“Feed Costs Are Huge!”
By Paul Walker Thompson
May 24, 2014
When thinking about Hog Production, you always have to think about Feed Costs, and Feed Conversion Rates. Historically, about 70% of raising a market hog is Feed Costs! Essentially, Feed Costs are huge when it comes to importance!
I did some over-simplified calculations for Feed Costs for the Finishing Phase of a 1250 Sow Farrow-To-Finish Farm. I calculated only the cost of feeding pigs from Weaning to 270#’s. At a cost of $0.12 per pound of feed, I figured that for every penny more for the cost of feed from $0.12 to $0.15 you would spend roughly $250, 000 more over a year’s time for finishing this farms pigs!
I used the simple figures of 1250 sows weaning 11.0 pigs at the rate of 2.25 litters/year. I next added in a Farrowing Death Loss of 3%. I used a weaning weight of 15.0 pounds, and a finishing weight of 270 pounds, for a total of 255 pounds of weight gain. I did not factor in a Death Loss from Weaning to Finishing. With this simple formula, I came out with the figure that for each penny more that the Feed Costs from $0.12 per pound to $0.15 per pound of feed that it would cost you an average of $250, 000 more to finish a year’s worth of this farm’s market hog