₦airaland Forum

eazeefix: I did poultry for 8 years before converting to piggery do not underestimate how hot tank water can be during the heat season between Nov and Feb. Now back to the issue at hand, before I started my farm I visited several farms in my area and most had less the 20 animals in total and used rough wood to construct makeshift structures and make their money. Most guys I believe are after handy ready to use info. The 2000 pig farm though achievable but beyond the scope the naira land group.

On your hot water tank, there are so many ways to address the problem, one simple way is to cover the top with wood to shield the sun. I have been using nip.ples on my farm from inception and have never had any such experience.

On the information made available here, if they are not useful to you, they are to others. Having a 2000 production per annum pig farm does not mean having 2000 pigs on your farm, it simply means having enough herd to produce about 40 pigs for sale per week which translates to about 2000 per annum. I have already given the formula that will help you determine your herd size to achieve it.

Piggery is not a hubby, it is a business, having 50 pigs on your farm is a very good way to start, particularly in the circumstance of limited funds, however it is not the destination. A focused reinvestment will sooner than later take you to the destination. We have a huge market to supply. I do not have the precise market size for pig in Nigeria, but I know its huge. For example, There are approximately 400 commercial producers and 19 stud breeders in South Africa. It was estimated that 2.4million pigs weighing 2 million tones where slaughtered in 2011 in South Africa. Pig meat has the potential to bring down the high cost of other animal protein sources such as chicken and beef because they do not compete with humans for feeds like chicken does with corn and soya.

femu: @ eazeefix thanks.
@lagbaja what's your strategy for removal and disposal of the waste under the slatted floor?
There are design factors to be considered when employing modern tech.they have some important disadvantages especially in our context....
I know a poultry farmer that lost 500 birds, due to consumption of hot water from drinking nipples, the water was hot as a result of the afternoon sun.
Nipples can get blocked with dirt and the animals will have little or no water.
If a nipple system is employed and the workers get used to not bothering about water for the animals they might not know on time when the tank is empty.
Only very committed workers will bother to shower the pigs at intervals especially when Oga isn't around.
Nipples and sprinklers/showers work best when the owner is always around or in a computerised environment.
Its the way forward but only with a good design, loyal work force and automation.

Slatted floors are placed on top of the manure allay which is similar to a gutter. If the lenght of the inside of a pig house is 10ft in length for example, you can make the slatted floor to be about 4ft width. The pigs are intelligent animals and chooses where to sleep and where to poo. The pigs poo on the slatted floor. The manure dries up, crumbles and empties into the underneath gutter/ manure allay. The manure allay empties into your soak away pit. This way, smell is contained within the farm. Labour requirements for cleaning poo is also eliminated. You can have an overhead shower to bathe your pigs which in turn empties into the manure allay and flushes it away.

On your second question, technology is mearnt to make life easier and reduce your costs. In our context, it is even more compelling to use technology because our staff are mostly unreliable. Your poultry farmer friend must have had a bad design. If your overhead tank is about 2000litres, I wonder how long it will take before the water is hot enough to kill his poultry birds. Blockage of channels is eliminated by ensuring that your tank is tightly closed and by installing a filter at the exit of the tank. They cost about N1000.

Will you stop using a car because you saw an accident on the road yesterday ?, Technology makes life easier so long as you take precautions and follow the design rules.

eazeefix: I believe this thread should be made as user friendly as possible. Those into research know where to go so if anyone has a proven formula and u want to share feel free and share. Let's answer questions with simple and usable answers. Someone asked about pen construction and drainage and a slated pen was posted and I believe a simple guide on appropriate gradient on floor construction would have sufficed. I posted my farm photo so as to register as a hands on farmer, I acknowledge the support given me by femu. I want this thread to be a real supportive and mentoring one.

This is one of the reasons why we are where we are in pig production. I have visited several farms and noticed the operational deficiencies due mainly to bad design and planning. Piggery is a serious business and should be done professionally to achieve optimal results cost effectively. There are different categories of people in this forum. Small, medium and big players. While I talked about slated floor, I also gave alternatives.

Slated floor is a model used all over the world. Local improvisations are possible at low cost. It is almost impossible to think of an annual production capacity of up to 2000 finisher pigs and upwards without factoring in the use of slatted floors. For example we are currently using slanted floors with overhead showers but we have started designing ours slatted floor slabs from concrete and wire mesh. It is the best method to achieve dry floors, less water consumption, improved health and less labour. It is in fact cheaper than the slanted floors when you factor in the operational costs associated with the latter. I posted pictures of my farm with my pigs using the water nip.ples. Making people aware of it will help them think futuristic.

