The farmer revealed the secrets of pig farming
About a month and a half or two ago, pig meat broke the “price silence” and rose in price by 30 percent. Even the Federal Antimonopoly Service could not resist and created a special commission on the subject of price collusion among pig farmers. However, most likely, there is no collusion; there are simply not enough products on the market. The fact is that according to veterinary rules, private farms are strictly prohibited from keeping pigs. Only a couple of years ago farmers were allowed to engage in pig farming. But they were given such conditions that there were no more people willing to raise piglets.
MK found a farmer who rushed into this industry. Only his farm (goats, geese, broilers) is located in the Moscow region, and he raises pigs… 300 miles away, in Nizhny Novgorod.
With farmer Dmitry from the Ruzsky district we are talking about the problems of private pig farming in a virtual format, since his pigs are there, in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and he is here, in the Moscow region. “Tam” contains 40 piglets, mostly Russian tallow breed. There is also Hungarian mangalec — a mixture with wild boar — for making deli meats. These animals have a very strong immune system; in winter they roam freely. Which is strictly prohibited by veterinary rules in the Moscow region, so as not to spread African swine fever — ASF.
The Nizhny Novgorod “branch” is looked after by his parents, local residents. In addition, labor there is much cheaper than in the capital region. Here, no one agrees to work on a farm for less than 45 thousand rubles a month. In general, this is a general trend for the Moscow region. Production is declining due to the high cost of land and profitability; processing and trading enterprises are concentrated here — after all, Moscow is nearby, a huge sales market.
And the farmer Dmitry himself is afloat only thanks to his processing. If I just sold meat, I would have gone bankrupt long ago. And he has jamon, carpaccio, sausages, stewed meats and smoked meats…
As we have already said, keeping pigs in private household plots is strictly prohibited, but in farms it was recently allowed, but very strict requirements were set. Everything is regulated: the area per head, the type of ventilation and flooring, the arrangement of the feed pipe…
There must be a certain belt, a fence, so that no strangers can come inside and introduce any infection. Veterinary rules are based on the fact that in private farms where there is no proper control, African swine fever can break out and spread to a large pig farm. Then the entire livestock — tens of thousands of pigs — must be destroyed. For this reason, there should be no other pigs within a radius of 20 kilometers from such objects.
Animals can only be slaughtered in certified slaughterhouses, of which there are not very many. For example, the nearest one is 50 kilometers away. You need to sign up for the queue in advance (the slaughterhouses have their own cattle, which have priority) and, of course, pay for the service — 1000 rubles per head.
That is, for a certain fee you have to order transport (not simple, but specialized for transporting animals!), paying people to help with loading and unloading — all this is very expensive. But otherwise you won’t get a veterinary certificate and you won’t be able to sell the meat if it’s been slaughtered somewhere. Such a product simply will not fall into the Mercury system, which tracks the entire path of livestock products to the counter.
There is no point in keeping livestock for a small producer. Why grow it if you don’t sell it later?! Private owners don’t grow them. Those who produce deli meats, sausages, etc., buy pork on the side, but they don’t know what exactly they buy.
“In the past,” said one of these private traders on condition of anonymity, “on every farm had a place for slaughtering livestock. We can also organize such sites, in accordance with all the rules of SanPiN. This will significantly reduce the profitability of production.»
Now about African swine fever, the spread of which veterinarians are afraid of. Old people remember that in Soviet times, party authorities strongly encouraged village residents to keep livestock, including pigs, in their farmsteads. They were given free grain and hay for fattening. Without paying attention to whether there is a large pig farm nearby or not. There have been no outbreaks of ASF.
Moreover, enterprises, as a rule, had their own subsidiary farms for factory canteens. There was even a socialist competition between them for the number of livestock. And again, no ASF!
That’s why in the villages they don’t believe in African swine fever. They say that this is something made up, like with Covid. The UN put the whole world on quarantine, and now it turns out that this could not have been done. This is what the peasants think.
