Advice On Pig Farming

[bankha]

Hello,

I am thinking of farming pigs on some of our land so a couple of questions.

The land in question is about 500m by 700m and partly woods and field what has had veg grown on it and a pond next to it. I will be fencing all this area off and part of the pond for this.

The questions i have are:

1. In the pond we farm fish to eat and sell, will the pigs make a problem for us to carry on ?

2. On the size of the land what would be the max number of pigs i could have on it? ( As i want the pigs to be free on the land)

Thanks

Paul

[IsaanAussie]

Hello,

I am thinking of farming pigs on some of our land so a couple of questions.

The land in question is about 500m by 700m and partly woods and field what has had veg grown on it and a pond next to it. I will be fencing all this area off and part of the pond for this.

The questions i have are:

1. In the pond we farm fish to eat and sell, will the pigs make a problem for us to carry on ?

2. On the size of the land what would be the max number of pigs i could have on it? ( As i want the pigs to be free on the land)

Thanks

Paul

Paul,

I would think about this a while longer. 200 Rai is a good size piece of land and difficult to keep an eye on. I have not seen a free range pig farm here in Thailand. If you know of any I would be interested in taking a look.

Many of the members here will agree with you that the pigs will be free alright. Free to the first midnight shopper who comes along. Fencing will need to be just as good at keeping the pigs in as it will the tempted out.

Integrated farming here is the norm with pig wastes feed into ponds to fertiliser the pond. Fish such as Pla Nin do well in those ponds. What you are suggesting is different and foraging pigs will damage the pond.

Stocking numbers will depend on how you intend to feed and house the pigs, do you intend to breed or just grow them to market weight? The question is like asking how long is a piece of string.

The first issue is climate. Sunburn is an absolute show stopper here in Thailand. So you will have to keep them in the shade. Pigs like to sunbathe so the idea of free ranging becomes near impossible here unless the area is roofed.

Assume that you stocked at a rate similiar to the US farms, lets say 1 pig per rai. Thats 200 pigs and you would have to have at least two or three full time employees to support such an enterprise. If you plan to grow forage crops to feed the pigs then the rate would be far less and very dependant on the local conditions. The crops need to be harvested and feed to the pigs because of the sun.

In terms of cost, an adult pig consumes 2 to 3 Kgs of feed per day, currently around 350Baht per 30 Kg bag on average across the range. A lactating sow will eat up to 10Kgs a day. As a rule of thumb a pig consumes some 250 kgs of food to reach market weight, or in terms of cost over 3000 Baht. So over the seven months to raise the pigs you could have 200 pigs consuming 700 kgs of feed at 15 Baht/kg/day, in round figures 1050 Baht per day. Pigs fed with lesser quality materials will not achieve the same food conversion rates, take longer to grow and suffer more disease problems. The mortality rate, especially for weaners and piglets would be high, perhaps over 20%.

On the returns side, pork is selling for over 100 baht per kg but live weight sales are around 55-60 baht when you can make them and often less if sold locally. So you buy pigs at 25kgs or large enough to survive the conditions, for 1500 baht each, spend 2-3000 feeding them and sell at 100kgs six months later. Do the maths and there is not a lot of room for errors without even thinking of vet costs, land improvements and buildings and farm wages.

With the greatest respect, I would suggest you rethink the scheme.

Isaanaussie

[bankha]

Hello issannaussie,

Thanks for the info you have given me.

There is a thai farmer near me doing this but he has about 15 pigs roaming free on the land he has.

What you have said i will rethink this and see what other routes i can go down for pig farming.

cheers,

Paul

[IsaanAussie]

Paul,

It appears you are serious about pig farming. Just like me going against a trend here. Good on you.

OK, first consider what you can do to reduce feed costs. You appear to have enough land to do that quite easily. I have corn and sweet potato crops growing at the moment and will be testing farm produced feed with the aim of achieving greater than 30% self sufficiency.

Second, look at integration of the whole operation to maximise the value add. For instance treatment of the waste to produce organic fertiliser. Using chicken manure as a mineral source and fish meal for protein in feeds. Treated wastes as liquid fertiliser on crops and solids for worm bedding with the worms used as pig chicken and fish food and the castings as potting mixes for mushrooms etc...

If you are growing rice, consider purchasing a mill. No great profits here but the ram is valuable as feed.

Good luck with your planning, happy to share my plans if your interested. Drop me a PM any time.

Isaanaussie