Make you contributions and move on. Your criticism should be constructive.

jimmysho: my dearest Lagbaja and Tarqus, am following you guys' explanation in details.
I will soon start my farm though I need to start with at least 50 pigs. Pls don't say too big because that is the requirement before I could access the fund. pls I will need all help. plan establishing in my village in ogun state.
I will love to visit your farms when am ready. I plan to visit IITA too.
I Plan having cassava processing factory too in my village. We intend to produce garri, Lafun, High Quality Cassava Flour and Cassava chips.
is the cassava peals healthy for the animals because I leant some of the peals component is poisonous?
Is it necessary to feed them with grass and wont it be cumbersome owing to the farm size which implies we will have over 500 animals in 1 year?
Thank you.

@jimmysho, cassava peel is healthy for pigs so long as you allow it to dry or ensile it in a bag for about 4 days. The drying or ensilement reduces the cynanide concentration thereby making it palatable for the pigs. Note however that cassava is very low in protein, it has only about 2.6% protein whereas your growing pigs requires about 14% crude protein. Primary, it is used as a source of energy and complemented by other higher protein sources such as pkc, soya bean meal, blood meal, fish meal etc. you can feed your pigs dehydrated cassava leaves and other less fibrous vegetable leaves such as lettuce, Amaranthus, cabbage etc but grass is not a good option. Cassava leaves contains about 21% crude protein.see the following link for further details.

http://www.fao.org/livestock/agap/frg/AHPP95/95-111.pdf

http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd13/5/akin135.htm


Grass is very high in cellulose (crude fibre) . Pigs are mono gastric animals, their digestive track are different from those of ruminant animals such as cows, goats which are able to digest the cellulose in grass.

TOLUWAYEMI: @Lagbaja, can you possibly replace cassava with maize or wheat and what's the feed ration for feeds at various stages?

Yes you can replace cassava with maize or wheat. My advice is that you learn the pearsons's square formula. With that, you can use available feeds within your environment to achieve cost effective formulation with the desired crude protein and metabolic energy requirements for your pigs.

Here is a link:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/livestk/01618.html

emmyvet: Thank you for the reply!
Please with the overhead shower, will I still get the feaces to convert them to maggots for catfish?

Yes, you will. Channel the manure into an open soak away pit from which you can harvest your maggots.

emmyvet: Thumbs up to Lagbaja, Tarqus, ops, excelsiorfarm and all who having been contributing to this trend!
It seems like you all having been talking or considering the feeding, breeding and cost of management.
Please I would like you guys to talk a bit on;
1. the construction of the pen for easy cleaning,
2. The labor needed in the farm managements(most especially on the sanitation.
3. Control of the stench that normally comes from pig farm.
I asked the above questions because I have a friend who had a pig farm but faced the problem of cleaning the farm ( I don't know if is from the construction of the farm because the urine and waste will always scatter all around the room waiting for the laborer to come and carry it all).
I would Like to know if we have a modern way of construction of the pen for easy sanitation..
A big thanks to each and every one of you for your time in helping the newbie in pig farming!

The most effective and modern solution is to have a slatted floor (see picture below). However, since that is not available locally, the alternative is to have an over head shower which will wash the floor into the gutter otherwise called manure allay provided within the pen.

The overhead shower also helps to cool the body of the pigs.

My email address is lajirots@gmail.com

eazeefix: Please how much did u get ur about to cross from oke aro? Got 6 from obj farms @ 30k each looking for a pure Duroc boar (grower or weaner) any links? Thanks

I got them for N15k each. They were large white breeds

Does anyone know where I can get large quantities of coconut husk. I know it is available in Badagry. Please help with the information on any other locations.

That's a good price. Perhaps, it's location specific. It makes sense to buy it dry. Where in Ibadan is it sold ?. Does anyone know if same is available in Lagos?

We use fresh cassava that we ensile for 4 days. Fibre content of fresh unprocessed cassava is low. Pkc is what provides the required fibre content. Our farm is only about 6 months old. We got our piglet stock from South Africa through a local agent. The breed is camborough from PIC and Oke Aro already weaned. The camborough breed produce lean meat and have an FCR of 2. We got our "about to cross" and gilts from Oke Aro. Almost all our sows are pregnant now. The response to the feed has been fantastic.

Pkc has between 14 and 19% crude protein. Cassava has 2.6% crude protein ( it is primarily the source of energy). They are currently the cheapest and most available of all the feed materials. Pkc is sold at about N23 per kg. we get our cassava at N16 per kg. by modifying the pkc to 60% , cassava 30%, and maintaining blood meal at 6 to 8%, you will achieve close to 17% crude protein in the piglets meal.

