Pig Farm Business Plan: Pastured Pork, Halves and Cuts

A small pig farm buys feeder pigs, raises them on pasture for about six months, and sells the pork. Feed is most of what a hog costs. Selling halves and wholes by hanging weight, before processing, is the simplest way: the customer pays the butcher. Selling cuts and sausage at a market earns more per pound but needs an inspected plant and a freezer full of stock. The plan turns on feed prices, the six months before the first pigs are ready, and how the pork is sold. In the example, an Iowa pastured pork farm starts with $25,400, ends its first year about $55 behind before the owner's pay while sales build, and makes about $800 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the farm in a paragraph: the pigs, the pasture, who buys, the goals.
• Cost each sale: the feeder pig, feed, processing and packaging.
• Plan sales by product: halves, wholes, cuts and sausage.
• Halves sold before processing can go to a custom butcher; cuts sold by the pound need inspection.
• Feed is the biggest cost: watch its price.
• Expect six months before the first pork is ready.
• TaroStack keeps the freezer counted by cut and lot, and each order's lots on record. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Driftless Ridge Pork, a made-up pastured pig farm in Decorah, Iowa, writes:

Driftless Ridge Pork raises about 60 pigs a year on pasture near Decorah, sells half and whole hogs to families by hanging weight, and sells cuts, sausage and bacon from an inspected plant at a Saturday market. In its first full year it aims to sell about $4,600 a month on average.

Part 2: what a sale costs

The half hog's customer pays the butcher's cut-and-wrap on top of the farm's $4.25 a pound hanging; the farm pays only the hauling. Pricing by hanging weight is in how to price beef by hanging weight; pork works the same way.

Part 3: the pigs, the butcher and the market

Feeder pigs arrive in spring and fall, about 30 at a time, and go to the processor at six months. Halves and wholes are sold before processing and cut at a custom butcher for the families who bought them, in custom exempt meat processing. Cuts, sausage and bacon for the market come from an inspected plant with the farm's labels, in meat labeling requirements.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $4,580 a month and keeps $1,972, 43.1%; half hogs bring $780 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $1,130 every month: pasture lease ($300), freezer power and market fees ($200), fuel ($180), fencing and equipment upkeep ($150), insurance ($120), vet ($80), and other costs ($100). Sales start at 10% of full speed:

The year's sales are $31,428, and the business ends it $55 behind, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $2,620 of sales a month, in the sixth month. The lowest cash point, −$4,817 in month 5, is covered by the $6,000 of working cash with about $1,200 to spare. Pork comes in two rounds a year, so the plan spreads sales as monthly averages; the first months are low because the first pigs aren't ready until month six.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $19,400 before working cash is earned back in about two years at full speed. Another meat sold by the share is in chicken business plan, and turning trim into sausage in sausage making business plan.

Get the template

Download the pig farm business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one feed price and one yield. Feed climbs, a hog hangs lighter than planned, and by spring the freezer's count of chops and bacon is a guess.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps the freezer counted by cut and lot, and each order's lots on record.

Each processing a lot. Each trip to the processor comes back as lots of cuts with their dates, received into the freezer by item and weight.

Orders by customer. Shares, market orders and restaurant orders are sales orders, with a picking list and the lots each one took.

Counts in the freezer. The freezer can be counted on a phone with no signal, and what runs short before the next processing date shows in days of cover.

Lots, sales orders and counts 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 does it cost to start a pig farm?

The example budgets $25,400, including $6,000 of working cash; the livestock trailer is the biggest item.

Is a pig farm profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $800 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, after a first year that ends behind.

How much does it cost to raise a pig?

In the example, about $420 for a whole hog: $120 for the feeder pig, $250 of feed and $50 to process it.

Can I sell pork without USDA inspection?

Halves and wholes sold before processing can be cut at a custom butcher for the families who bought them; cuts sold by the pound need an inspected plant.