www.sausagemaking.org

Hi,
I am a Butcher in the UK. Can anyone help me cost a whole pig?

What i mean by that is: for example, a whole pig is bought at £3 p/kg. Once the carcass has been butchered into it's individual cuts, how do i know what to charge for the cuts to ensure i am making 35% markup on the whole carcass?
Idealy, i'm looking for a diagram or an online calculater to use which tells me the percentage markup i should apply to each primal to equal 35% markup of the total weight of the whole pig.

It would be so easy just to mark up a whole pig at 35% bought at £3.00 p/kg to charge £4.62 p/kg after butchering no matter what the cut. Life's never that simple! That way, on a pig weighing 55kg at £3.00 p/kg, (bought for £165.00), sold at costx35%=£4.62 p/kg = £254.10, that leaves £89.10 (-labour cost) profit from that pig.

Does anyone understand what i am saying? (please say yes, lol)

Can anyone assist me?

This is a USDA reference, its called the pork carcass cutout the url references a pdf document that should help you understand primal and sub primal pricing.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile ... PRD3484991

hope that helps!

You could try this:

http://www.meatcostings.com/index.html

I must say that I'm surprised that this isn't part of the training in butchery.

FWIW, £3 per kg seems high for wholesale whole pigs if they are a standard commercial pig. Are the ones you're buying rare breed? Free range?

Also, don't forget trimming/wastage. Just because the pig comes in weighing 55kg it doesn't mean it will go out weighing the same. No one will want to pay the same price for head meat or trotters compared to boneless loin.
It also depends on what's 'trendy' at the moment - Leg was always the most expensive as was the loin, but lately I've seen both priced a lot lower than belly which has become popular over the last few years. At one time you couldn't give it away !

Thanks all, very helpful tips there.
I only used £3 as an example. Commercial split pigs are costing me £2.20 p/kg this week.
There was a brief mention of costing cascasses during my apprenticeship however most of it was down to markup of primal cuts and their boneless counterparts.
Thanks a lot chaps!!