The best way I learned to trap them from my father, was to put some real good food in the corner. When you know you got customers coming over and then put some make some wood panels about two or 3 feet high and trap them in the corner and then you just reach down and pick up the one you want.

love the info you share, thank you.

Thanks for being so honest

Nooice! 😎 STOC You've come so far! So proud of you Chuck! Hi Saundra!

You guys make an excellent videos, I am not even a farmer or close to it (I am an engineer) but watching and learning with you guys are so much fun. best of luck in the years to come.

Thanks for giving the math on your piglet operation. Things will improve, going forward.

I'm starting a pig journey. I'm loving your videos. :) Informative and I am sure I can do this!

Any time your animals pay for themselves, while your trying to expand, you've done well.

Thanks for this video...y’all are doing good work & are such an inspiration to many...

I took a major beating this year. Feed cost and a few terrible losses in my herd. Back at it again this fall and litters due next spring. Great content!

Very informative, thank you

Great video, and thank you for sharing your numbers! With the feed cost the way it is, I am not looking forward to running my numbers this year but, I will. Hopefully, we can make more than $50.00 LOL

No screaming piglets nice and easy method to chatch and sell. I sell piglets too for the same price. After trial and error, the best catch method I learned is... invest in enclosed dog carriers with a door. When you wean and separate them from mom, feed them in carriers. When the buyer picks them up, you will be able to choose which ones you want, pull out from the carrier the ones you don't want, and close the door on them. Keep them calm by feeding a little at a time until you pick up the carrier, carry them to the vehicle and switch them into the buyers car. No screaming, no stress, easy peasy. even when you are moving the carrier the piglets don't seem to notice. At 6 weeks old you can fit two piglets per carrier. At 8 weeks maybe one or two

I raised hogs back in the 60’s. Farrowed around 100 pigs twice a year. If I lost 2% I was very disappointed. I don’t think I ever lost 2%.

Judging by the effort and organisation on display in your Farmer’s Market video, I’ve no doubt that next year will be far productive and lucrative for you. Really appreciate the transparency.

Hey Chuck could you do a updated one for this year please. Cheers. Your videos are awesome ❤

Great video, love the numbers! If you count the piglets you kept at $150 each, you made money! Building up the herd is always hard on the short term profits!

Just subscribed thanks for your great info. Thirty years ago I bought 8 small pigs, raised them to Breeding age, purchased an older Boar from a neighbor for $100.00 . Bred all 8 does, got them to about ten days before their due date. I started thinking about how many pigs were getting ready to drop (Well over 100 I'm sure). So I panicked, called the guy I bought the original 8 pigs from figured up my feed, wire, post, feeder and original pig cost. That came up to a little over a thousand dollars. I told him if he came that evening he could have them for $1500.00, he was there in 30 minutes lol. What a sweet deal he got, but at the time, my brother had bailed on me and I had no help. Wooded pasture still in tact and every time I watch your videos, I'm tempted to give it another whirl, haha. Kind regards from S.C.

Hate I didn’t get to bring one of those piglets back to Louisiana with me!!! Keep up the good work!!

Nice Video! Yeah, usually 80-85% of piglets do surivive.

You don't learn anything NEW by being right. Some days I've learned more than I could bear.

Love ur calculations.🇯🇲

Look at raising duckweed (an aquatic plant) for feed. They are high in protein and grow super fast. Look a farmer in Canada named Takota Coen. He has pig raising down to an art form.

Hi Chuck I heard if you ferment feed your costs could drop i don't know honestly but its worth a try good luck man

thank you

You did good on your pigs.

Feed cost is kicking everyone’s butt

I’m surprised that no one seemed to mention it but it seems like between the stillborn and after birth losses that is rather high. I’m not familiar with IV births so does that have anything to do with it? Grew up on small farm and while our numbers were less than yours our percent of losses were significantly. How many of the 20 something that died after birth may have been from the mother rolling on them?

