East Central Illinois. 39.346676, -87.653484 | Friend if you are indeed young and hungry then why would you pay someone else to do the management, it will require an extra shower every day but it pays pretty well on an hourly basis (you can take care of hogs at 4 a.m. or 11 p.m., can't make seed deliveries/sales calls at those times)?
Another thing to keep in mind is that virtually all livestock equipment is a specialty product these days, at least around here I cannot just run to town to get manure wagon parts, nipple waterers, feed system components etc. A lot of overhead to keep around for a very specific purpose.
Also the land adjacent to manure will get tired of manure in short order (the 80 adjacent to my SMALL operation hasn't had any applied for the last 10 years) and the farther you haul/pump the more costly it becomes in terms of both time and $.
If you aren't set up to apply your own manure have you figured in what it will cost in loss of growing degree units, if spring applied, or a way to quantify compaction and soil structure damage if applied in wet fall conditions.
It can be done, but keep in mind there are countless hidden costs that you simply cannot fathom until you have lived it for a few years.
My email is good if you have any questions please don't hesitate to fire off a message, I am by no means an authority on the subject but have been working in the swine industry (at least part time) for 28 of my 37 years |
Some numbers on a hog finishing barn
