CONTRACT Pig Farming For Beginners

What's up guys? Thank you so much for tuning in to today's video. If you're somewhat into farming or you just want to watch a kid get some stuff done around the farm, you're in the right place. All I ask for you guys to do is if you like the video, give it a big thumbs up. It really helps me out and push my content further for more farmers and people like you to see it. Really mean a lot to me. Thanks, guys. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's video. Today, we're gonna be doing something a little bit different, a little bit of a different kind of video. Usually, I take you guys around the farm, show you what's going on, what we work on. But today, I thought it'd be a good idea to really talk about a subject that I get asked a lot of the time. And that subject is contract growing, contract pig farming. What is it? What all goes into it? The benefits, the risks. How do I get started, Sawyer? I get a ton of DMs, a ton of questions about every single day about this certain subject. Today, I thought it'd be a really good idea to cover that and give you guys a really good perspective on how it works and what all goes into it. Everything you need to know and want to know about contract growing, you're gonna know after this video. Also, since the pigs have been just really thriving and I've done a lot of the upfront work needed to get these pigs started correctly, they've really been taking off at both sites. As you guys know, site two's been thriving. But this site one, I've been doing a lot of work in. And over the past couple weeks, it's started to get really good. And this week that I'm in right now, I really haven't had to do a whole lot just because these guys just look phenomenal and they're not falling back. There's not a lot of fallback pigs. As I said before in the previous videos, as they get older, some tend to keep falling back. But guys, I haven't seen a whole lot of it. So I'm very, very pleased with that. And I have a lot of time on my hands with that because I get done choreing quicker. So I thought it'd be a really good idea to just get into a subject that you guys really wanted to talk about. So with that being said, let's get right into it. First thing you should probably know is what is contract growing? Contract pig farming is when a company that owns a lot of pigs put their pigs in your buildings and they pay you a rent check every single month for keeping their pigs in your buildings. Oh, and I probably should cover, if you don't know what a grower is, a grower is pretty much the person that takes care of the pigs. So I am a grower. My father is a grower, technically. But he pays me to take care of the pigs. So we're both growers. And also he helps you take care of the pigs as well. But I'm truly the grower. He's also the grower, but that's just what the company calls the person that has the pigs in their buildings is a grower. And about 90 to 95% of the people that have pigs actually don't own the pigs. They're probably on their contract. And you see, it used to not be that way. Back in the 80s and 90s, when the pig market was phenomenal, it was a no-brainer to really own your own pigs. A vast majority of people did own their own pigs because it was so good. But you see, with every good thing, it comes to an end. And with everything, there's a market. And back in the 90s, the pig market crashed. And a lot of people lost their ass, including my father. So that left a really, really bad taste in a lot of people's mouths about farming and taking the risk of owning their own pigs. So they really never got back into the business. Or simply, they just couldn't afford to. There was a couple guys out there that got real smart about it. They didn't completely lose their ass. And they actually capitalized on the downfall of the pig market. You see, these are the same guys that owned the companies that have a bunch of the pigs that write the contracts and have a bunch of farmers growing their pigs for them. What they pretty much did is they had to convince farmers and growers to build a building. And in exchange, they would put their pigs in the farmer's building. And they would pay them a check every single month for the rent and taking care of them. And that sounded good to a lot of farmers because they didn't have to take on the risk of losing their ass again, which is nice. So that's kinda why contract pig farming and contract growing as a whole is kinda at its highest right now. And that's why the vast majority of people do it. It's because people don't really wanna take on that risk of owning their own pigs. Also, these companies have gotten so big that if you tried to compete with these companies, you would fail because they're so much further along than you would ever be. That's a short little explanation of what actually is contract pig farming. Why a vast majority of pig farmers out there are contract growers. So now that you have a pretty good idea of what actually contract growing is, now we need to talk about what all goes into it. The first thing you really need to understand when it comes to contract growing is every single company's different. And there's different kind of companies that you can grow pigs for. With that being said, each company has different standards and rules that you have to abide by if you're gonna raise their pigs. Some companies have higher standards than others. Some have different rules than others. Some want their buildings built a certain way than others. Some