in the contract to factor in depreciation over a certain amount of years and paying off the farmer if kicked off within X amount of years. Electric fencing is cheap and mobile and probably better then a sturdy fence because it will keep predators away. He raves about it a lot and I'm guessing it was a god send because his father used it.
Thanks for the clarity guys, how cheap can these electric fences be?
sebastionay Not really important as it lasts long time and is portable, so anyway it's sound investment.
you can make way more growing veggies
Who's going to cut down the trees and pull the roots? This is scrub land he said.
Look up other videos. He didn't the pigs liked the trees for the shade.
John Dziki the pig uproot the saplings and take everything down that's small.
Joel can't make a bad video.....just not possible.
Has the paint dried ?
Okay I can see that you didn't receive the first part of my message....can you tell this is my first comment ever? (first part of message).
Thank you for all your videos....they are all great you are a very good teacher and I have watched many of your vids. I am at the point in my gardening where I am starting to mix my own organic fertilizer formulas based on your MasterBlend ratios. It is not easy to use your exact formula (4: 18: 38) but 4:16:36 easily is a 1:4:9 ratio. By making specialized composts I can isolate the N, P, K elements ( leaves only for N, mushroom compost for P and potash for K) and then using the ratio 1:4: 9 I can pretty close to your MB formula. First question, am I on the right track here? Then by changing the ratio I can develop different blend for different stages in a plants development, i.e., a seeding formula, a growing formula, and a flowering/fruiting formula. Second question, do you manipulate the MB for different stages in a plants life? Thank you for your time!
Amazing.. I see some people complaining about the drawing? You must have been to focused on that and not the amazing info he is sharing for free.
How often would you rotate them? 50 pigs per half acre, anyone?
sheepblitzer wondering the same thing. Did you manage to find out how often to rotate?
What about environmental costs for raising pigs
Most feeder pigs are 250 on the hoof when harvested. He figures $900 in cost per pig and he makes $200 per pig...that is equivalent to $1100 per pig...on the hoof. Who is going to pay that price for a pig? After slaughter, you do good to get 180 pounds and that includes bone. At an average of $3 per pound (I'm including ground pork, pork chop, loin, sausage etc in my figure), that's only $540 RETAIL. This means that a grower would most likely wind up selling them at $300 or so for the retailer to turn a profit. I'm trying to wrap my head around his figures. BUT if he's talking about he butchers and sells them himself, still....that's $1100 divided by 180 pounds ...that's over $6/lb he charges for his meat. Kinda pricey. Don't get me wrong, I think the world of Joel Salatin, but I can say that these prices for pork here in Louisiana would go over about as well as a turd in a hurricane.....
If you are raising hogs feeding them with no chemicals or nothing people will pay that much for them. I grow veggies on the side organically and they pay 3 times as much in the store. I charge them the same price and make good money doing it
You must live in an area where people are health conscious. I hate to say it but where I live, most people are more interested on gorging themselves at Golden Corral or a pizza buffet than eating healthily. Sad, ain't it? All I can do is try, right? Thanks for the input!
I do Golden Corral when I'm in Tampa I do even eat somewhat healthier there. I do have a salad, I have one good plate of meat and veggies, First, Then do the salads, Then 1 desert, I do not eat anything else the rest of the day. . When we go up to our farm in NW Florida between Tallassee and Panama city about an hour and a half drive each way. so we eat better,
There are a couple Greasy spoon restaurants that we eat at. Well in our town we have two restaurants each one across the street from the other at the caution light on main street. you can stand at one end of main street and see someone at the other end the town is so small
900.00 was the gross that would encompass profit and cost. You then have to deduct 200.00 profit multiplied by 300.00 to get 60,000 net he is claiming. In his scenario the expenses of feed and fencing come out of the processor's cost, which may be true if you are a contract farmer. I suspect he looked at the numbers from a meat processing plant and erroneously thinks that 200.00 the farmer gets is all net when that is the farmers gross. I fear a lot of people will get burned by this video, it has just enough information to be dangerous. People need to ask themselves; if pork is so profitable why have so many pork farmers gone bankrupt? Middle man meat processing plants push this propaganda because the excess pork supply decreases raw material cost and increases their profit margins. Even if you want to get into pork farming, make sure it is supplemental income you get during high pork prices and you can withstand economic downturns. Think about swine flu, PED, strong dollar shutting down exports, rising supplemental feed cost, pigs go over desired weight and loose value due to circumstances beyond your control, predators, thieves, escapes, wild boars attacking your boars and spreading brucellosis. Cost of vehicle and trailer to get pigs to market, is their a buyer anywhere near you that can take 300 pigs at ideal weight? Honestly, there is a lot more to consider and that is why one need to read all the books they can before you enter any venture.
Agree< Plus the guy he lease it from has to supply the water which keeps the well running all the time thus running up his power bill. Then he is going to have to worry about hog waste, the land want be any good for a long time after that for anything else. The only was he can make more money is to use the hog waste as power.
