Eric,

Just a word of caution. Tried this several years ago. 14 sows, and 150 pigs on average. Found out I had to raise them myself because nobody wanted to buy them young. Everyone else was too smart for me. Of course, I had other things to do, so then I wound up paying someone else to raise them while I did things that actually made money.

In the end, after calculating, I found out I was losing 265 per pig. Commercial feed is just too expensive. Tried mixing my own feed for a while, as I'm too dam_n stubborn to admit I was wrong. Dried fish, corn (pain to cook for 100+ pigs), rice bran and whatever vegetables I could get easily.) Probably could have made a small profit if I had really put in the effort, but I quickly realized I was doing the job of 10 people and losing sleep over it just to maybe break even. I could make the same amount of money sitting in the living room watching Thai soap operas and drinking several cases of Chang.

If you really want to make a business like this, hook up with an NGO who will buy your young pigs and give them to needy families. Short of that, your model won't work. You'll wind up growing them out yourself and working yourself to death in the process, or worse yet, paying others so you can lose even more money.

Of course, I haven't tried this in several years, so maybe the economics are different today, but don't bet on it.

Hi Greg.

Many thanks for your comments about your experiences at pig-farming; most sobering!

We plan on raising all new pigletts ourselves, selling them off at the market weight of 90-105Kg. We have done quite alot of research on this topic, and we also have had prior experience of raising wild pigs in the past. We plan on mixing our own feed, supplemented with EM-laced additves(Elective Microorganism). The plan is to construct 8 holding pens for each of the initial 8 sows, and another 8 holding pens for the weaners. We plan on artificially inseminating the sows with seed from local boars. After our first experiences of raising wild pigs, this time we plan on raising pink pigs, as orgainically as possible, using EM thechniques of food processing, and waste management. We will also be attaching 2 large fish ponds directly behind each cluster of 8 pig-pens. These ponds will contain 10,000 cat-fish each , which thrives on the effluent of pigs. Catfish are a very popular food source here in Nakornratchasima province, and fetch a good price in the markets.

We are FULLY aware of the amount of hard work all this will entail, and are quite prepared both physically and mentally for the challenge.

May I ask you, how you dealt with pig waste management and the bad odours when you had you own pig-farm?

We plan on recycling ALL waste matter. We are fortunate to have a large fruit farm adjoining our prospective pig-farm, and so we can use all treated waste product as fertilizer.

Looking forward to your reply...

Cheers.

Eric.

Hi Eric,

we farm the Mong Cai, In Saraburi,

had some probelms in the past now all sorted have over 70 pigs from different ages.

concrete your floors and have the run off into the catfish ponds.

for the smell, spray with EM designd for smell, a bit more acidic than the normal Em works wonders, should do twice a day after you wash the pens out, in doing twice a day the fish get fed as well.

you will see the pig lap this up its good for them.

make a basket or box in the pond to hold the additional waste from the pig shit, easier to scoop out once a week.

add this to the compost heap dose with EM and cover the smell will go away,

grow pewlnty of bananas if you have the land for additional food source for the pigs, how far is the local amrket from you, make a deal with a few suppliers to collect their veg peelings etc recues your feed cost, pigs that eat artifical feed smell more than those fed on greens.

mix rum ( rice husk milled, mixed with Molases and water for a heavier pig, they love it.

what we do is this mix for the morning and evening and fruit or veg in between.

good luck, keep us posted.

Regards

John

where can i buy baby pig (piglets) in Yasothon.

Thank you for any imforation.

I suggest you go see the provincial Livestock Development people. They will know the farms and what stock they run. If you are lucky they might tell which are good and who to avoid

I am building a pig farm for my wife. She has illusions of grandeur, although I have been through this before a few of the schemes seem to be working. Palm is good and we are planting more. At 76 I see skid marks just before the cliff. The light at the end of the tunnel is a locomotive and it’s speeding my way. 
Her brother and sister in law and niece and her husband are up from Bangkok and the house is more a commune. So labor costs are non existent. Just food. As an old hippie from the east village, I have a socialist bent. My wife’s family are good people. No drama except for a six year old. 
I know they will make some profit and I have no pension for her. They are in co-op, so it is fairly equitable. 
I will cut the amount of money coming from my pension to pay for the enterprise. But we will have a freezer full of pork and we grow our own veggies and I have planted lots of fruit trees. We have a large pond behind the sty’s for catfish and they will have to find ways to economize. 
all is paid for. The land house cars and tractor. So food and fuel are my only expenses besides utilities. 
 No labor costs or overhead. 
luckily I have a good pension and will not be dependent on it. 
Basically a happy camper as the pigs are way downwind. Keeps the wife busy. We plan to have and sell around 20 a month and have our own breeding pens. 
so I will sit in my rocking chair with my tilly hat and watch the ongoing saga as I slowly slide into my dotage. If it keeps the wife happy and busy it can’t be all bad. 

On 1/9/2022 at 11:53 AM, nycjoe said:

We plan to have and sell around 20 a month and have our own breeding pens. I will cut the amount of money coming from my pension to pay for the enterprise.

Can I ask if you have estimated the start up time and cost to achieve 20 market pigs target? Having been through this, I advise you to study how you will achieve this carefully. Happy to discuss.