Since the farmer raises lard pigs (a rarity these days, large producers prefer meat breeds), I ask: why is lard more expensive than meat today? After all, before everything was the other way around, it cost a penny. And now a boneless ham in the store costs 350 rubles per kilogram, and lard costs 600, if not 700 rubles, and you still need to look for it.
It turns out that many people ask him this question, including at VDNKh, where the farmer was entrusted run the “Urban Farm” site. There he demonstrates his “secrets” in making deli meats.
“The greasy pig grows for at least a year, or even longer,” Dmitry answers. — He needs to increase his fat layer. A meat breed gains weight in 10 or even 8 months. It is not profitable for producers to get involved with greasy pigs.
As you can understand from the words of the farmer, greasy pigs must have proper feeding so that the lard has meat streaks, “Adidas stripes”. The meat breed is also advantageous in that any dish can be prepared from meat — even cutlets, dumplings or sausages.
“Although in central Russia, lard is simply necessary for the body, it is a real vitamin complex,” says the farmer. However, this is the opinion of his wife, a general practitioner. With which he develops his farm.
In general, now everything is clear. If meat breeds can be pumped up with growth stimulants so that they gain weight faster, then such tricks do not work with sebaceous breeds; fortunately, such drugs have not been invented. Because this product is natural, you cannot fake it, you cannot freshen it, as is often done with a piece of meat or delicacies in order to sell the product to a gullible buyer.
Let's look at the economics of raising piglets — what it costs for the producer, and ultimately for the buyer at the market or in the store. For ease of calculation, we take 10 piglets. A day they eat 5 buckets of grinding corn and the same amount of wheat. This is, of course, a simplified diagram. As we have already said, meat breeds are raised for 10 months. During this period, the cost of feed for such a herd is about 60 thousand rubles, not counting labor costs.
The cost can be partially reduced if you buy discounted bread somewhere. According to veterinary rules, feeding pigs with food waste from canteens is prohibited.
So, if you sell these 10 piglets to a meat processing plant at a price of 120–150 rubles per kilogram of live weight, you will receive revenue of 120–150 thousand rubles. On average, a pig goes to slaughter weighing 100 kilograms. It would seem that the profit is very decent: minus feeding costs, the result is 60–90 thousand rubles. But this is not in a month, but in almost a whole year, in 10 months! Divided by month, it turns out to be 6–9 thousand. There is no way to live on them. After all, there is a family, taxes, utilities and the purchase of feed for new pigs. That is, there is no revenue at all, just pennies.
“Selling a carcass for meat even in the market, where it will, of course, cost more than at a meat processing plant, is not at all profitable,” says Dmitry. — I do processing, I make jamon, smoked meats…
Jamon in Spanish. In fact, this product also has a completely Russian name: sagging ham — our ancestors made it in the old days. Hungarian mangals need to be fed grain, acorns and greens, and after slaughter, the ham should be placed in a special brine based on herbs, honey and salt. These are natural preservatives. After hanging for a month, it should ripen for… a year!
Farmer Dmitry prepares this delicacy to order, and this year it costs 8.5 thousand rubles per kilogram. But they order the delicacy. Next year, jamon — sagging ham will be more expensive. Because everything is becoming more expensive, including animal feed.
With Russian record grain harvests, they, the basis of feed, are becoming more expensive. And along with them, all types of meat are becoming more expensive. The farmer is sure that because of intermediaries, each of whom adds their own “margin”.
“I often visit the south of Russia, where grain harvesting is underway,” he explains, “a bag of wheat there costs 200–250 rubles, and I buy it, of course, there—in Rostov or Voronezh.” Because in the Moscow region, at the bases, this bag already costs 700–750 rubles. Very expensive. 20 geese eat a bag of wheat in three days. Such prices do not stimulate the development of small producers. Farmers have long been asking the authorities to introduce some kind of discount coupons for them.
Since the farmer has almost the entire range of farm animals on his farm, I ask: what is the best way to start your business so as not to go broke?
Dmitry is confident that geese are the most reliable of birds; unlike broilers, they do not need special feed and care.
