How Much Do Live Piglets Cost?

[RedBullHorn]

OOTAI,

A bit to do with layout. The dry sows are positioned next to the boars and are coming back into season within 3 to 7 days. Second ace up the sleeve is having a group of gilts ready to go to cover the bets. Sell any that are pregnant and not needed.

Redbullhorn,

Wow, what a setup, love the natural ventilation.

We have had 65 baht recently here. I sold a couple of 2 year old non-performing females last week at 58 baht, needed to cut the losses. Still at 275 Kg the return wasn't too bad. No time to slaughter them at the moment as I am as busy as a one armed paper hanger.

Isaanaussie

:clap2: .......

btw....thanks for the "string-a-pig" weighing system.

[IsaanAussie]

OOTAI,

A bit to do with layout. The dry sows are positioned next to the boars and are coming back into season within 3 to 7 days. Second ace up the sleeve is having a group of gilts ready to go to cover the bets. Sell any that are pregnant and not needed.

Redbullhorn,

Wow, what a setup, love the natural ventilation.

We have had 65 baht recently here. I sold a couple of 2 year old non-performing females last week at 58 baht, needed to cut the losses. Still at 275 Kg the return wasn't too bad. No time to slaughter them at the moment as I am as busy as a one armed paper hanger.

Isaanaussie

:clap2: .......

btw....thanks for the "string-a-pig" weighing system.

My pleasure, glad you find it useful. Errors seem to be worst at both ends of the scale but for a quick check it sure beats dragging in the scales and transport box!

I will be producing between 35 and 40 piglets a month, of which I will sell all but 10 gilts. Wish you were a bit closer then maybe we could cut a deal.

Isaanaussie

[haveaniceday]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I am 100% not planning on farming piggies. But been an interesting read for me. Moving to Issan and and living a rural life does cross my mind sometimes, nice to have a better idea of reality that you have shared with us. I laugh a little bit, the "poor" Issan farmer that they pity is doing it all over the Bangkok English teacher !!!!

Oink Oink

Edited July 10, 2010 by haveaniceday

[IsaanAussie]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I am 100% not planning on farming piggies. But been an interesting read for me. Moving to Issan and and living a rural life does cross my mind sometimes, nice to have a better idea of reality that you have shared with us. I laugh a little bit, the "poor" Issan farmer that they pity is doing it all over the Bangkok English teacher !!!!

Oink Oink

H.A.N.D,

I understand your thoughts entirely. For me it's muck in and get your hands dirty, its in my nature. But I do know a few guys that are gentlemen farmers and rely on others to do the work and are happy. Each to his own. Reality for me? I suppose H.A.R.D would be closer, Have A Reasonable Day.

One thing I will add is time has never past so quickly for me. Must be doing something right, or at least enjoying it!

Isaanaussie

[cjustice]

NIce post and good information, i am not planning on this big of a scale at first, just want ease into it if possible, and for me will have to learn as i go and read good reads as this one, thought i would get my feet wet with 1 male and 4 or 5 female, will get the set-up and shelters done and go from there,,should be good for my soil on the other 20 rai,,thanks again

[IsaanAussie]

NIce post and good information, i am not planning on this big of a scale at first, just want ease into it if possible, and for me will have to learn as i go and read good reads as this one, thought i would get my feet wet with 1 male and 4 or 5 female, will get the set-up and shelters done and go from there,,should be good for my soil on the other 20 rai,,thanks again

Good Luck CJ,

There are some experienced pig farmers on the forum from whom I have learnt a lot. I am sure that you will get any advice you need as well.

I have just started producing pig manure and chopped straw compost over the last few months. It makes great soil conditioner and good compost worm food as well.

Isaanaussie

[pigeonjake]

thanks to one and all,, great reading, my family in the uk are farmers so im used to getting stuck in, although im a welder by trade, but in the next year im looking at starting to dabble in a bit of pig breading in the sa kaeo area, so ill be contacting one or two of you for some advice if possible/? more so on the drug side of things to keep them right,

thanks again for the great reading,, take care jake

[Scully]

I came to Thailand with a dream of a good relaxing stay no pressure a little farming to keep us from being bored.

