Here we go again! The numbers game... Cost of raising livestock as food.

Hello Gang!
I just thought I would give you an update as to what it really costs to raise your own food.. (no particular reason other than it is interesting!)

Let's start with the Beef!

In less than 1 year, Stew has eaten:
50 lbs of Milk Replacer (formula)
450 lbs of Calf Starter (pelleted feed)
1630 lbs of Cracked Corn
That is a total of 2130 lbs of feed stuff!

If we guess Stew to weigh roughly 550 lbs., that means it took 3.87 lbs of feed to create 1 pound of steer.
To date, the total investment for this 9 month old steer is $657.70. That translates to $1.20 lb (live weight) Or $657.70.

(His total cost does not include the cost of hay (he eats $1.25 / day in hay), bedding, water, electricity, time, tax, butchering/wrapping, etc.)

Now let's talk about swine...

These two glorious "Gilts" (girl pigs) have eaten a total of 1825 lbs of feed.

The total cost of raising these two pigs is: $503.44 (or $251.72 for each pig) This too does not reflect the cost of hay (yes they eat hay :), bedding material, water, electricity, time, household food, tax, butchering/wrapping/smoking, etc...

Let's guess that these two piggies have a combined weight of 500lbs. That means it took 3.65 lbs of feed to make one pound of oink. And they cost roughly $1.00 / lb (live weight)

Let's cross our fingers on our market swine! According to the 2007 Outagamie Co. Livestock Sale report, the average price paid out to the kids per swine was $3.13/pound- Making the average price per animal $851.06. $529. being the lowest priced swine from last year. And $1411.00 being the highest priced swine. 101 swine were sold at the sale last year.

We chose the swine project this year to help us recover ($$) from the expense of raising show lambs / goats.

The lambs are still doing wonderful! Here is the breakdown on them:

Of the 3 lambs heading to show, 1 currently weighs 124lbs, one weighs 122lbs, and one weighs 117lbs!

These 3 lambs have eaten 1250lbs of grain stuff. That's over 1/2 a ton!!!!

It took 3.72lbs of grain stuff to create 1lb of lamb.
These 3 lambs cost $1.92 per pound (live weight)
Just an "FYI" these figures were calculated prior to the lamb's last weigh in. (in case you were wondering why the math doesn't jive!)

Have a great day!