That is great. I have seen a few videos as well. We don't have enough land for animals to get good nutrition from nature. We plan to continue to feed them in enclosure while they also forage. The savings for us will come from not having to clean on a daily basis (reduction in staff need). We hope to fence about an acre within the next few months and try this method out.
Thanks for sharing.

We have 2 boars for sale. They are direct offspring offspring of imported animals from the UK. Both animals have records and were bought from a reputable breeder in Sept of 2015. Though we have not weighed them, we are confident that each wiil weigh we)l over 200 kg as we sold one ar about 270 kg in december.

If you have large breeding females, any of these 2 boars will be ideal for you. We are intending to sell bec
ause we a number of these big boys on the farm.
One is a pure large white and other is landrace.

Hello pig farmers
We are wonderring if anyone has experience farming pigs without building individual pens for them. We are embarking on the second phase of farm and intend to just fence, build a couple of sheds, feeding areas, wallows, drinkers etc. We just let the pigs roam within the confinement. Interested in hearing from anyone that has gone down this path this is willing to share his or her experience. It seems to us that it will be very cost effective for fattening pigs.

Can anyone advise the average monthly salary of a pig farm hand or indeed any farm hand.?

We also need same information for a fresh university graduate in agriculture/anumal science?

Thanks

20 piglets is terrific.

Estimates must of course be based on cost of feed ingredients, calculation of quantity to be fed to the animals as they develop to achieve target weight. Not an easy task. Happy Easter all.

We have never bought the casavva cake. Someone told me that he gets them from iseyin.

Though I am still learning and open to ideas from others, i have learnt a few things in the 3 years or so that i have been involved. 300k is not likely to feed 500 animals in a month except they are all weaners which is even doubtful. I recall the target is to get the animals to about 70 kg in about 6 months. That requires quality feed and animals. These days maize is about 145/kg, brewery waste 25/kg soy bean 150/kg, pkc 45/kg; cassava cake 100/kg, gnc 135/kg; wheat offal 2900/50 kg. There are additional cost for pre mix ; lysine, methione, drugs etc. Perhaps some of us have been paying too much for these ingredients. From experience, not to use those ingredients is to slow down the growth rate of even the purest lines. We started with concorted breeds and fed them with mostly pkc and brewery waste and got about 60-70 at best in 1 year. We introduced good lines of LR. Again fed them mostly with pkc and brewery waste and got at least 100 kg in one year. We introduced maize, soy bean etc and the growth rates of all our breed, concorted and pure lines improved dramatically. We are hoping to get 80-90 kg in about 7-8 months without the animals building up too much fats. Most of our pure lines reached the target in about 8 months even though we really did not start feeding them well until january this year. The pure line are intended for breeding and sale to others as breeding stock.

That has been our personal experience. Open to ideas particularly on where and how we can source cheap ingredients. Our experience on pure lines vs concorted breed is that pure lines will almost double concorted breeds in weight in about one year.

Sorry guys, i should clarify a few things. Overall, we make profit on a per animal basis. For example it cost say 20000 to get an to 80kg and you sell that animal for 35000. Our challenge is that our monthly revenue of about 1.3m since Jan does not cover the monthly cost of raising about 600 animals. The big market is in selling for meat and not weaners/growers. Hopefully our sales will double in the next few months and we are also able to reduce some of our operating cost. For example, we rely entirely on generator to power the farm.

Feed is the killer and we are trying backward integration and currently looking into building a feed mill. For example, we have started harvesting the cassava we planted. The challenge is all that will go in about 2 months given our size.

To get to a position where one can sell 100 pigs in a month in about a year starting from scratch is a tall order that requires good capital and solid nanagemnet bearing in mind that you may not be able to sell many weaners and growers at commensurate prices.

Jideam,

Your goals are achievable in about may be 2 years provided you have the funds and the experience or people with experience. We presently have about 600 animals on our farm and we started over 3 years ago. Yet to breakeven, but that should start to happen in couple of months when we should be in a position to increase our monthly sales from about 30 to about 60 @ average weight of 75. There are too many challenges you wil face along the line. Our operating cost/pig /month is over N3000. You need to buy good breeding stocks and they are not cheap. Over the years, we have invested about N35 m. We have capacity to house about 1000 animals at the moment. We have 8 staff including agric university grad. Having said all these, key is start small, learn and grow. Might take a few years for you to start seeing profit.

What is going price for various types of weaners i.e concorted vs concorted, concorted vs exotic, exotic vs exotic?
Thanks

All well known breeds e.g. lw, LR are in Nigeria. Growth is stunted in Nigeria because we can't feed and manage pigs well. In the west, pigs are over 100 kg in 6 months. The Nigerian environment is very tough to operate in. People can't feed well let alone animals. A terrible cycle. If animals are not well fed, people can't be well fed because animals is a key source of protein.

Looking for someone to supply pkc to a farm in ijebu area. If you can supply or know someone who can supply, please whatsapp or text 1 403 921 8537.

Thanks moey4gold

Anyone with solid knowledge on why sows give birth to mummified piglets and still births and the treatment.?

Really tough one EKiagrim. I am also looking for suggestions from the gurus. In the first place, piggeries should never be situated where people live except if the intention is to keep a handful of pigs. I guess you can burn the waste now that we are approaching dry season. Theyou can be used as manure after they dry. The really smelly one is the wet one and the urine. Soak away may be helpful, but if your operation is large you have to keep digging soak aways. I don't know if there are chemicals that will reduce the odour and make them decay fast. There should be.