don't really matter. Some don't really care how your building's built. All is really different depending on what company you really go with. Second thing you gotta really understand is these are their pigs. These are the company's pigs. And if you're not abiding by the rules and the standards that they set for you as a grower to do, they will take your contract right from under you and they will give it to somebody else. And then you're crap out of luck because you have a building with no pigs in it that's not making any money. So it's really, really important that you know how to take care of pigs and you take good care of your pigs because if you don't, you're out of luck. You're gonna be screwed. It's also not like they just cut your contract right off from under your shoes if you do one slip up. No, if you are constantly over time not doing the things you need to do, they warn you, they tell you, hey, you need to get your stuff together, you need to get your stuff together, and you continue to slack off and not do anything about it, then yes, they're probably gonna pull your contract. But if, you know, that's why it's just really important to do the right thing and get your stuff done. That being said, they don't just throw you in a building and hope for the best and hope that you're doing a good job. No, they have a position called a field guy. So what a field guy does is he walks through your barn every single week and he makes sure you're doing the right things that the company wants you to do. So he's making sure that the pigs are healthy and if they're not healthy, you're doing something about it. You're giving shots, you're pulling pigs, you are using your bag feed, and he also tells you, you know, hey, those pigs really don't need those nipple bars anymore. You should probably hang them up. Or hey, the mats are getting a little messy. They, you know, they don't really need those anymore. You should get them out. It's really nice to have a field guy come through every single week and really give you a second pair of eyes to really show you, hey, what you need to get done. Usually most growers know what they need to get done, but you know, it's really nice to just have that second pair of eyes because you might've missed something or you might've not have thought of something and it's good to get some feedback from the field guy. So he comes every single week to all our sites and he tells us, you know, if we're doing a good job or not and if we're not doing a good job, what we need to get done. Or you may be doing a good job, but you still are missing a couple of things and he'd like to see you get them done. Every single grower for that company, for any company, has a field guy assigned to that site. So those field guys are traveling a bunch. They're hitting every single site. They have like probably seven field guys at a company or more. And every single field guy is assigned to a different site and they travel all week long and hitting every single site and making sure those growers are doing everything they need to do to get their stuff done. So if you're a bad caretaker or a bad grower, you really can't get away with it because you have somebody that's constantly coming into your barn and really checking to make sure you're doing a good job. So you gotta be good at what you do or else you don't do it. The fourth thing you need to know is you don't buy any of your own feed. If you're gonna do your own pigs and you're gonna have your own pigs, the cost of feed would be one of your biggest costs, if not the biggest cost, because you'd have to buy it or grind it up yourself. So what's really nice with being on a contract with a company, they provide the feed. All you gotta do is switch the bins and then let them know that, hey, this bin is empty and you gotta give them at least three days in advance to bring a bin full of feed. And then you always have feed in your bins and you never have to pay for it. That's also really, really nice and that's another thing that goes into contract growing. Another thing that goes into contract pig farming is it doesn't matter if the market's good or the market's bad. You're still gonna get a check every single month for keeping these pigs in your buildings. Company is who should be concerned with if the market's good or not. You as the grower, as the contract grower, if you're doing a good job with the pigs, you're abiding by the standards, you're doing everything right, the field guy likes what you're doing and he says you're doing a good job, well then you really don't have anything to worry about and you need to keep up what you're doing and you'll get a check every single month. Before we get to the next point, I gotta switch bins because this bin's empty and the pigs are out of feed, so I gotta switch to a bin that has some feed in it and then I'm gonna order feed for this bin. So now you know the what and you know what all goes into it, now it's time to talk about the benefits and the risks that are involved with being a contract pig farmer. So let's start with the risks. There's three really main risks that you gotta really worry about if you wanna be a contract grower. The first is gonna be building a hog building. You are going to have to build a hog building if you wanna be a contract grower, that's just the reality of it. The companies are not gonna want their pigs outside because the health of the pigs is the number one thing that they care about and I'm telling you, having your pigs outside is not the way