A Very Small Glance at the Hidden Life of St Joseph
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I have been working hard on a book of economics called The Village Economy: How Catholic Fathers Can Live a More Authentic Lifestyle. In it, I recommend traditional labors financed as a small, self-sufficient occupation by those in the parish who are looking for good and holy places to lay up their worldly treasures. As for myself, I am acting this out via a swine business. In order to benefit whomever may read this, I now lay out for you my business plan and encourage you to contact me with any questions.
The idea is to take about a $5000 investment and turn it into a small family’s income within two to five years, part-time, outside a job. Originally, I planned to take $1000 of this to buy a good breeding pair of full-grown hogs, to cut down on time. If you get feeder pigs, however, you will have to wait about five months longer, but you will spend about $400 less after feed. This could be used to have multiple sows and perhaps others for an earlier slaughter.
The setup is a twelve by twelve enclosure separated by an interior partition at four feet for the boar. This suits one sow and her litters, while another can be added to the other side of the boar. Three to five sows will seem to produce a $30,000 to $60,000 a year income. Many things could be said for rotation, feed, water, fence makeup, shelters, and other attributes of the enclosure, and this is the current subject of my planning. I expect to spend about $400 per enclosure.
After they have been bred, on month four they will have their piglets; on month six they will wean; the next month you can breed them again; and on month nine the litter will be ready for slaughter.
A piglet supposedly eats about one pound of feed a day for every month of age up to six pounds, while a sow will eat ten if bred or milking. Litters seem to vary between four and twelve, with seven being the average. If it is $15 for a 50lb bag of feed, over the nine months, you can expect to spend two to three thousand on feed, with the average at twenty-five hundred. This is about four thousand of your investment. At the slaughter (nine months), if your average pig is 180lb of cut meat, this will give you about $900 per pig. Now, you may have to spend a little in butchering equipment and get some help, but there is about $1000 for the purpose left of your initial investment. Meanwhile, it is wise to build new enclosures about a month or two before the slaughter, but make sure you have your butchering equipment first. This is for the new sows you might retain from that first litter in order to get you up to your goal (you can slaughter or sell these two in exchange for other sows if you are concerned about inbreeding).
Regardless, you ought to make $3600 to $9000 on that first slaughter if you can sell all the meat or even sell some for breeders. This will give you plenty of operating capital to replace your initial investment and sustain everything for another six months to the next slaughter, which will occur every three to six months with two rotations of sows. The new sows would be bred only the next month, and the next litter would be out only a couple of months after your first slaughter from your original breeders.
May the Lord reward you,
St. Pambo, Patron of the Poor, pray for us,
In Cordibus Sancta Familia,
Mr. Nathaniel Slattery
nathanielslat@gmail.com
Nathaniel Slattery resides in Tennessee with his wife and children. He writes when he can. He also keeps sheep, does various forms of hard labor, cares for his family, and is a devout Catholic.
