Buying a Whole or Half Hog

We sell our Animal Welfare Approved pastured hogs whole and by the side. There are many reasons to buy bulk pork including convenience and cost savings, but it can be a confusing process the first time you take the leap. We try to keep it simple and hope this guide will assist you. If you have more questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

All of our pork comes from hogs born and raised on our farm. Their breed is a Duroc/Large Chester White cross. Our processor packages the pork in vacuum-sealed freezer plastic, before labeling and flash freezing it.

Purchase Details

Price per pound hanging weight: $5.40*

Average hanging weight (whole hog): 250 lbs

Average hanging weight (half hog): 125 lbs

Deposit: $200 to reserve your hog (whole or half)

Freezer space needed: 10-12 cu ft for a whole hog,

5-6 cu ft for a half hog

*Price subject to change

The deposit can be paid online through our website. Deposit on a whole hog is in the Pastured Pork section of the store. We will send an estimate of your total with the deposit applied.

Once your actual hanging weight is known (after the hogs go to the processor), you will receive a final invoice with the actual balance. This comes through QuickBooks and can land in your spam folder. If you think you should have heard from us, please check your spam folder and then reach out via the website or directly through our email (farmer@minkafarm.com).

The final balance can be paid online using a bank transfer or you can pay with cash or check at the time of delivery. If you pay online, the payment needs to be made within 3 days of receipt of the final invoice so it can process before delivery.

While we do our best to minimize price changes, we take deposits often well in advance of processing. If the processor or other suppliers change prices significantly, we need to raise our price. We lock in your price two months before delivery and will notify you if it has changed. If you no longer wish to continue with your order because of the increase in price, you may cancel at that time with a full refund of your deposit.

Important Dates for 2023

Reserve By

Reserve with a deposit

January 25

Cut Sheet Due By

4/4

January 27

Delivery

Estimated Date,

Subject to change

mid-February

Next pork will be available after November 1, 2023

More details

When you place a deposit on a whole hog, you will receive confirmation of your order. We will then send you an invoice with an estimate of your total due. Your deposit will already be credited on this invoice. About a week after the cut sheet due date, you will receive a final invoice that is based on the actual hanging weight. The balance due can be paid online through a bank transfer (link included with the final invoice). This needs to be completed within 3 days of receipt of the final invoice. Alternatively, you can pay with cash or check to Minka Farm at the time of delivery.

We are using Dean Street Processing to process our pork. Typically, your order is ready about 2 weeks after we take the hogs in. We will contact you as soon as we know the pork is ready and schedule delivery. We are often delivering to multiple families and will do our best to make delivery as convenient as possible for everyone.

Dean Street Processing offers a nice range of value-added products. Your whole hog pricing includes basic processing, plus bacon and sausage value-added processing. Additional value-added processing costs, such as smoking ham slices and Canadian bacon, are added to your final invoice. We will provide you with ingredient lists for value-added products to help guide your selections.

Hogs are processed to your specifications. We supply the cut sheet and can offer information about which cuts can be made from each section of the hog based on your preferences. Sausage processing is included in the price of a whole/half hog; however, our processor requires a minimum of 25# of sausage for each flavor & format (links, patties, or bulk packs). Sometimes, the choices you make and the size of the hog will not allow for 25# of trim, which is what's ground and made into ground pork and sausages. We will talk through all of this with you, but please understand that this is not an exact science. Our processor will call us with the trim weight before making sausages so we can adjust the order if needed at that time.

We deliver to a large area around Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Mebane. If you live outside of our delivery area, we can meet you on the edges of our delivery range and transfer your order into coolers. If you live outside our delivery range, please confirm in your note with payment of the deposit that you are OK with meeting us for a pork transfer.

You are welcome to split your purchase among friends, extended family, neighbors or whomever you like. We are happy to accept payments from multiple sources. However, we will only deliver to one address and cannot assist with splitting your order. Because pork delivery day is already a long one, we will need you to unload your pork into coolers or other containers before sorting it.