What's the deal with buying a half pig?


You pay $2.05/lb dress weight (aka hanging weight, carcass weight).  

Half pigs usually dress 100-125lbs.  You will take home about 75-85lbs of meat (approximately--could be a little more or a little less) (Some bones, fat, etc are discarded after taking the hanging weight)


Then, you pay butcher to kill and process your pig.  For most folks, this costs approximately $100-150 per half pig.  This covers the butchers kill fee, making flavored sausage, smoking bacon and hams, etc.


Basically, it's about $300-$350 by the time you've paid everybody for about 75-85 pounds of meat just the way you like it.  You choose thickness of cuts, which cuts, how many cuts per package, which flavor(s) of sausage etc etc.  All kinds of freedom :)


Our next batch of pigs left for sale is scheduled to be butchered in January 2025  Let us know if you're interested in a half or in knowing more!

Total cost as individual cuts:  $498.52

Please note:  Buying whole/half hogs allows them to be "custom" butchered.  This is cheaper than USDA inspected processing.  (In other words, we have to pay more to process our pork that we sell as individual pieces, which is one reason the price needs to be quite a bit higher to buy the individual pieces)


All of the animals we send to butcher are healthy and have no trouble passing USDA inspection.  If you would like your whole/half hog USDA inspected, that's no trouble at all.  Just let us know ahead of time and we'll make sure that gets done for you.  The processing cost (butchering/cutting/wrapping) will just be at a higher rate.

The dress weight of this half pig was 110 pounds.  The actual take home meat was 77.19 pounds.  You pay $2.05/ lb dress weight for the meat. ($225.50).  You paid $125.00 for butchering/cutting/wrapping, etc.  This made a grand total for the half pig of $350.50

Savings = $148.02​

Total Cost (purchased as half pig):  $350.50​​

​​Cut of Pork
Number of PoundsCost if purchased as individual cuts
Hot Italian Sausage (links)5$33.35
Ground Pork3.75$21.83
Spare Ribs3.025$16.21
Liver1.75$4.90
Heart and Tongue.85$2.38
Chops19.7

$115.44

Shoulder Roast13.25

$63.73

Ham Roast11.375$82.81
Ham Steaks9.863$71.80
Bacon9.438$86.07

 This is an example of a half a pig.   Each  customer's pig is butchered according to  their specifications.  Your order (and totals) might  look similar, or it might be quite different 

Here we contrast the cost of buying a half pig with the cost of purchasing each piece of meat individually

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