to go if you wanna keep your pigs healthy and not spread disease because disease spreads easier, the weather plays a huge factor in that and no field guy's gonna come to an outside pig operation to check your pigs and all that. So if you're just gonna be an outside pig farmer, you're just gonna have to bank on not having any contract because that's just not gonna happen. So you're gonna have to go build a barn. So let's say you don't have a million dollars laying around because it's gonna cost you from 700,000 to a million dollars to build one of these but what's really nice about this, if you can swing it the right way, you can cash flow these pretty nicely. They cash flow very good so you'll have a good chunk of money leftover after every single payment, every single month to the bank, you'll have a good chunk of money left so they cash flow nicely but it's still a risk because it's an asset, you're taking your credit on it, you're taking a loan out and you're gonna have to pay it off but if you're serious about it, I would really consider doing it. The number two risk is, if you do not take good care of these pigs, they can take your contract away from you anytime so if you are not abiding by the standards that they set for you, when you sign that contract, you're doing a terrible job as a grower, just know they're gonna rip that contract away from you and you're gonna have a building sitting empty and you're gonna be losing money. And just to let you know, word of mouth spreads really easily and really fast so if you have a bad reputation of being a shitty grower and not taking good care of your pigs, trust me, it's gonna spread to other companies and no one's gonna wanna give you a contract so don't do it if you're not gonna do it the right way. The third and final risk that I think you will have to consider when becoming a contract pig farmer is, I talked about that we really don't have to worry about the markets the company does because they're their pigs but that's to an extent. If the pig market crashed so bad that the company was losing money, they would have to cut costs which means they're gonna have to cut growers. So if you wanna not get cut, I would recommend being one of the top performing growers in the company because if you are, chances are you're not gonna be the first one to get cut and you'll probably be one of the last ones to get cut if the market got that bad. But you might not even get cut at all because they could probably bounce back from it because every market crashes and then it bounces back. So you could hold on until it came back if you were a good enough grower. So just be a good grower. Stay at the top of the game, be the best grower that they have, that way you never get cut and that never happens. Now let's talk about the benefits. There are a ton of benefits of this. Number one, financially. Like I said, these cash flow and if you get a building paid off, this is very good money. I'm not gonna get into the financials of pig farming and all that today because I'm gonna make a whole separate video on that but just know it makes you damn good money if you can get the buildings paid for and you can do a good job growing the pigs. It can pay you damn well. Number two, you don't have to buy any of your own feed. If you were to have your own pigs, you'd have to grind up your own feed, buy your own feed, whatever it is and that's your biggest cost. Number three, you really don't have to worry about the markets. Like I said earlier, to an extent, you have to worry about the markets but if the market's bad, like not terribly bad but bad and you're still getting a rent check, you're still making money. So you don't have to worry about the markets as much as the company does. Number four, pig farming. It takes time but it doesn't take a lot of time. It takes you roughly four to six hours a day on a regular day. Let's say you're not loading pigs. Let's say you're not having to sort pigs, any of that stuff. When you have to load pigs, sort pigs, it can take longer but on a normal day, you have all your barns full and they're all growing. It can take you anywhere from four to six hours a day. That's not a crazy long time. So that gives you some time that you could get your pig stuff done in the morning and then in the afternoon, you could really work on your grain farming operation or work on fixing your equipment or greasing your equipment, anything like that. So you can really fit in some pig work in the morning and also some grain stuff at night. So it's a really nice way to make some more money, a really good hustle. So if you're somebody that has some time on your hands and you want to make some more money, contract pig farming is a really good way to go. And the fifth and final benefit of contract growing is you don't take on the risk of having your own pigs and you won't lose your ass. When the market's bad, it doesn't really affect you too much. And if the market really crashes, you don't lose your ass, just like in the 90s. That's probably the biggest and most important benefit of doing contract pig farming. You don't take on the risk. The company takes on the biggest risk. So that's the benefits and that's the risks when it comes to contract pig farming. So you know what contract growing is, you know what all goes into it, you know the risks, you know the benefits. Now it's time that you guys learn how to get started being a contract grower. So Sawyer, how do I become a contract grower? What do I got to do? What are the steps? Well, I'm