|
Alton, Ia | To answer your main question, yes you can own the pigs. But, be prepared. Every morning you wake up, you better be ready to compete with integrators who have people who can place and lift hedges, put the screws to feed suppliers, shop around for trucking, be up to date on the latest and greatest medicines, additives, equipment, etc. It is a very low margin business, and if you think having to compete for renting land or buying it is tough, that is the situation you will be in, EVERY 24-27 weeks, when the next group has to be found. And I almost neglected to mention that pigs die, whether or not you can afford them to.
You can work with marketing firms to help, but they don't guarantee anything, only "advice", and they will charge $1 pig for marketing them. They work with packers daily, so they can get even a small farmer's loads in. Whether they are worth it is up to you. Feed companies will help you find pigs, the more pigs, the more feed... But not all pigs are created equal... and not all the time can you get them.....
Can you make money, yes. Somebody is going to make money, on average, on the pigs in a barn you build. Is it as easy as many people on this board make it seem? Absolutely not. For example, right now, there's maybe $1 profit in a pig. (On a $215 finished pig, boy that really sucks when they die old.) What do you do? Hedge, lock in the whopping $1. Wait, hoping for a $1 break in corn, which will take you to ~$9 profit. ???? Waiting sounds good, until the corn market rallies. You HAVE to buy the feed, or they tend to die.
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.....
Edited by Oliver1 12/25/2012 22:01
| |
|
Hog bulding logic