— Within a month, the hatched gosling begins to follow the flock and nibble grass. Until this time, it can be fed with grain and finely chopped grass. Geese rise on their own, only in August, if you plan to cook stew, for fat, you can add grain to their feeder.
For the New Year, to order, the farmer makes a baked-smoked Christmas goose in his smokehouse and stuffs it fragrant Antonov apples. There are a lot of orders, a kilogram costs 2.5 thousand rubles, but by this New Year it will be more expensive.
To ensure that the geese were “frost-resistant,” he spent a long time looking closely at the village geese. Ultimately crossed this breed with the hatching ones. “In the old days, geese and poultry in general were not given any special conditions,” he explains. “If such conditions are created for a broiler, then the price will be golden.”
The farmer raises broilers not for 40 days, as in large poultry farms, but for two months. In general, he is a supporter of village “education”: to walk around the yard, and no growth stimulants or hormones.
“Before, you boiled chicken, overnight the broth turned into jellied meat, this is real, natural homemade chicken,” he says. — Healing broth. Today, cook store-bought, the broth won’t even turn yellow. If you remember “The Tale of a Real Man” by Boris Polevoy, then the legendary pilot Maresyev, when he froze his feet while making his way to his own, was restored with hot chicken broth. Then, during the war, we had natural chickens, but now we don’t…
We go to the farmstead, where sheep bleat, geese cackle and broilers cackle. We are greeted by a very sociable Saanen breeding goat named Vasily. He is the real leader of the pack, the goats follow him into fire and water. One day he managed to open the gate and took the “girls” to a nearby village 5 kilometers away. The villagers, who had not kept any living creatures on their plots for a long time, got scared and fled. Having managed their gardens, Vasily brought his herd back.
Both funny and sad. In modern villages, residents do not know how to raise livestock or how to care for them. The old people who kept cows, pigs and goats have died, and their children and grandchildren have no idea which way to approach the cow. All stages of peasant consciousness are missed. They are looking for happiness in the city.
“They text me from Nizhny Novgorod: “Tell me how to cut up a pig carcass,” says Dmitry. — It’s difficult to explain in words, I shoot a video with comments and send it. It turns out that farmers near Moscow are like leaders and mentors of modern peasants. We are also aware of legal laws, of which there are a lot and which must be observed. And practical experience.
“Farming must be developed in the capital region,” he continues, “otherwise the connection between generations will be completely interrupted.” It is simply unprofitable to raise livestock for meat; it needs to be processed into final products, then there will be some profit. Where can I learn this?
Everything would be fine, but the Nizhny Novgorod village, where today the peasant basics are forgotten, flourished 30-40 years ago, had an elevator and a large pig farm — everything “died” as a result of Gorbachev’s perestroika and subsequent market reforms. Residents go to the store and complain that the products are “not the same as before”, unnatural.
…Going to the farmer Dmitry, I already knew that he had a little bit of everything on his farm: chickens (in the summer it was 250 pieces), 22 geese, 15 goats, ducks and sheep. There is even its own small apiary. And the pigs are “out there”, in distant camps.
That’s why I expected to see a large farm with powerful processing plants.
In fact, the farmer owns only… 4 acres of land and another 11, which he occupies by agreement with the bankruptcy trustee of the “no man’s” plot. That is, on a bird's license. Fortunately, the bankruptcy trustee understands the importance of the moment and allows you to keep goats and poultry on this piece of land.
But you still need an official legal document about the lease. There is an old dilapidated house on the site, which the farmer intends to renovate and set up a meat processing workshop there. In general, the Japanese, who suffer from a lack of space, have a lot to learn from the Russian farmer. He managed to establish real agricultural production on tiny plots of land!
“Also,” says Dmitry, “I want to rent 60 hectares of land, this is a wasteland overgrown with grass and trees. The administration of the Ruza municipality supports me and meets me halfway. But again, it is better to have documents drawn up according to the law. Then I will be able to significantly expand my production.
Why not, if this is the real owner?!