How to Price Pork Cuts: Full Cost, Margin, a Calculator

To price a pound of retail pork you add up its full cost first: the hog at its cost to raise and the processing by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one pound costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a pound of mixed retail cuts that costs $5.27 to make, a 50% margin after 3% fees means $11.22, rounded up to $11.25. A 280-pound hog yields about 140 pounds of retail cuts after processing, so the cost per pound is double what the live weight suggests. Wholesale to a restaurant is a different price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Missouri pig farm prices its cuts for the market and a restaurant.

The short version

• Full cost = hog and processing a pound + your time + label + overhead.
• Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
• Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
• Divide by the retail pounds that come back, not the live weight.
• Chops and bacon sell faster than shoulder; price the cuts so the whole hog sells.
• Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
• TaroStack keeps each hog's cuts as lots, counted by cut. More below.

What goes into a pound's cost

Selling halves and wholes instead is in how to price beef by hanging weight, and the rules for it in custom exempt meat processing.

An example: a pound of mixed cuts

Ozark Ridge Pork, a made-up pig farm near Springfield, Missouri, raises hogs on pasture and sells cuts from a USDA-inspected processor at a Saturday market. One hog:

At a 50% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $5.27 ÷ 0.47 = $11.22, so $11.25. At $11.25 a pound on average, each pound leaves $5.64; chops go at $12, bacon at $13, shoulder at $8 and ground pork at $7, which averages near that across a hog. It had been averaging $10, which leaves $4.43. A restaurant asked for shoulder and belly at $8.00 a pound, which leaves $2.49. What comes back from a carcass is worked out in butcher yield test.

Get the calculator

Download the pork price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's hog and processing costs, amounts and costs, the pounds it makes, the hands-on minutes, the label and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The calculator prices an average pound. A freezer full of shoulder after the chops sell out tells you the cut prices are wrong, and only counts by cut show it.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps each hog's cuts as lots, counted by cut, so you see which ones sit.

Cuts by lot. Each hog's cuts come back from the processor as lots with their packed date.

Counts by cut. The freezer is counted by cut on a phone, so the shoulder that sits shows up.

Sales by customer. Each sale records the cut and lot, at the market or to a restaurant.

Lots, counts and sales are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much should I charge for pork cuts?

Work out the full cost, the hog, processing, time and overhead, then divide by 1 minus your margin and fee rate; the example's $5.27 average pound prices at $11.25 for a 50% margin.

How do you calculate the cost of pork cuts?

Add the batch's hog and processing costs and divide by the pounds it makes, then add your time, the label and a share of overhead.

What is a good profit margin on pounds?

Set your own target after fees; the example uses 50% on direct sales and accepts less on wholesale.

How much retail pork do you get from a hog?

In the example, about 140 pounds of retail cuts from a 280-pound hog.