14/12/2024
COMMON MISTAKES IN PIGGERY FARMING.
Hello my dear farmers, piggery farming is a fast growing venture. However, below are costly common mistakes that we tend to make.
1. Breeding stock.
We are well aware that breeding stock (Parent stock) is never cheap, however we farmers still are still stuck to cheap poor quality pigs that do not grow however much you feed them with too good feeds
Good feeds on poor quality breeds equates to loses.
Poor quality feeds on good genetics equates to loses as well
2. Numbers over Profitability.
Most of us are still excited because we have many pigs forgetting to focus on farm profitability. Well managed 5 sows with 1 boar are much profitable than poorly managed 20 sows with 2 boars.
3. Feeds Vs Weight gain Vs Time.
Some of us are not giving pigs the recommended feeds to achieve a given weight at a specified period of time. For example we achieve 87-100kgs by 20-24 weeks by feeding them almost 2.5kgs of nutritious feed mixture per day,
Some farmers give their pigs 1 kg of feeds for 10 months to achieve 80kgs while others give 2.5kgs for 5 months to achieve 100kgs.
Feeding Ad lib helps farmers reach market weight as early as 16 weeks.
4. Allowing Visitors
A pig farm is not a tourist site
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We have turned down lots of money because individuals wanted to visit the farm.
Visiting the farm isn't bad, however your visitors will surely bring pathogens and swine fever to wipe you out.
Decide do you want to do Agritourism or agribusiness.
5. Shelter
Pigs must be kept is a place cleaned twice a day at least. Leaving animals in dirty and wet environment allows growth of unwanted diseases and pathogens. Explains why piglets are stunted and are ever shivering.
Poor housing is equivalent to Negative profits.
6. Clean water.
Purchase automated ni**le drinker jerrican if you cannot pipe the whole farm to provide 24/7 clean water (70-80% of a pig contains fluids)
7. Be Humble to learn
In every venture for that matter one needs to humble themselves and learn from those that know what to do. You may have the money when entering piggery farming but you'll surely come out with nothing if you do not invest in knowledge or someone who knows the venture.
8. Understanding Animal Nutrition.
Feeding pigs is a technique not a principle. For example;
Piglets require more protein, while breeders require moderate protein in their meal. 70% of the meal must contain some carbohydrates. Lactating (breast feeding) sows require enough: water, protein and carbohydrates among others.
When pigs eat less, reduce feeds served to them to avoid wastage and create hunger to increase feeds intake.
When more feeds are consumed, provide the recommended quantities and unlimited clean water 24/7.
9. Lack of Wean to finish plan.
A majority of my farmer friends want to sell piglets. They do not have the plan to produce fatteners for pork. This simply means that failure to get market for their piglets leads to malnutrition due to lack of a proper and enough nutritious feeds for the animals.
In this case you risk closure of total having stunted pigs that do not grow.
10 Quality.
To produce quality animals, you must invest in quality breeds, nutritious feeds first and foremost. Maintain the number you can afford to give your best. Its better to have 10 well fed pigs than to have 100 malnourished pigs with 0 body score with no profit.
On marketing, quality breeds that have been well fed will always market themselves, everyone loves quality pigs
Ctto
