Kurobuta Berkshires

05/16/2022

Pure bred Berkshire Piglets available in 7 weeks near Moncton/Sussex. Paid reservations only, no delivery!

04/05/2022

Auction weekend is coming up!

04/05/2022

Pure breed Berkskires

02/14/2022

I always stress how important to NEVER hand feed pigs... Trying to bring a sow for transport with some lettuce got me bit so hard. Always let the feeding frenzy calm down and teach young with tick gloves not to bit the hands by grabbing the nose when they get nippy!

12/06/2021

Season of the 2 for 1 Bacon seeds!
Moncton Sussex Area

10/30/2021

Don't throw away your pumpkins this year! Come and play around with our very friendly pigs and piglets. They love to mud out nice and clean shoes... so bring your rubber boots!

Located between Hopewell Rocks and Fundy National Park.
https://www.queensfarmfundy.com/berkshirepigs

Covid Safe Fall activity - Call to book your time and visit. Social distancing and masks will be required when meeting the farmer!

10/30/2021

10/21/2021

This is just crazy... and it is not over!

09/30/2021

Bacon seeds for your Fall 2022 harvest available in 8 weeks!

09/30/2021

Doing the fencing for grazing pigs this week! Come and see how it is done and also how to build winter shelters that are resistant to these curious bacon makers!!!

09/26/2021

Learn how to do Wintering for your grazing pigs outside! 2nd of October 10 AM, come and see how we do it here!

08/09/2021

Heritage Breed Pasture Pork Prices

This post is informational in nature as we have gotten some questions regarding the price of our pork and some comments regarding how we make money selling pork. The short answer is we loose money on selling pork. This is not to complain or throw a pity party. It is to help educate the consumer and potential farmers.

The cost of raising a heritage breed pig to slaughter is not comparable to CAFO raised pork. The pork itself is completely different. The picture below shows the difference in store bought chop compared to our pork. We break down the cost of raising pasture pork. Using hog grower bought at a local COOP.

-18% Hog Grower (corn and soy) $488/ton
- $0.244/lb
-Piglet price $150
-Avg Hang Weight 142 #
-Avg packaged weight 85 #
-Avg Processing $284/pig (all cuts smoked and cased products included)

We average approximately 6lbs of feed/pig/day which equates to $1.46 a day. Our pigs are raised for 16 months or 548 days. So $1.46 x 548 days = $800.08/pig to slaughter to feed.
$800.08 feed + $150 piglet + $284 processing = $1234.08/pig. $1234.08/85 # of finished product = $14.52/lb of pork. This does NOT include fencing, shelter, medications, electric, tools, land, or TIME.
So 1 pound of processed pork at BREAK-EVEN price is $14.52.

Ways to decrease costs:
-Grow own feed: On our farm raising our own grain is not an option and doesn’t make logical sense as it would be extremely time intensive.
-Buy feed from local producer and grind/mix yourself: we do this and it saves us $134.16/ton of feed or $0.07/lb.
-sell piglets to pay for feed and recoup breeding stock feed costs: This is where we make up some of our costs as piglets sold as feeders are about $150 each. With the smaller litter sizes with heritage breed pigs this gets us to break even with breeding stock or a bit better.
-Raise in confinement: this is not an option we will consider on our farm as we like to have healthy happy pigs that are allowed to wallow in the mud and do pig things.
-Supplemental feeding (local produce, bread, restraint scraps, etc.): We do this minimally with garden produce sourced from larger scale farms. It is a good additive but you must be careful to not add too much because it complicates the protein and lysine which hinders muscle growth.

Let us know if you found this helpful.

07/28/2021

Edith doing the bacon cloning thing! The Berkshire breed when raised with daily love, will let you handle the piglets and even put your fingers in her mouth. Edith is the sweetest 850 pounds girl ever and we just hope the piglets can get out of the way when she gets up! Third litter and she is starting to be very gentle with experience!!!

04/30/2021

I have use these for mixing grains into the grinder to have fresh crushed feed when I was in Switzerland, but I am still unable to find this in North America! I have found the Chinese manufacturer and my price for shipping is almost the same for 1 or 10... So if you would like to move grain 5 meters away into your truck or in a large feeder without having to buy a tractor or a fork lift, this is the option for smaller operations on a low budget!

It runs on 110V and I use a small generator to power it when I use it out with the truck. I am looking at ordering 3 for myself and ordering more would make the shipping price a lot better!

With shipping I can get them for 750$US for about 5 or 6 units. If we order more than 10 I can get the price down to 650$US. I you want to join this group purchase I only require a 100$ deposit.
IMPORTING FEES ARE NOT INCLUDED

04/01/2021

The smaller openings prevents fighting and keeps the big ones om the other side!

03/31/2021

02/26/2021

Dear "Edith", you are the number one of this breeding program. The new tags are coming in and you are getting the first one!

02/21/2021

Up for discussion, any other information in private please! NO FEEDERS

Our breed selection for the Winter Hardy Acadian line is now over and we have many pigs available for breeding. I have 6 months and 1 year old pig ready to go, male or female. Some females are pregnant and are expected to produce over 8+ piglets every time. I have 2 pairs left on unrelated Berkshires. The next litter ready in 3 months will be paired with Ireland Berkshires bloodline, ou must reserve now only 4 pairs will be available.