You will notice that I have not mentioned brewery waste as my source of feed. The reasons are as follows:

1. Though, they have between 25 to 30% crude protein, they are more expensive than pkc. They are sold wet having up to 60% water content by weight. A truck of 10tons is sold for between N30k and N40k. That makes it N30 per kg. by the time it's dried, you have 50% of what you paid for. Effectively, you are buying at N60 per kg.

2. Supply is inconsistent.

3. Storage can pose a lot of challenge both in terms of labour and logistics.

ops: @ Lagbaja; Sorry sir but I believe nutritional requirements differ with age and condition (pregnant or lactating or fattening). While your formula will work,@ a stage it might be unnecessarily expensive, especially when it comes to protein as pigs generally need less of it as they grow.
I used to have a guide chart that shows nutritional contents (%) of different food items and also requirements for different stages in a pig's lifespan. I've been searching for it for days. Will post it as soon as I find it.

You are correct with what you said. Our observation is that the crude protein requirement of our mix is about 14% which does not meet the requirement for the piglets but met 14% for finishers and older boars/gilt/sow.what we do to balance that is to feed our piglets with extra protein from poultry offals gotten from our processed broiler chicken. If you don't have chicken offals, increase the blood meal to 8% and reduce pkc content for your piglets.

Ijobaorun: Mr lagbaja, pls does dis formula applies to all the pigs, both farteners nd breaders? Wil d protein content not affect d farrowing of d breader?

We use the same formula for both fattening and farrowing, for the piglets, add about 10% more SBM or GNC.

Ijobaorun: pls can u explain how to go by it cos i'm also catfish but not getting maggots from my pig's manure. Thanks alot.

Collect the pig manure, pour them on a floor with concrete base. Wet them adequately until it is watery. If you can get chicken offals, put some on the wet manure. Housefly will perch on it and lay their eggs. After 4 days, it is ready for harvest.

Here are some of my farrowing pigs sucking on the water ni.pples.

Piggery can command even more revenue if you combine it with fishery. On my farm, we use our pig manure for growing maggots which we feed to our catfish. It saves on cost of fish feed and promotes quicker growth of our catfish. One pig's manure can produce up to 20kg of catfish per annum.

targus: Guys, Thanks for the contributions and comment, This is what the forum is for anyway, The way i went about building my Piggery pen will actually work out cheaper than most people and i believe in doing the INFRASTRUCTURE well and then the rest you can adapt as you go.
The few things bought out of the stuff used for building that Pen are Cement, Roofing Zinc and nail, the Wood is fell from my farm and sawn into plank.
The Sand and gravels are also from my farm and most of the people working except the master bricklayer are my farm boys .(currently have few working on my farm)
The construction of the farm is Model on Boyd Farm (Please google it,who has done a great Job in advising what and what to look out for, they have been a rock)
Each farrowing pen comes with its own drinking nipple and and the plumbing and drainage are well planned so that the drainage goes straight into our proposed BIODIGESTER Tank to be use for biogas.
Regarding feeding, my farm is located within 100miles of 3 major breweries. I have over 50 acres of my own Palm Plantation whereby the PKC will be use for feeding them. I have over 200 Acres of Plantain Plantation where by the stem is something they like eating as well and i have my own truck for bringing in the food thereby reducing the cost of Transportation.
Also, 5 Tonnes /Hr capacity MILL is been installed on the farm as well.
Regarding experience, Experience they say is the best teacher, thats why we are getting an experienced pig farmer to join us for the first 6 months to take us through the phase but on our own farm , at least taking us through 2 full cycle and impacting the knowledge into us.
Since we are getting pregnant farrow at different stages of pregnancy and some that are not pregnant, i think by the time we reach our Goal of having 100 Breeding Stock, things would have settled down.
In line of this, please chip in what i should be doing that i have not thought of and what i shouldn't be doing that i'm doing, all suggestion will be welcome. Thanks for your help and i hope this explain a few things.
Regards

Great job, your outlay is superb. Your construction is also very ok. BOYD is a very good reference point.

excelsiorfarm: bro try to include feeding cost for interested farmers,so they dont commit blunders, feeding those lots takes a rich man,i bet u know that

That was why I provided the formulas. Your herd size determines your annual cost of feed. The example I gave above will requre a daily feed cost as follows:

FCR=4 cost per kg of feed=N30, asssuming you feed your pigs the recommended 4% of body weight of a balanced ration per day.
Assume the average weight per pig = 30kg
total biomass ( total weight of herd)=519*30*4%*N30=N18,684

Annual cost will be N18,684*365=N6,819,660. This cost will help you produce 1000 pigs of 65kg sizes in 1 year. If you sell at N280 per kg, you revenue will be N18.2million Naira. Your gross profit will be about N11m.

