Pig Farming and Pig Farming Business
Pig farming has become extremely popular business nowadays and becomes even more popular day after day. If you have decided to begin a profit-making business then pig farming is for you. The popularity of pork is far beyond Nigeria. Piggery is an investment that is guaranteed to bring return, provided it is well managed.
Pig farming in Nigeria plays a great role in the country economy, it reduces unemployment, lack of nutrition, poverty etc. Breeding pig cannot only bring you money but also fulfill meat demands of your family.

Pros of piggery farming in Nigeria
Piggery in Nigeria has many pros, they are:
• Pigs have a very short reproductive period if to compare with goats and cattle. A sow gives birth to average of 10 piglets two times per year, the period of gestation is about 114 days. Pig grows fast.
• Pigs are not particular about food (you can formulate your own feed), so you will be able to reduce your expenses
• The climate of Nigeria is appropriate for pig farming.

How to start pig farming?
Beginning pig farming in Nigeria has general steps for either domestic or economic goals.
Land selection
To begin a pig farming business firstly, you should choose an appropriate land, choose a peaceful and dormant place. You should think over what acreage of land will be good for the number of the animals you plan to raise. It will be the biggest investment. Please note, that in rural areas lands are cheaper, so you will need to invest less, but consider the transportation issue in this case.
Choosing a land for your future, remember the following:
• Pigs will need fresh and pure water, so think about a water supply.
• It is better to choose an area close to the market, for good transportation and availability to buy food.

Buying high-quality Pigs
Commercially, Return on Investment (ROI) in pig farming is usually influenced by breed or genetics.
Every pig farmer wants pigs that have rapid growth, lean carcass quality and good feed conversion ratio. Some pigs have poor growth rate, low feed conversion ratio, high fat content and farrow small litter, such pigs are usually produced from poor pedigree.
To have a profitable pig farming, it is very important for pig farmers to consider these Five exotic breeds.
This first two are genetically built to meet the demand of modern commercial pig farming
1. Topig Norsvin (TN)
Use of TN Tempo as a terminal boar has positive effects on the number of liveborn pigs. TN Tempo offspring pigs are visibly more uniform and vital in the farrowing house. Weaning weights are often reported to be higher than competitor boars. TN Tempo pigs are easy starters in the nursery with amazing feed conversion rate and superb growth rate. All of this contributes to easier management and higher survival rates from birth to market. This is the latest breed in the market... Not so much in circulation yet

2. Camborough
Camborough pig is known for High emphasis on lean meat % and conformation, Very robust hybrid boar, Good libido, Exceptional carcass musling, Superb feed conversion ratios
The breed is bred to maximize the kilograms of weaned pigs per year with
excellent feed efficiency. In addition, the Camborough can be bred typically three weeks earlier than other breeds resulting in a higher total number of piglets per sow per lifetime and lower production cost.

3. Yorkshire
The Yorkshire is the most popular breed of pig in North America today.
They have erect ears and are solid white in color. To be more technical, they have pink skin and white hair.
They are typically large and fast growing, which helps make them the most popular breed.
Meat processors prefer white pigs such as the Yorkshire because the hair is light in color and doesn’t show up on the carcass as easily as a red- or black-haired pig.

4. Landrace
This breed is also white in colour, long body, short leg, droopy ears, highly prolific and good feed utilizer

5. Duroc
This breed is cherry red in colour, rapid growth rate, fair mothering ability and good feed converter.
From the very beginning, it is advisable to grow what you can conveniently manage and feed. You’re not in a competition with anyone. To make a right choice you should pay attention to the signs of a good pig:
• Glossy coat;
• Good temperament (be aware of aggressive pig);
• Having good appetite;
• Bright eyes;
• Without claudication;
• Buy only from trusted sources and assure the vaccination.

Housing
For profitable farms in Nigeria, housing is essential. Building of a good house for your animals is a guarantee of healthy pigs and will prevent predators’ attacks. Places, where pigs sleep and eat are called pens. Housing helps to control temperature level during cold weather and excess of heat. Pigs are vibrant to temperature; they even can die. Ensure good ventilation, sanitation and illumination inside. You should also organize a place for pig’s bedding and feeding. The bed should be dry. Some people consider pigs as dirty animals, in fact pigs love clean environment. You should create a drainage system of free flow of pigs’ waste. If you want your piggies to be happy, just build a small water pool, where they will be able to play and swim, as well as get rid of dirt and cool themselves in hot weather. Change the water in the pool periodically.

PIG FARMING GUIDE
To receive pig-farming profits you should build your business taking into account many things.
Feeding
Provide your pigs with fresh, nutrient rich and high-quality food, to be healthy and grow fast. Feeding your pigs well also helps prevent different pig illnesses. Pigs are not choosy about feed; you can easily get a good feed formulation for your pigs at different stages. Please remember that piglets need more protein than mature pigs, due to intensive growth. Pigs require not only high-quality feed; they also need a satisfactory amount of fresh and pure water each day. We have mentioned above that a good water supply is a first need at your farm.
Breeding
The pigs’ gestation period is about 114 days. Usually, piglets are born two times a year. Each sow can have approximately 10 piglets a time. A sow feeds piglets breast milk for the first 8 weeks, after this period a sow is ready again for semination.