going to get to it. So the first thing you're going to have to know, and I've talked about it in this video, is you're going to have to build a hog building. Before you build that building, you're going to want to get a contract with a company first because if you just build a building, you don't have a contract, you're going to be losing money and you constantly want to have pigs in that building, even when you start it. So as soon as you get it built, a week or two later, you get pigs in it. That's why you want to have your contract first before you go out and build a building. Sawyer, that's all fine and dandy. Yeah, get a contract before you build a building, but where do I go to get these contracts and where do I find these companies? Guys, there's plenty of sources out there, the internet, social media, you can hit up people like me, that if they have, like I told you earlier, if they have pigs, 90 to 95% of the time, they're probably under contract and they're probably getting them from some company. So you just really got to do, you really got to do your due diligence and put in the work and try to find somebody that could link you to the company and just call around. You guys know, farmers, we're social people, we know people, you guys know people that have pigs and they probably are under contract. So just ask around, call people, talk to people, hit up people on social media, look it up on the internet. There are plenty of places where you can find a company that will let you grow for them. Also, you got to put this into factor, the regional, you know, the region you live in, you may not be able to put up a hog building in your state, depends on where you live and sometimes companies don't want to travel that far because like I said, they have to have field guys hit their sites every day or every week. So if you're too far away, they might not be able to do it. But I know the company we grow for, they have some sites in Missouri. They think, I think they have some sites in Illinois and they have some sites in Iowa. So they're kind of a regional thing, just depends on where you live. And also guys, not all, these companies not all the time are taking barns. They're not always looking for barns. They're not constantly scaling all the time. Some are, but some aren't. You know, sometimes they could be at a place where they feel comfortable and they want to wait it out for whatever reason and they don't want to take on any more barns. You just kind of got to respect that and move on, you know, or you just wait and come back to it later. But definitely get a contract before you build a hog building. So you got the contract, then now it's time to build the building. And I'm going to do a whole in-depth video on what all goes into building a hog building and all that in the future. But for right now, I'm just going to say, build a hog building. That's the second step. Third step, you got to know how to chore pigs or you got to find somebody that knows how to chore pigs. Like I told you guys earlier, why I said that they pay us a rent check instead of paying us to take care of the pigs is because my father owns these hog buildings and he's the one that gets paid by the company we grow for. I don't get directly paid from them. He pays me for doing the work that I do in these barns for him. But he's the one that gets a check from the company because he's putting their pigs in his barns. It's not, the company doesn't pay you for your work. They pay you for putting their pigs in your barns. So you don't necessarily have to do the work. You could hire it done. But if you want to make more money and you want to really take full advantage of this opportunity, I would highly recommend doing the work for yourself. Also, if you guys are in the Iowa area or Missouri area or anything like that, and you're looking at really, you're really serious about maybe doing contract pig farming and you kind of have a, you have a good idea of how to chore pigs and do all that stuff. And you want to know what company to, what company I grow for, that way I can relay you over to them. Just hit me up in the DM on Instagram. I can totally help you out with that. I don't know exactly if our company is taking on more barns or not, but if they are, I would be really happy to help you guys out and relay that, relay you to them. So if you are looking, if you're serious about it, definitely hit me up. I'll help you out. So the last thing that you really need to start, so you got the contract, you got your under contract, you got your barn built, you got the pigs in, you're a good grower, you know how to take care of pigs, or you got somebody to take care of your pigs for you, it really comes down to just paying off your barn. And once it's paid off, you're going to probably want to put up another one because I'm telling you it's really worth it in the end and you're going to be very happy that you did that. So that's all I got to really say, guys. I hope this was very valuable for you guys. I gave you a rough big picture estimate of what kind of contract pig farming is and what really goes into it. I don't know all the technical terms, but I think I did a pretty good job of explaining it as a whole. If you thought so, if you thought this gave you any value at all, please give it a thumbs up. It really helps me out, pushes my content further for more people and farmers like you to see it. I hope you guys have a great rest of your day and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.