70+ pigs 40 chickens,1000 fish, 30 guava tress and about one hundred banana tree's it's not relaxing, it's hard work but it's not boring and if you do not enjoy 365 days(there is always a family member ready to give you a break) a year of a little work then think small scale.

Isaan Aussie says it all, if you do not like it then it's not for you.

[IsaanAussie]

I came to Thailand with a dream of a good relaxing stay no pressure a little farming to keep us from being bored.

70+ pigs 40 chickens,1000 fish, 30 guava tress and about one hundred banana tree's it's not relaxing, it's hard work but it's not boring and if you do not enjoy 365 days(there is always a family member ready to give you a break) a year of a little work then think small scale.

Isaan Aussie says it all, if you do not like it then it's not for you.

Scully,

I hope the pleasure remains and your efforts are rewarded.

Yes I love my little farming endeavours but unfortunately the helpful family isn't one of my assets. After all the excitement and enthuasiasm shown at the start, it all became too much like a four letter word "work". So I'm envious mate. I've become yet another victim of the "Free Ticket to Ride Thai" disease in that regard.

So to the aspiring gentleman farmer out there, beware. You need to look at this issue carefully and constantly. Give yourself options if you need help, dont hand out the bosses caps to quickly as good reliable workers can become entertainment directors that then need to direct others, often towards a shady tree and a whiskey bottle. Viscous circle and hard to break out of as you can be seen as "throwing away" the family. It has taken me a year to extracate myself from exactly that position. An expensive time consuming mistake on my behalf.

Still pigs to feed, worms to water, chickens to feed and compost to turn before my day ends. And loving it.

Isaan Aussie

[pigeonjake]

hi to all,

well i worked hard all my life so im not ready to put my feet up yet,im busy designing how i want the pig stys to be,

issanaussie,what are your thoughts on having an outside area for the pigs to go out and rumage,? after all i could put black net over to keep the sun off them, and after they have gone to market i was thinking then of growing some veg in the outside area,ill have to do some drawings of what ive come up with and send them to you, if you dont mind?i want to do the place right, and not have to keep changing, so im in no rush, i want to get it right, and with the help of some of the posters here im sure i will,

ive got a good freind in england who farms pigs and he tild me to expect 2.2 litters a year from the sows,

im thinking of building the shed with 6 areas each side of a middle walkway, with like i say an outside area off each inside area,and maybe having 6 sows in full swing, and as i see it when the sow has had here litter just move them across to there own area?i hope you understand my writing/

what are your thoughts I/A?

take care one and all, and keep enjoying whatever you plan to do in this beautiful country, after all thats why we are here to enjoy ourselfs, jake

[Scully]

That's exactly what we have 6 pens and a walk way down the middle, all water is provided by a huge rain water ern. The water is put through feeders around the outside of the pens and as close to the waste hole as possible. The floors are all on a gradient so water travels to the waste hole and a concrete shoot runs around the piggerry to direct the water,urine etc into a 6 foot concrete tubed hole which is pumped out with a petrol motor pump.

We have a borehole for cleaning and dry the pig <deleted> at the top of the garden in a 12-12meter chicken coup, the pig poo provide enough maggots to keep the chickens full and feed the fish, it also controls the flies.

We get 15baht a bag of poo (30kilo pig food bag) and have a backlog of hundred bags on order, you can make manure but around our way they don't trust it and buy from shops?.

We are only growing at the minute but have a new shed for a couple of sow's, we took the plunge to see if we enjoyed it first befroe we grew sow's but that is where I believe the money is and will soon be buying.

Good luck it's not rocket science but you need to research feed cost, selling price cycles, buyers in the area etc etc do your homework and you "should be OK" our first batch made a loss, second a small profit, third a larger profit and this next batch should put a smile on my face.

