Pig question for Red or Stoney or any other pig keepers

[bonniethomas06]

Just a quick question, if I may...does £350 for a Gloucester Old Spot sow in pig sound reasonable to you?

[oldjerry]

Pedigree? Prize winner? Still,quite a lot. (and the wrong breed,but I'm hopelessly biased). How old? In pig?

Tried to pm you,it dont work!

[red]

you know i really dont know. whether she is pedigree or not is a biggy

i guess i would go to the local auction website and look at recent prices.

[Stonehead]

It would depend on a number of factors.

I'd pay that much for a pedigree Berkshire sow from good lines on her second litter, with a good first litter under her belt and currently in-pig to a good boar. We bought Daisy, one of our pedigree sows, in late 2007 for £300. It also cost us £200 in diesel to get her here. She's from champion lines that have thrown carcass competition champions and she was in pig to a show champion boar.

I'd pay a bit less for an equally good sow that was in pig with her first litter, unless she'd had an ultrasound to see how many piglets she was carrying and the breeder had farrowing weight records for other sows from that line. I look for 10 or more piglets, averaging 1.3kg at farrowing and absolutely none less than 1kg. There's also an element of risk in a first-time sow's mothering ability.

The price should drop with each successive litter and you really shouldn't consider a sow that's had five or more litters (productivity goes down markedly from the seventh or eighth gestation), unless she's especially good and you're hoping for a breeding replacement from her. Or you don't mind losing money.

If she is a good sow and gives you six litters with at least 10 piglets surviving to weaning, that's 60 piglets to recover the cost of the sow—£5.83 each. Don't forget to add your delivery costs etc to that. It's not that much to pay, in my view.

On the other hand, I seem to be one of the few people that doesn't value cheapness above all else and most of the people on the various pig forums I frequent would say look for something much cheaper.

[Stonehead]

PS If have a question like this and need a quick reply from me, PM me so I get an email and know to have a look. I only visit the forum weekly.