Chuck, how many of the sows that just farrowed are going to freezer camp? Increased feed costs, along with a historic drought, has REALLY put a squeeze on us. Having to get creative with feed here. Really need some good sales this year! Another thing to think about on your estimated boar costs/worth is how many doses you save from the AI costs you would have incurred had you not had the boar. Hopefully future farrowings will lead to more live piglets for you. God bless 👍

Hi everyone! Can you all show me how and where to sell the pigs? Thank you so much.

Thanks for sharing the numbers. I've determined over time doing this that, as long as you have the infrastructure to handle the feeders, selling cuts, wholes and halves.....is substantially a more profitable enterprise with pigs. Take your 35 pigs and figure out your cuts/wholes/halves income, and I bet you come out way ahead.....even with feed costs. I'm guessing you get bulk feed delivered and have a gravity wagon somewhere on the farm?

I was curious if you make more money selling piglets or growing them out and selling the meat? This is really good information and I appreciate it so much. It’s always tough in the beginning because you have to put so much money into it but it’s definitely worth it in the end.

I always figure and so do other hog farmers I help if a female weans 8 it’s a good average.

What do you do with the old boars? Sale barn?

You also need to consider the cost of the sow, and feed costs all year, not just during pregnancy and raising the piglets

Do you have new numbers with the boar and what your hurd size is now? We are getting our first boar this week.

Great job being transparent with us . I think you need to some how get the mortuary rate down. Ween out the bad moms , I guess or see the shelter’s make a dif maybe 🤔. I don’t know . 22 out of 80 something seams high . I suspect it will take ya a couple of years to get it down to like 10 or less . Maybe trading with Jordan could be a possibility for a couple of his stock . Well anyways Great job & keep up the great work 👍Sandra ! 🤪 Just messing , Dave does a great work also 😝

Hey Chuck , where have you been getting your AI supply's from ?

Feed cost must be up more in your area. Great info!

Great video. I know you’re doing everything you can to control feed costs. There’s got to be ways to get the soil to grow more nutrients for less feed. Maybe landscaping. I heard a podcast on it. Get you the expert name. He has a book.

Get a salmon fishing net scoop them on the way by works great.

Wouldn't it be easier to get the piglets in the box again or a smaller area so the customers don't have such a hard time catching them? Or they can catch the one they actually want. Just wondering. I'm looking into getting pigs myself. I haven't done any of this.

You didn't lose money so it's a win

Check out Hidden Heights Farm automatic pig feeder may be option to reduce labor. Also could set it up in capture pen si when need catch for working or sell ,loading with gate that could be close either remotely oe automatically once number pigs in pen remotely probably best combine with camera so you know when have good number in pen

Thanks for video. I've wondered about the meat of a mature boar. Have you had any problems? Thanks!

Boars are definitely worth keeping once they're basically full grown they take very Lil feed to keep.boars are more cost effective than A I .most people don't keep boars long enough to reach they're full potential boars peak at 3. To 5yrs of age

Hey Chuck want to see y’all moving hamlet again lol

Hello just wanted to let you know if you feed your pigs cookies once in a while they'll come right to you when you want to load them on the trailer or Move them

How much and what do you feed your sows/gilts when they are pregnant

Was it 50 dollars you made per piglet or all of them

Their scream is crazy! All 4 of my dogs came running when the piglets started on the video. Hahahahha.

I am growing feed grain for my animals.

i dont know anything about keeping pigs so forgive the following question, but (Q) why do the pigglets have to be handled by picking them up by the legs? thanks, much love from the uk xxx

