Pricing your half hog: a worked example
We get a question from new farmers every year: "What should I charge for a half hog?" The answer is "it depends on your costs," which is unhelpful unless somebody actually walks through the math. Here is the math, with real numbers from our farm, for the kind of small pasture-based hog operation most direct-to-consumer farms are running.
You won't have our exact costs. But the structure of the math is the same on every farm.
The animal
Single feeder pig, bought at 8 weeks, raised for 6 months on pasture and supplemental grain.
- Feeder pig cost: $135
- Grain ration over 6 months (1,200 lb at $0.30/lb avg): $360
- Mineral, vitamin, salt: $25
- Bedding (straw, wood shavings): $40
- Vet and meds (rare, occasional): $25
- Fencing, water, infrastructure share: $50 (amortized across the year's hogs)
- Labor (chore time): $180 (90 hours total at $20/hr, spread across 6 months)
- Mortality risk (3% spread): $25
Total direct cost per hog: $840
That's our actual cost in 2026 dollars, on a farm running 12 to 20 hogs per year. Your numbers will vary on feed cost, labor rate, infrastructure share, and feeder pig source.
The processing
A 280-pound finished hog hanging at 210 pounds whole, custom-exempt processing:
- Slaughter fee: $95
- Cut and wrap: $1.85 per pound hanging x 210 = $389
- Cure and smoke (bacon, hams, hocks): $95
- Disposal fee (offal, hide): $25
Total processing per hog: $604
That cost gets passed to the customer in most freezer-share models. Customers pay the cut-and-wrap separately to the locker, or you bill it through. Either way, it's not your margin — it's a pass-through. We'll treat it as a pass-through here.
The "all-in" farm cost
The farm has $840 in the hog (raising) and the customer has $604 going to the locker. The animal is sold as halves.
Per half hog:
- Raising cost (yours): $420
- Processing cost (passed to customer): $302
Setting the price
Now we work backward from a margin target.
A small farm running 15 hogs a year, selling halves direct, with two half-hog sales per animal, has 30 half-hog sales available. Each sale needs to cover its share of cost plus contribute to overhead and farm profit.
Overhead the direct cost above doesn't capture:
- Land rent or mortgage share: $8 per hog
- Insurance, accounting, marketing: $15 per hog
- Storefront fees (Pasture, etc.): $2 per hog
- Phone time, customer service: $20 per hog
Total overhead per hog: $45 → $22.50 per half
Cost per half hog (raising + overhead): $442.50
If we want a 25 percent net margin on the raising side (a reasonable target for a small operation), we need:
Per half hog price: $442.50 / 0.75 = $590 + $302 processing pass-through = $892 customer price
On a 105-pound hanging weight half, that's $5.62 per pound hanging all-in, or roughly $5.00 per pound hanging farm-side plus the processor's $2.88 per hanging pound (cure-included).
That sits in the middle of the regional market for pasture-raised pork: $4.50 to $7.50 per hanging pound farm-side is what we see across most small farms in our area in 2026.
What the customer sees
The customer sees:
- Half hog: 100 to 110 pounds hanging weight
- Farm price: $5 per pound hanging x ~105 lb = $525
- Cut, wrap, cure, smoke: $2.88 per pound hanging x ~105 lb = $302
- Total: ~$827
After packaging and shrink, they take home 70 to 80 pounds of pork. Per-pound finished, that's about $11 per pound — competitive with grocery store bacon alone, with all the other cuts coming "free."
What we make per half
Farm revenue per half hog: $525 Farm cost per half hog: $420 raising + $22.50 overhead = $442.50 Farm net per half hog: $82.50
15 hogs a year x 2 halves x $82.50 = $2,475 net on the hog enterprise.
That's not a lot. It's also not nothing. On a diversified farm running beef, hogs, broilers, layers, and a CSA, the hog enterprise contributes its share. Most small grass farms net somewhere between $30,000 and $80,000 a year across all enterprises after expenses, and the hog line item is a piece of that puzzle.
What changes the math
Three levers move the bottom line.
Feed cost. Grain prices fluctuate. A 20 percent feed cost increase moves the per-hog cost by $70 and erases most of the net unless you raise the price. We adjust pricing yearly based on the feed bill.
Scale. At 30 hogs per year instead of 15, the overhead per hog drops, the feeder pig price drops (volume discount from the source), and the labor per hog drops because you're moving more animals through the same chore time. Net per half can rise to $120 to $150 at 30 hogs.
Premium positioning. A heritage breed (Berkshire, Mangalitsa) commands $7 to $9 per hanging pound at the customer level — 40 to 60 percent more than commodity-cross pasture pork. The cost to raise is higher (slower growth, more feed), but the margin is better.
How to defend the price to customers
Three things to have ready when a customer asks "why does this cost so much?"
1. The all-in math. "$827 buys 75 pounds of pork in your freezer. That's $11 a pound, every cut. Compare to grocery store bacon at $9 per pound and chops at $7. Same total spend, but with our half hog you also get the hams, sausage, roasts, and lard, all at the same price."
2. The "what it takes" story. "Six months on pasture, heritage breed, custom-exempt processing at a small locker an hour from here, my labor moving fence and water for six months." Don't oversell. Just describe the work.
3. The honest comparison. "Commodity pork is cheaper because it's grown faster, in a barn, on cheaper feed, at a plant that does 30,000 animals a day. We don't do that. If commodity pork works for you, that's a defensible choice. We're doing something different."
If they don't buy at that price, they're not your customer. Find one who is.
What to do next
Run the math on your own farm. Plug your numbers into the structure above. Find the price that lets you net 20 to 30 percent on the raising side. Post the price publicly. Don't apologize for it.
Set up a public storefront with deposit-based booking on Pasture →