Is that 100/acre/month or per year?
Per year.
You can look up prices for your area depending if they are pasture, have water available, etc.
Wonder what he was feeding the hogs?
was this place covered or not
Fell asleep somewhere around 2:30.. woke up by the music at 10:37.
Best power nap video I have seen.
Men, all of the negative comments about budget and how you need to spend many money are ridiculous. Im from Spain, and here regularions and law is so bad for people who want to start pastured something. I am willing to start with pastured poultry this summer. Made the pens (300 each) rented land (108/month) buyed a prefab wood house for the brooder (1500) and i will borrow water from a house i have nearby. All the other costs are feed,chicks,wood shavings, feeders,waterers.... I mean,its not a high investment. And you can cover the investment with the first summer. And little by little keep growing. Thats my goal. And i think everyone can do this.
I wish more people talked Net profit rather than gross.
That is 30% ROI for 210K Investment + manual labor do you think it is worth the risk .. ?
How are you getting 900 a pig ? please tell me how and I will pay you for this market!!!!
I thought it said Joe Stalin at first! I was like "WHAT THE...!" LOL
Nope.
Stalin made a hell of a profit after he took everyone's crops for free.
Really interesting video, subscribed. Thanks for the upload.
seems like some good ideas. I wonder how much of this is like the 'get rich with no money down real estate' scams?
hi Mr Joel salatin.. I'm jocelyn, I'm 32yrs of age.. I'm here in Malaysia work at imbasan tenggara a farm piggery..
Sir Joel can i work on your farm..
plsss... plssss...
does not mention how you electric fence all those paddocks through trees, bushes. and brambles. nor does he mention the hogs being lose 90% of the time. Hard to believe he get $900 per hog either
100 per acre a month or a year?
How Joel Salatin Nets 60k/year on 20 Acres of Rented Land!
In Land aplenty TX that would be a year. In the overpopulated East, you would pay that monthly. If money is tight, find people who will rent land cheap or free to you so they can reduce taxes via an ag exemption.
Joshua pollard,
100 per acre per month (12) x 40 acres totals $48,000 to rent 40 acres of out of production, overgrown cropland each year.
100 per acre per year x 40 acres totals $4000.
Joel mentions that the leaser paid off property taxes with lease income.
Do you think the farmer whom rented Joel the land would turn down $4000 a year for these 40 acres?
I understand. As you know I didn't share my opinion on my question.
This is farmland or even not so. This is not NY city were people are willing to pay incredible rents to be living like hogs in an unhealthy environment. I prefer the smell from the hogs and the beauty of the nature. Wouldn't it be better to slaughter some of are so called "political leaders" in stead of those funny hogs. I definetely would buy a Clinton hamburger if she wouldn't be so unhealthy.
Is he saying they only spent 160 hours total working this entire operation?
The figures are all over the place.
Joel Salatin For PRESIDENT!!!!
Didn’t overhead projectors disappear in the 70,s
how is this permaculture?
Least change/effort for greatest effect, i suppose.
To Cullen Slim Brown, I’ve seen a TH-cam video made by John Suscovich(that’s also the name of his TH-cam channel) that really lays it out, in hard facts and numbers, that might interest you. Video title is: Is pastured Poultry Profitable.
I dont get it.. couldnt he have done this on 80 dollar/acre land or 50 dollar/acre scrubland?
Surely he would also just be able to use electric fence on the 4 half acre plots in use plus the subsequent one on the rotation. Sounds like this was an illustrative example of what could be possible rather than something that actually happened
What about shelter for the animals??
Then is a woods. They don't need much shelter. At least in his area of Virginia.
why does he do this vs. just putting all the pigs on 20 acres without subdividing it?
Because then youll have problems with disease and add vet costs, since theyll all hang out in one area in their manure. Also, while foraging if allowed the whole area they would just wipe out their preferred food source while leaving the rest to overgrow, making you have to buy feed. Rotational grazing allows time for forage to regenerate before the next pass.
Rotational grazing is also used for landscape restoration, which he didn't really go into. Those pigs brush cleared, weeded, tilled and fertilized that field for the farmer.
how are you running electric fence thru heavy bush?
I net $120k/year on 20ft x 20ft of land I own.
I'm calling bs on this and I'm not being negative. I'm just not buying any of it. This guy shouldn't drink before presentations. He never explained the business plan properly and his mistakes made it unenjoyable to follow. Also, why would he be rotating pigs to begin with when he can just grow them all at the same time? Free is free and you know what you get for free right?
Gold
If this guy came to me with this as a Business plan... he needs a hell of a lot more numbers... borrowed water doesn't work, Stock and Vet bills, actual Man hours ...
Don't know what he is selling but it right up there with a Time Share
Believe it or not, they are making great money. You should check out his farm and see for yourself.