If you want to start a pig farm, but with limited resources please don’t opt for the breeding route. This is the default pig farming route for everyone which involves keeping breeding stock (sows and boars). It’s a long and expensive route if you’re not financially equipped.
About 80% of your daily expenses to farming with pigs go to buying commercial feed and it’s not cheap sadly. Therefore I strongly advocate for opting for fattening weaners instead.
When you keep parent stock you’ll be responsible for feeding:
1. Boar – Every day, it’ll need to be fed…mating or not.
2. Sow – Sows, pregnant or not, they need to be fed every day.
3. Pregnant sows – A pig’s gestation period is 114 days, almost 4 months of feeding without an income.
4. Lactating sows – Once sow has littered, you’ll be feeding your sow lactation feed for sow to produce milk for piglets to suckle.
5. Piglets – You’ll introduce creed at 10 days, while they’re still suckling until they’re 28 days old and wean them. Remember, you’re not just feeding one piglet, but a set of piglets on average 10-12 piglets per sow.
As I’ve highlighted above, you can see that the feeding responsibility isn’t friendly to the wallet.
Now, if you opt to start with fattening weaners only, your feeding responsibility will be as follows:
1. Buy 28 days old weaner piglets.
2. At 28-42 days, feed 800g per day.
3. At 42-70 days, feed 1.22kg weaner feed.
4. At 70-150 days, feed 4kg grower feed.
5. Here you have 3-4 months to fatten weaners into porker or baconer weight and sell.
Here you’re only feeding your piglets, nothing else. You remove or avoid the feeding regime that involves parent stock and piglets.
If you browse through on www.pigsforsale.co.za, you’ll notice that weaner piglets are the most for sale compared to grower piglets. There is a constant supply for weaner piglets, all you need is to establish a relationship with a reliable supplier. Better to source weaners from a single farmer and ensure you maintain strict biosecurity standards.
How to start a pig farm with limited resources
