We've done the research every step of our way. From day one, we knew someone else had the answers that we did not.
Many farmers and shoppers hear the phrase, "Your total will be based on hanging weight."
Hanging weight is a great measure. Hanging weight will tell you how much your animal weighs after it has been hung without its hide, head, hooves, innards, and blood. (Basically, everything you want is left over). However, what they don't tell you is that you don't really get all that is left hanging.
Different animals have different yields just because of how God crafted them. We started with pigs, so I will focus on that for now. A pig's yield is about 73% from live weight to hanging weight. From hanging weight to packaged weight, the yield is 60-70%.
What does this mean is I buy a pig based on hanging weight?
About 30-40% of your money was thrown in the trash at the slaughter house.
Your slaughter house will charge fees based on the hanging weight, and that makes sense. They are doing all the parts none of us want to deal with, and they are discarding those parts for you that you don't want to eat.
However, as a farmer, I have decided after much research that I do not want to charge customers for meat and bones that they are not walking away with. It's not a perfect science, but it is what we can do to help a little bit.
Our prices for spring 2022 can be found here. The savings with our method saved our customers $540 on average our last round of pigs, and we want to do right with the work we are doing.
As always, please email roundhillranchri@gmail.com with any questions.
*May the road rise to meet you*