10/05/2025
FUN FACTS ABOUT PIGS:🐽🐷🐖
- A male pig is called a boar
- A female pig is called a Sow
- Pigs are born with low iron, hence you see them eating mud to try to supplement Iron (Eu)
- Maize makes up to +60% of pig feed!
Pig Farming
The main aim of any type of farming is to make a profit! In the pig farming game, the profit gets eaten by many things, including feed, medication, mortality, disease, theft, and unstable market prices.
Most pig farmers who thrive in the pig industry are farmers who can manage a farm in a way that sows give birth to a maximum number of piglets annually and have secured a market to sell to.
Let's talk feed, breeding, housing, disease management, and markets!
Feed
Seasoned pig farmers often joke around and say, "Feed eats our profit margins"!
Well, they are not wrong, feed alone accounts for +60% of production costs in pig farming!
Which is why securing a market as early as possible is vital before feed eats all your profit margins!!!
You need to understand the nutrient requirement(digestible energy & protein) for different stages of the pig life cycle:
- newly born piglets
- 3 to 10 weeks of pigs
- growing pigs 10- 20 weeks (slaughtered at 60-90kg live weight)
- sows with piglets
- boars and pregnant sows
Different stages require certain levels of digestible energy and protein!
Every feed mixture must contain:
- vitamins,
- minerals (bonemeal, feed lime, monocalcium phosphate),
- proteins (oilcake, fishmeal),
- digestible energy (grains)
You need to have all available, especially if you will be mixing the feed yourself!
Disease Management
Just make sure you are friends with your neighbour pig farmers. Also attend trainings, consult with private and state Vets.
Here you will deal with:
- Parasites (internal and external)
- Microbes
- Viruses
- Bacteria
- Fungi
- Protozoa
- Poisoning
- Dietary problems
- Metabolic disease
- Cancer
- Allergies
Amongst other culprits
Again, the best way to prevent some of these from happening at your farm ensure that you do not compromise when it comes to your biocontrol measures, such as vaccination, dipping, and deworming!
Breeding
Make sure you buy your breeding from a registered supply, not from a friend! This enables you as a farmer to check the production history of that pig! It will even ensure that your breeding stock produces high-quality pigs with low fat
I wish you all the best
