Why do we bother?
As visitors to the blog will have noticed, we have a notice at the top of the first page that says we have six Berkshire weaners available for sale.
This morning, I received an email in response to that notice.
Was it from a genuine, prospective customer?
No, it was in a similar vein to Saturday morning’s phone call.
Mr X, as I will call the writer, introduced himself by saying that it had been very difficult to find anyone selling “traditional pigs” in northern Scotland.
He wanted two or three weaners to fatten on his smallholding, he wanted rare pigs like on River Cottage (yes, that often comes up), and he wanted outdoor pigs.
Mr X would have preferred organic, but couldn’t see if we were or not. (We’re not—organic certification is a marketing exercise that’s too expensive for us.)
So far, so good you might be thinking. Except that this is the usual charade that most customers like to parade before saying what they actually want.
Mr X was no different.
After half a dozen paragraphs to establish his touchy-feely, animal friendly, farmer friendly, buy local credentials, Mr X informed me in no uncertain terms that he would not pay £50 for a pig.
Yes, he knew that we were “cheaper than down in the Borders or England where they want £70-80 for a pig” but “even £50 is ridiculous”.
In fact, Mr X wasn’t even prepared to pay “£30 because that’s a price only paid by rich folks like Hugh”.
He then offered to “take three weaners off your hands for £20 each”.
Let me see, it costs us a few pence over £60 to produce a weaner to 10 weeks.
The weaners that we have available now are 14 weeks old, which means they’ve cost us a further £13.32 in feed and £2.50 in straw for a total cost so far of £75.
But, we’re having to price them at £50 because the “customers” who ordered those pigs have changed their minds and not collected the animals they ordered.
In other words, we’re already talking about a loss of £25 per pig. And we’ve taken losses on the previous three litters as well.
Not surprisingly, I told Mr X to go and stick his head in a bucket of boiling pig fat.
Yes, we need the pigs gone. Yes, they’re costing us more money every day. Yes, they’re occupying a pen that should have been out of use by now.
But I’m not going to keeping feeding the absolutely ridiculous expectation that food is cheap, meat is cheap, pigs are cheap and the producer is living the life of Riley off the back of the poor, exploited consumer.
I’d rather put the pigs down and pay the £11 each for them to go to the knackers. (No, we can’t fatten them ourselves as we’ve haven’t the space, especially with the ground so wet this autumn and winter.)
What peeves me most about the stupid, unsustainable consumer mentality is when people like Mr X start off by lamenting the shortage of people like us to provide people like him with what they want.
Well, duh, if the customer is not prepared to pay a fair price that covers the cost of production and something more, then the producer is not going to supply the “product”.
It’s the triumph of consumer moronics.
It’s a wonder that such correspondents can locate your notice about the availability of weaners, as well as your contact info, and yet miss the rest of your blog outlining the effort that goes into raising them. Have you ever sent them links to these posts where you give them their due?
If you take the weaners to the knackers, do you at least get to eat them, small as they are? I wonder, is there any market for suckling pigs these days? From this side of the pond I imagine there must be some crusty establishment soaked in high tradition which offers such delicacies to their clientele. Or maybe not. Just musing here.
I’ve looked into supplying weaners for spit-roasting, but they’re too young to be slaughtered at the local abattoirs. If I slaughter them myself, then only I as the owner can eat them. It’s illegal to supply them to anyone else, including members of my family.
As for customers, I’m no longer surprised by people’s double standards. Annoyed, yes. Surprised, no.
You find it difficult to see how they can read one part of the blog and miss the rest. Well, consider that people can, and often do, effortlessly segue from talking directly to me about the need to pay the actual costs of animal welfare, of preserving rare breeds and of local, small-scale production to demanding ridiculously low prices. Without even blinking.
It’s George Orwell’s double-think, but for consumers:
“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary.”
madness! i hope your luck turns and you start getting more reasonable offers soon. if we were a little closer we’d definately pick some up.
If you want quality you pay quality prices. If you want rubbish you pay peanuts!
Or does that only apply to us that live in the real world?
It doesn’t take a genius to work out why there is a shortage of rare pig breeders…
It is sad to see such attitudes. It is the same here in Aus. People tell me that you should just lower the prices as that is what people will pay and if you want to get rid of it… I tell them to go jump. I hope things look up for you. Your last few posts on this have shown your frustration and I hope that some time in the very near future potential pig owners will see sense.
This is perfectly indicative of the ag system overall, at least in the States. Non-factory produced animals have a cost. The theory is: If people value localism, or even a certain level of quality in their food, they will pay for it.
In practice however when it actually comes to shelling out the cash, most consumers would really rather the shrink-wrapped pork tenderloins from the supermarket that have been, along with a million of their brothers and sisters, lovingly fed mattress innards and other non-food items because they will fatten on it and it’s legal.
It is not legal for small producers to sell meat butchered at non-USDA inspected custom butcheries, and certainly not if they to do the work themselves.
So, why do we do this? Who are the idiots? The double-standard consumers, or the farmers who keep producing milk that costs more than low-price standards will pay? After rendering the lard for our Thanksgiving pies, and roasting the pumpkins instead of using canned, I’m wondering if anyone values all the care we’re putting into this lovely food we are producing so proudly!
I’m pleased to discovered that I’m not the only person who still renders their own lard.
but Stoney — we are absolutely nuts, aren’t we?
Wish I was nearer i’d happily take some