When you’re trying to eat clean, nutrient dense food, pork is a tricky item to source. We are proud to offer pork you can feel good about eating and that tastes phenomenal. It is a completely different product than anything you will find in a grocery store.
If you haven’t purchased a side of meat before the process can be overwhelming.
Let me walk you through each step of purchasing a side of pork. The end result is so satisfying! It’s such a great feeling knowing you’ve saved money by purchasing in bulk and that you have a freezer full of clean, delicious, and nutritious meat.
Pork Side At A Glance
Average hanging weight: 110 pounds
Take-home meat: Approximately 75–80 pounds
Price: $6.00 per pound hanging weight
Average pork purchase: Approximately $660
Average processing fees: Approximately $200
Estimated total investment: Approximately $860
Freezer space needed: 5–7 cubic feet
What Cuts Are Included?
Every animal weight varies slightly, but here’s a rough breakdown of a typical pork side.
Chops & Loin Cuts: 25–30% (19–24 lbs.)
Shoulder (roasts and sausage): 20–25% (15–20 lbs.)
Ham (or additional sausage): 15–20% (11–16 lbs.)
Bacon/Fresh Side: 10–15% (8–12 lbs.)
Ground Pork & Sausage: 10–15% (8–12 lbs.)
Ribs, Hocks & Miscellaneous Cuts: 5–10% (4–8 lbs.)
One of the biggest advantages of purchasing a side is that you get to customize many of these cuts.
For example:
Turn ham into additional sausage
Choose bone-in or boneless chops
Select bacon or fresh pork side
Request organ meats, bones, or extra fat
Your pork is processed specifically for your family’s preferences.
How Much Meat?
Our pork sides average about 110 pounds hanging weight.
Most families take home approximately 75–80 pounds of packaged meat. The exact amount varies depending on the size of the animal and your cut selections.
This amount of pork typically fits comfortably in a 5–7 cubic foot chest freezer.
Bonus: Fat, Bones & Organ Meats
One of the hidden benefits of purchasing a side of pork is access to parts of the animal that are often difficult to find.
If you would like them, you can request:
Extra pork fat for rendering your own lard
Soup bones for making homemade bone broth
Organ meats such as liver and heart
Many of our customers enjoy rendering lard for cooking and baking. Homemade lard is excellent for frying, roasting vegetables, making pie crusts, and adding rich flavor to everyday meals.
The bones can be simmered into nourishing broth, while organ meats provide an affordable source of highly nutrient-dense food.
Just let us know your preferences when completing your cut instructions.
What Is Hanging Weight?
Bulk pork is priced using hanging weight.
Hanging weight is the weight of the carcass after harvest, but before cutting, trimming, and packaging.
As the butcher cuts the pork into individual packages, some weight is lost through trimming, bones, and moisture loss. This is why your final take-home weight will be less than the hanging weight.
What Does A Side of Pork Cost?
2026 Pricing: $6.00 per pound hanging weight
With an average 110 lb hanging weight, you can expect your pork purchase to be approximately $660, plus processing fees of approximately $200 for a total of $860. This is an average amount and fees can vary by 10%.
How Long Will It Last My Family
This is one of the most common questions we receive, and the answer depends largely on how often your family cooks at home and how much pork you typically eat.
With approximately 75–80 pounds of packaged meat, a side of pork often lasts:
Family of 2: 8–12 months
Family of 4: 4–8 months
Larger families: 2–6 months
Many families find that purchasing a side allows them to keep a variety of pork cuts on hand for everyday meals. Instead of making frequent trips to the grocery store, they can simply pull chops, sausage, bacon, ribs, or a roast from the freezer whenever they need them.
One of the things our customers enjoy most is the convenience of having a freezer stocked with clean, pasture-raised meat ready for busy weeknights, weekend breakfasts, and family gatherings.
Processing & Payment
We are working with Krehbiel’s Specialty Meats near McPherson this season.
There are two separate payments:
1. Processing Fee
This fee is paid directly to Krehbiel’s and covers harvest, cutting, freezing, and packaging. Approximately $200, but this varies depending on:
Whether you cure meats
Sausage flavors or specialty items
Packaging preference (plastic or paper
2. Pork Purchase
Paid to Jako Farm after final hanging weight is received.
We accept:
Cash
Check
Credit Card payments are available with a 3% processing fee
Curing Options (New This Season)
One reason we chose to try Krehbiel’s for our butcher this season is that they offer the option to cure bacon and hams using celery salt.
Under USDA labeling standards, this method qualifies as “uncured” and organic. However, celery salt naturally contains nitrates that convert during the curing process.
This means your options are:
Celery salt curing
Traditional nitrate curing
No curing at all
This is a nuanced topic, and families often feel differently about it. In the past, we have only offered pork fresh (uncured) in our farm store. But many of you have requested cured bacon and ham, so we are using this season as an experiment to see what our farm families truly prefer.
For our own household, we continue to enjoy pork that has not been cured using celery salt or traditional nitrate cures — but every family must decide what they are comfortable with.
If you would like to talk through the differences, I am always happy to visit.
Timeline
1. Reserve your pork side.
2. We’ll send you a link to complete your cut instructions within a few weeks.
3. We’ll notify you when your pork heads to the butcher.
4. Pork without cured products is typically ready 2–3 weeks after processing.
5. Pork with cured products is typically ready 6–8 weeks after processing.
Our Pork Is JakoPure
Organically raised on pasture with room to roam and run. Our pigs root in the soil, eat grubs and roots and love digging a hole with their nose in hopes that rain will fill it.
Fed a fed ration made her on the farm that is corn, soy, flax and GMO-free
Raised without antibiotics, hormones, steroids, or vaccines
Tended to by our farmers daily with care and respect.
Many families tell us that once they’ve filled their freezer with clean, pasture-raised pork, it’s hard to go back.
There’s a tremendous peace of mind in knowing exactly where your food came from and having delicious, nourishing meat ready whenever you need it.