Marketing
You can market pork both on the local and international markets, the demand for this type of meat is rather high. In my experience, marketing has never been an issue. China is the leading international consumer of pork, even Ghana and Nigeria imports pork. Pig farming for beginners can become a real challenge but if you read special books or search on the Internet, ask for advice of more experienced farmers, very soon you can become a successful pig farmer. Knowledge is always a big plus, if you comprehend the business you will get profit and achieve success.


Employing people
Having a hundred pigs or more, it can be difficult to cope with such amount of pigs by your own, so it will be wise to employ 2-4 people. They will assist you in feeding, cleaning and other. You also will need service of a veterinary doctor/experienced consultant; a successful business is impossible without one.

How profitable is pig farming in Nigeria?
You can begin piggery business with a little start-up capital and still make profit. Pig farming can bring you impressive sum of money, successful farmers get decent returns but believe me, it’s a journey. The demand is high, and pigs grow quickly, pig meat is sold very quickly. The rest is the elementary calculation. Of course, you will need money for the beginning: to purchase land, build housing, pigs, feed etc. In addition, you can save money on a feeding of pigs if you will grow your own pasture, or to plant potato, maize, cassava etc or if you have bulk purchase power.

Pig farming business plan
Each successful business starts with a business plan, piggery is not an exception. Don’t be lazy and create your personal pig farming business plan, this can save from the failure or even a disaster in future. Calculate the expenses for one year: land, housing, breeding, feeding, supplies, medicines, salary, transport expenses and other. You also will need to write down all necessary things. Another important calculation is a breeding plan, it helps to avoid overcrowding. For instance, take that one sow will bring you ±20 piglets a year, with this in mind you can plan your space and capacity to feed. Analyze the experience of existing farmers, who know the secrets of building a prosperous farm.
Pig farming equipment
Modern pig farming is impossible without special equipment, so please note that it would not be a miss to buy special hog pens, watering system, water bowls, drinker nipples, pit scrapers, fogging systems, scales, hog feeding, buckets, heat lamps, dirt blaster wash and other. As you see, piggery is not a very difficult business, you just need to make your own business plan, have money and desire, take into account experience of other farmers, who work in this field for at least several years. We hope that we have provided you with necessary information that will be useful for building a successful business.

Nonetheless, getting to this point where I can confidently tell people about pigs has been a real journey. We are in a tough part of the world where people no longer see integrity as anything. If you check my profile you will notice I stopped posting since 2017, and one of the last few things I posted about was breeds. I realized a lot of things as at that time that I needed to tackle with regards to my breeds, I had to sell all the animals in my farm and restart. Well, now I have TN, Camborough, Landrace, Largewhite and Hybrids

We are into farm planning/set-up and management follow up, I may not always be available to respond here especially when work resumes after this lockdown... You can always reach me on: 08120403609 (Preferably on Whatsapp)
I actually thought of doing this during this lockdown, to help intending farmers from loosing their hard earned money like I did, and also promote my farm. This business is the best decision I've made in my life and its my early retirement plan but a lot of people are loosing money everyday because majority of the people out there are wicked and do not care whether you're spending your gratuity or you're packing shit to make that money. I once saw a farmer who posted black dotted weaners for sale as pure landrace, if you will make findings you'd realize that is what he was told when he buying their parents.

If you have any question you can ask me here or ask me on whatsapp if I don't respond here.

Thanks for freely sharing your knowledge. I'm still new in the piggery business (about 6months). My major challenge at the moment is marketing.

Nnefada:
Thanks for freely sharing your knowledge.
I'm still new in the piggery business (about 6months).
My major challenge at the moment is marketing.

Your location is critical to your market,
1. What quantity are you selling: that will determines how easily you can get buyers.
If your farm is within the town you can easily get buyers if you intend to sell few animals but if your farm is far from town then you should consider selling larger numbers, you can easily attract bulk buyers especially if you have good animals i.e no fat etc
2. If your target is selling of weaners: Provided you have good breeds, you can easily attract buyers when you have a brand i.e you’re well known for breeding exotic animals and you’ve been tested. I always advice farmers to fatten to finish, you have a great advantage with good breed(fast growth); then along the line if people come and likes your animals then you can sell premium but always prepare feed to market.

Excelleon:


Your location is critical to your market,
1. What quantity are you selling: that will determines how easily you can get buyers.
If your farm is within the town you can easily get buyers if you intend to sell few animals but if your farm is far from town then you should consider selling larger numbers, you can easily attract bulk buyers especially if you have good animals i.e no fat etc
2. If your target is selling of weaners: Provided you have good breeds, you can easily attract buyers when you have a brand i.e you’re well known for breeding exotic animals and you’ve been tested. I always advice farmers to fatten to finish, you have a great advantage with good breed(fast growth); then along the line if people come and likes your animals then you can sell premium but always prepare feed to market.

Thanks soo much.

Lovely writeup

These are some of our pigs now.... TN, Camborough, Landrace etc

More...

And more...

where is your farm located.you should have labelled each breed