www.sausagemaking.org

Exciting times, won't be long before my first pigs go off to slaughter.

I know my imput costs and the margin I want to make for neighbour's and friends who want to buy from me, so if someone wants half a pig it's easy. Unfortunately most don't. Is there a simple way of calculating the relative price of different joints if, say, someone just wanted a boned rolled shoulder? I don't mind being left with the sub- prime cuts, it's just that I need to work out a way of calculating the cost of the prime cuts.

P

I would start at a supermarket. The prices there are structured so that the whole hog gets sold. This will show you the relative popularity of the different cuts. You might go to a farmers' market to see how other small producers tier their prices.

Yep - that's probably what I'll end up doing - fortunately, I've sold half of my first pig which covers my purchase/feed/abbatoir costs so effectively getting the other half 'free' (if you don't factor in your time)