Six pigs per litter is not a very good retention rate, especially considering that you put more than 10 pigs per litter on the ground. May I suggest that the next time you breed intending to save back some gilts from those litters that you cross pure bred Yorkshire into your maternal blood line? You look to be running a red blood line right now, Wattles? Durocs? Duroc are a great growing pig, but not the best mother breed to use. A York crossed on to them will give you a better chance of saving more pigs per litter. We did small herd pig farming, never more than 21 sows at a time. At that number, it made sense to own our own boar. We were lucky to live next to Michigan State which did twice a year performance testing at the college. We were able to buy some top genetic material out of those auction sales. If you can get the information from your seed stock supplier, look to try to develop a maternal line that only has 10-11 pigs per litter. We found over the years that trying to select for this litter size gave us heavier piglets at birth that along with some crate protections, gave us a lose rate of piglets of about one pig per litter. Most years we weaned 200-210 from those 21 sows/gilt farrowing. Your stated feed costs seem high to me. Are you able to buy your yearly feed needs at corn harvest time and catch a low spot in the price on corn? For us, our cost of corn (home grown) was equaled by the cost of the soybean meal we had to buy. One we could control (sort of) the other we were at the mercy of the feed mill.

I know feed costs are on the rise however I have been grinding my own feed for pigs, chickens and ducks and coming in UNDER commercial feed costs even with mineral mix and supplements added in. No antibiotics. Maybe an avenue to look into.

It is hard to judge first time mama's over all regardless of what animals you are raising but I do feel the outcome of how many piglets grew up to sellable age is low and for next year you might have to do some serious reviewing of the mamas who are doing their 2nd time and see how good mamas there are. One of them for sure is a terrible mom and she should go regardless but you only really want to keep best of the best to breed so you retain as many piglets as possible. But I'm sure you already know this.

U would do better puuting breeding stock on concert cleaner and then u would not have to worry about pigs getting accidentally killed all u would have to put down on wood shaving

So basically 14 net profit, whatever the purpose, and what that turns out to be in the wallet at the end?

But you can buy a finnished meat hog for 200. With no feed cost.

Hey Chuck. Why is the cost of piglets so low? Here in Hawaii I bought my 3 potbelly piglets at $700 a piece.... In pet stores or feed lots they're in the range of $1,000 and up.... My opinion you should raise your piglet prices a few $100 to make your profit back. Just my opinion.. Thanks

You didn't figure in cost utilities and cost of driving to get feed and supplies. Once you get feet planted you can start to brake even then see a profit. Keep going you will get there eventually tku

Got to charge 200

If you think about it, your numbers aren’t that bad for the sows you had. Your biggest problem I suspect is your death rate. As you progress you should be able to improve that.

Wow. The average cost for pigs that size here is$60.

Feed is way too much

Re: a boar- without a boar you have no resiliency. With boar you will always have pork.

So you can eat pork for free. Thats a pritty good deal.

im not sure i understand the point though as much as im a huge advocate for farm raised livestock and self reliant family's / homesteading , i just dont see farming as a resourceful livelihood anymore as you said an entire year of work and feed and you profited 50$ all jokes aside you can go cut a lawn in a yuppy suburb and make more in 1 day than you made in an entire year as a pig farmer, no insult intended you dang sure aint paying your bills with farming anymore, even if you had a large vegetable garden , pigs , chickens , goats, you still cannot sustain your own livelihood aside from guaranteeing you have food without electricity i blame big corporatization and large farming operations for this because they have cornered the market and basically shutdown self made farmers, they own prices and can make moves that drive the prices so low, its not worth attempting i too have live stock atm 20 chickens and 2 yorkshire piglets male and female im at the point now where i only see it as a love for my own food source and possibly a way to make them to produce enough to net zero on upkeep and feed

That’s to many stillborn and dead piglets its more than average. If you cut that death rate in half you would have made thousands of dollars. Then again if you didn’t hold back the 14 piglets you would have made a lot more money also but I think you know that already.

And you think you can teach me something??

No need to make them scream like this. And I’m no vegan!

you robbed those pepole here in kentucky we sell our pigs for 60 dollars a piece send us some business thanks

Thanks 😊

Pig that you keep especially Boars the feed cost should be minimal as you just feed to maintain healthy weight and not concerned about puting weight on such as younger ones intended for market /retail Sow about same until bred then still no concerned about weight gain other than to produce healthy piglets, only up feed requirment for nursing till weaned