Thanks

The brick house looks impressive. What is the process of molding the bricks and how cheaper is it compared to cement bricks?

Are you already into pig farming and only planning to expand into importation.? If not, I will advise you buy from reputable sources with good breeds. It is very important that you gain experience before venturing into importation of pigs.

Way to go. Less stress to people and animals

You can go see some of the exotic breeds (Large white, Landrace, Duroc and gene converter) kept by Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IART) in Ikenne. It is federal Government Institution established to help farmers. The Ikenne site is devoted for swine research and to assist swine farmers. They imported what they regard as grand parent stock about 5 years ago. I have seen only the males of all the breeds i mentioned above. They are very very impressive animals. I understand that they have animals for sale now. One of their officers that we deal with is Momoh. His number is 0803 383 1083. They are public officers, so i have no qualms in providing his info on this forum as they are there to assist swine farmers. The key is that if you buy from them, they have verifiable history and i want to believe that one will be buying from a trusted source. They challenge is the cost of their weaners. I think N70,000 is too much and damn cracy given the financial resources of most farmers. Anyhow, from my about 2 year expereince in this business, i must say again that most of the animals being circulated amongst us have been bastardised over the years. By that, i mean they and their parents have not been properly fed over time , in-breeding, poor medication etc. Those are the things that tend to reduce the quality of the animals over time. In other words, no matter what you do with most of them now, you cannot achieve say 90-100 kg is even 6 months. In my view, it should not really matter, whether one is buying LW, Camborough, Landrace or Duroc as any of those animals have very good feed conversion ratio, quickly grow large and farrow quality animals in large numbers. What matters is that you are really buying what you think you are buying (good genetics and the seller is honest and can show and demonstrate records.

It a combination of quality/ adequate quantity of feeds as well as genetics. Along the same lines, i hear of someone that imported his pigs from the UK at about N400,000 plus / pig. According to him, one of his males weighs about 275 kilos in a little over a year. All the females are approaching 200 kilos in 1 year. He sells his females @ N70,000 and males at N85,000 per weaner. Pigs whose generation have been in 9ja for many years are not likely to give you that kind of result even with good feed. With good breed and feed one can easily achieve 100 kg in about 7 months but the challenge is of course market price of pork. Being frustrated with the growth rate, we have started experimenting with pigs (presently large white) whose parents or grand parents are imported from the western world, in other words, they have verifiable history. My partner and farm manager tells me the growth rate (essentially height and lenght) is a world of difference with the same feed. The first 3 we bought (bought the offspring of someone who bought from Obasanjo Farms) are approaching 90 kg in about 9 months. We are careful about their feeding because we are using them as breeders. Don't want them to develop too much fat quickly. Our LWs should start giving birth in December. We recently bought from IART, Ikenne as well (they are already bigger than our concorted breed that is 2 months older than them) and will be taking delivery of another exotic breeds within a week or so. All of these is to enable us see the difference and create a variety of gene pool for the future. The challenge of our industry is largely finance, dedicated and knowledgeable employees and market. As entrepreneurs, we must continue to work on overcoming those challenges.

I hear there is swine fever in Lagos and probably Ijebu area. All farmers should please take necessary precaution and in fact heighten their bio security measures as the disease is usually devastating.

I was only trying to let people know that such a place exists. Yes spending such amount of money is only justified as foundation stock for breeding.

Most pigs in Nigeria have no pure background and have been maltreated. Pure breeds can be obtained at the Swine Research Centre in Ikenne ogun state. I hear their weaners go for 70,000 each. They have Landrace, large whites and Duroc. I saw their male stock. Very impressive.

Good advise, Smokey.

Forgot to ask Femu and indeed everyone; what is the average feeding cost/month for say pigs in the range
20-40 kg; 50-70 kg and 75-95kg to get an average monthly growth rate of at least 10 kg. The average total operating cost per pig for us is around N1350/pig/month with an average monthly growth rate of about 5kg. Total operating costs includes all expenses such as feed, salary, repairs and maintenance, drugs etc but excluding cost of finance.
Responses will be appreciated.

Niyoga
Not ideal to locate a piggery in a residential area. With the waste and smell that will come from the waste , you are bound to run into problems with your neighbors plus it will be difficult to expand your business in a residential area. Waste management will generally be more difficult to manage and expensive in a residential area.

Thanks for Femu. Your growth rate is quite impressive. Are you willing to share the major components of your feed? Will really appreciate. Thanks

Hello all,

1) Is anyone willing to share the average monthly growth rate they are getting for their pigs? We seem to be getting between 4-7 kilos per month which i think on the low side. I know a lot of factors come into play e.g. qualilty and quantity of feed, breed/genetics and overall management.

2) Do colleges and universities offering agriculture as part of their program give their students opportunities to go do internship on farms besides school farm? Why i am asking is that we are thinking of the possibilty of getting such students to come work on our farm and from that practice generate a pool of future tested employees. Do such program exists in the frist place and has anyone used student employees? if so, we will like to learn from your experience.

Thanks

Animal Care Konsult produces concentrates for growers and sows as well as feeds for pigs at thier various stages of growth.

Otegazx,

Not likely thay you will be able to pay back N4 Million loan in 3 years. Depending on what scale you are looking at, 4M may not be enough for infrastructure, i.e., pens, bore-hole etc. However, if you able to get a decent facility to rent, it may be possible.
Goodluck