Ordering Half or Whole Hogs — Harmony Springs Farm (2024)

FAQs

What do you get when you order half a pig? ›

You will receive between 70-80 pounds of meat ready to go in your freezer. The hanging weight of half a hog can vary, but is usually around 100 lbs. Once the meat is cut from the bone and packaged some water weight is lost to evaporation so it yields 70-80% of the hanging weight.

A whole hog share yields approximately 115 pounds of cuts plus 9 to 10 pounds of leaf lard, 10 to 12 pounds of organs & bones and 15 to 20 pounds of back fat.

It's cheaper to buy only the cuts of meat you want to cook with. Buying the whole pig is charged at hanging weight. Typically, you will pay a processing fee that is a set price plus a per pound dollar amount multiplied by the hanging weight after the pig has been killed, but before anything has been removed.

Market hogs weighing between 250 – 325 pounds will dress on average 70% (range 68 to 72%) with the skin-on and the head-off, resulting in a hanging carcass weight range of 175 - 228 pounds.

Estimated total cost (for a 100 pound half pig)

At $5.75 per pound of hanging weight and assuming another $200 in butcher costs, the estimated total cost of a 100 pound hanging weight half pig would be approximately $775.

Whole hogs yield approximately 140 pounds in meat, half hogs yield approximately 80 pounds in meat. The difference in the hanging weight and the weight of the meat, or finish weight, is the parts of the carcass that are not made into product.

A general rule is you need 1 cubic foot of freezer space for every 15-20lbs of meat. For reference, the interior of a milk crates is slightly more than a cubic foot. For a half hog you need 3.5 cubic feet and for a whole hog you will need 7 cubic feet.

Hams: On a whole hog you get 2 hams. A whole ham on a hog can weigh between 12 and 25 pounds. Options are to smoke the hams or leave them as is (called fresh). The cutting options for hams are whole, half, thirds, quarters, ham steaks, or ham roasts.

A whole hog will yield about 16 lbs of bacon. You can slice it and fry it fresh as a pork belly or you can have it smoked and cured to make bacon. Shoulder: A whole hog will yield 2 Boston butt roast and 2 picnic roasts from the shoulders.

Pork shoulder—generally divided between the picnic roast and the Boston butt—are among the least expensive cuts of pig. Of course, the secret of turning these tough pork roasts into a wonderful meal is to smoke them low and slow and use them in barbecue pulled pork.

Is pig meat cheaper than cow meat? ›

Pork has two strong positives. Pork is cheaper than beef and there is a plentiful supply. Retailers can offer pork with low pricing to the consumer and maintain profit margins.

On average about 57% of a hog make it from the pen to the pan. A 250 lb. hog will yield approximately 144 lbs of retail cuts. Around 28% of a hog's live weight is inedible product re- moved during the slaughter and dressing procedure bringing our 250 lb.

Lamb: 7 to 14 days. Pork: 4 to 10 days.

At the end of the nursery phase, the pigs enter a feeder-to-finish, or simply, the finishing stage, where at approximately 6 months they reach a desired slaughter weight of above 280 pounds, which will produce an approximate 210 pound carcass. A desired slaughter weight is the optimum market weight.

From the loin you can expect chops and roasts. Typically a market hog will yield 30 x 1 inch pork chops and 2 x 3- 4 lb loin roasts. Hams: A whole hog will yield 2 x 15 lb hams.

Half a pig, referred to in the butchery trade as a 'side of pork', can be broken down into three basic sections. The front, usually called the 'cross-cut', the middle, and the leg, but to really understand the variety of different cuts you can get, we're going to have to break it down a bit further.

On average, once processed, you'll end up with about 200 pounds of beef, and about 85 pounds are steaks and roasts. That means around 45-60 cuts of steaks—depending on the exact cuts and sizes of the steaks. That's like filling your freezer with enough meat for many family dinners, BBQs, and more.