In summary, the amount of funds you want to invest will help you to determind the size of your herd.

The biggest producer of pkc sells at this price at factory gate. I will be surprised if anyone can meet your demand.

Below is a formula for planning your pig herd. N represents the number of farrowing you intend to achieve per week. It is applicable for continuos production. For example if you intend to sell 1000 pigs per annum, then you need to have about 20 pigs added to your herd per week. I.e 52weeks *2*10= 1040. To achieve 20 piglet addition, make sure 2 pigs ( 2 farrowings per week) gives birth per week with each birth producing and average of 10 piglets.

To apply the formula, N=2, 259*2+1= 519. Therefore, your herd size will be 519.

Get Michel out

What is the size of demand for rabbits in the country. Who are the buyers and what are the market rates

Get the manual here http://www.fao.org/3/a-ak505e.pdf

http://www.nefisco.org/downloads/Clarias.PDF

Get the manual here http://www.fao.org/3/a-ak505e.pdf

I am into pig farming. Pig farming is one of the most lucrative arms of animal farming. Pigs are highly prolific, giving birth to an average of 10 piglets per farrow. Typically a pig farrows 2.5 times in a year. So in a year, a pig can give birth to about 25 piglets.

The biggest variable cost component in pig farming is feed cost. It accounts for about 70% of the total cost. Your ability to source your feed in a manner that is most cost effective is your success determinant. Typically, pigs have FCR in the range between 2 and 4 depending on the breed and on the feed formulation. FCR means feed conversion ratio. It is a measure of how much kg of feed an animal will eat to produce 1kg of live weight.

This the is formula I adopt for my pigs (Modified for Amino Acid Balancing)

50% of cassava ( I buy them Fresh, break them into chips, dry and store them)
30% pkc
10% GNC( groundnut meal) or SBM (soyabean meal)
6% blood meal
2.5%. Oyster shell/bone meal/ lime stone
0.25% lysine
0.25% methionine
0.5% salt
0.25% premix
0.03% (3g per 1kg bakers Yeast) ( probiotic)
0.1% H-Plus from Animalcare

The above feed formulation will cost you about N30 per kilo. 1kg of live pig is sold for between N280 and N300. If your pig consumes 3kg of feed to give 1 kg of meat, It means that it will cost you N90 to produce 1kg of live weight. Therefore you make a gross margin of N300 - N90= N210.

The other component of pig farming that is capital intensive is their housing. Pig housing has to be properly planed according to the number of pigs you intend to grow. You need to decide whether you want to do batch (all in all out) or continuos pig production (first in first out).

The biggest pig farm in west Africa is at oke aro , Agege. Another one is at Gberigbe Ikorodu. Accomodation costs at this locations are very high. I will advice you to site your pig pen close to where you can get cheap land and source raw materials at low price. Eg cassava plantations.

Technology application will greatly hep you in your pig farming. Fr example using, pig ni.ppl.es (see picture below) will ensure that you deliver constant and clean water to your pigs , it will also reduce labor requirements. You also need to construct a manure allay within your pig house so that when they poo poo, you can flush it away via the manure allay ( the manure allay is like a gutter).

Does it mean all data since January till date is lost ?

If we are in a sane society, Obanikoro should be languishing in jail based on his terribly corrupt antecedents here in Nigerian and the US. HiS son was one of the criminals indicted in the Oil subsidy scandal.

Still available

Large quantites of Big Sized broilers and Turkey are available for sale. Call Manager on 08028468750.

excelsiorfarm: create a standard(high) & u are in big biz, i will update all my next expedition dv in fisheries

Thanks Robonski and Excelsiorfarm, @ Excelsiorfarm, I look forward to seeing your expedition. I wish we could have a comprehensive database of fish growers for the country.

In Nigeria, the minimum fish fingerling requirement is 4.3 billion while the total fingerling supply from all sources is 55.8 million (FDF, 2007)
Source
http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380897739_Adewumi%20and%20Olaleye.pdf

Without doubt that is a very huge gap between industry demand and supply. It has been established that the biggest problem of catfish production in Nigeria is production of quality fingerlings. We need to find a way to create an efficient distribution of activities along the value chain to derive maximum benefits. A comprehensive database of industry players is the starting point because it will help us to plan more accurately.

If you are an agent and capable of selling a minimum of 20,000 fingerlings monthly at very attractive discounted rates, send me a mail at lajirots@gmail.com. The plan is to deliver reliably to your door steps in oxygenated bags. It doesn't matter where you are located in Nigeria.

Guys, how big is the market for fingerlings. Will I be able to push 500,000 catfish fingerlings on a monthly basis ?. Assume a reliable and qualitative stock.

Bismack Rewane is the perfect man for the job