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| Most grain guys will say it's too risky and if you could just grain farm and make a good living that's what you should do. However, it depends on what you need to support your family and lifestyle (keep in mind this changes drastically with hogs). 11 years ago I was farming small acres (not much more now) and working off the farm playing engineer/computer guy. To me it was an act of God that 3 different folks made the suggestion I should go into hogs (one was the banker though). It got me more farm based and the manure made my small farm much more viable, but I had much more hard work to do.
We built 2 1200's right away because the IFA thought it would be easier to sell 2 if I went bankrupt (got my back!) and 5 years later we build a 2400. Financing went from a bank that started at 6% and was heading for 8% while farm credit was under 6% and heading down. In the midst of the refinance we ended up stretching out my original loan so both loans end about the same time (2nd loan is 11 years). I wasn't super happy about that, but it turned out making the cash flow work better. Naturally, being contract insulates me from some issues, but the guy I grow for went through some really tough times and we ended up taking a pay cut for a year. Without the extended loan period we could have been out of business.
Yes everything breaks and it's best to have a really good builder set up the building or do it yourself (or at least call the shots). It's no fun to deal with something that just wasn't done right from the start and not easy to change.
Be ready to make almost nothing at times when any number of things go wrong - high propane cost, cold weather, well quits, fan motors quit, etc etc. If you pay others to fix this stuff, you won't be in it long btw. When everything is working right and the pigs are healthy there is almost nothing to it, but those times are pretty short and it's generally a job everyday of the year.
One bonus is great fertilizer that is cheaper than commercial, but is far from free. The other bonus is someone else pays for your asset. There is no doubt gates, water and feeding systems will struggle to make it 12 years without repairs (and that's with complete washout every 6 months), but the concrete tank isn't going anywhere and the wood structure is usually fine as well. As long as the building isn't built to some unusual spec, there will be folks wanting to put pigs in it and since they tend to be open floors it can be reconfigured for about anything in hog production. Like a guy told me about a lot of businesses - you can't help but make money if you are willing to work at it. Hogs are work and that's not so popular.
I have 4 years to go and maybe less if we can make extra payments and so far we have replaced the bottoms of the gates in our original buildings and are re configuring to have gates that swing open at the back to combine pens so we can run brooders instead of heat lamps. After the first 3 years stuff started breaking (furnaces, fan motors, etc) just so you know. Also, don't get sold on some fancy fluorescent lamp that's only available from a contractor during business hours. Just get screw in fixtures and use CFLs or algore hated incandescent bulbs. | |
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Some numbers on a hog finishing barn