[pigeonjake]

thank you very much for your reply,

its very interesting about the maggots and the poo,im going to have a couple of ponds too as my misses and the family like bla so i might as well have them too, we do have some laying hens now so the maggots will be ok for them,like i say im going to get all things sorted out on paper first and just keep reading what you guys say and take it all in,i do understand about worming on a regular basis as in my thought provention is better then cure,

i was reading that one of the posters says he mixes his wormer with food, now i do like the idea les work ect, but the thing is with that way your not sure that they all have the right amount of the wormer, i do agree with doing it for 10 days if i read it right, the way we used to do it with my racing pigeons was to worm for a couple of days to kill the worms, then after 1 week do again to kill any eggs that have hatched as the wormer never killed the eggs, could be differant in pigs ill have to look into it,

but again ide like to thank you all, and im looking forward to being more involed with the forum,,

thanks jake

[IsaanAussie]

hi to all,

well i worked hard all my life so im not ready to put my feet up yet,im busy designing how i want the pig stys to be,

issanaussie,what are your thoughts on having an outside area for the pigs to go out and rumage,? after all i could put black net over to keep the sun off them, and after they have gone to market i was thinking then of growing some veg in the outside area,ill have to do some drawings of what ive come up with and send them to you, if you dont mind?i want to do the place right, and not have to keep changing, so im in no rush, i want to get it right, and with the help of some of the posters here im sure i will,

ive got a good freind in england who farms pigs and he tild me to expect 2.2 litters a year from the sows,

im thinking of building the shed with 6 areas each side of a middle walkway, with like i say an outside area off each inside area,and maybe having 6 sows in full swing, and as i see it when the sow has had here litter just move them across to there own area?i hope you understand my writing/

what are your thoughts I/A?

take care one and all, and keep enjoying whatever you plan to do in this beautiful country, after all thats why we are here to enjoy ourselfs, jake

PJ,

I have a rear gate on all my pens, save the farrowing area and the nursery pens for letting each pen of pigs out for a little fresh air, and me some time to clean the pen. Good friend and pig guru, Fruity began letting his sows out after we first met and the difference was dramatic. It is well worth doing. Pigs are intelligent and inquisitive beasts, they will manipulate something, concrete floor if nothing else. Having a thin scattering of rice hulls of the pen floor is enough to stop them ripping the by-jesus out of the floor. Having an outside area they can plough up gives them something to look forward to, but I wouldnt count on doing anything else in that area but maintenance unless you plan to grow something for the pigs to eat or just rip to bits.

Happy to cast an eye over anything you send me, but suggest you post to all, as there are so many different courses of action and some much more experienced people who may comment as well.

My system is a 4x4 batching one. 4 sows that are bred each cycle on a 35, 35, 35 and 42 day cycles. Basically 4 farrowing every 5 to 6 weeks. Whilst 2.2 litters is industry practice, if you miss the heat cycle of one sow then that reduces the number. If she returns to heat, a further reduction. Many things can go wrong. My backup is to have 4 gilts as reserves. If one sow returns to heat, then the batch pregancy rate drops to 75%, not 85 or 90% as the industry tell you.

My layout is based of breeding pigs not on growing them all to market size, in fact I can only grow 25% up to full size. So whilst the simple answer is mine is farrow to finish it is not a complete facility. Againsimply put the sty has 7 pens down each side of a 2 metre wide aisle, but of course there is much more to it than that.

Like you my sty has been planned on the basis that I want to get it right first time as mistakes are expensive and in my case I cannot afford too many. I am sure that others will offer every advice they can, I sure will, good luck.

IA

Edit addition: This allows me to have 16 sows but only 4 farrowing rooms. The sows are group housed with dividers between the feeders. The first group of four went into a pen that had the feeders but no dividers. The dividing gate to the next pen wasnt on so they had the run of two pens. The second pen had the dividers but no feeders. Guess where they all went to sleep? They like their own rooms, but it doesnt mean it has to be a separate pen.

Edited January 14, 2011 by IsaanAussie

[pigeonjake]

thank you I/A for your reply, i good to have a few freinds on the end of the computer for advice, as im sure ill make some mistakes along the way, thats why im not rushing in, i would be very interested in buying some stock from you though when i do get going and fruity,that would mean that i wouldnt be buyimng thined down blood round here and i could bring in fresh blood from your area, ill keep in touch and have a chat now and again, good luck in what your doing and lets hope the pork keeps going up,

thanks again jake

[IsaanAussie]

Anyone looking for duroc piglets at the moment, I got a few for sale.

For anyone interested in giving pig raising a go then perhaps you should look at buying pigs at 20 to 30 Kgs first time around. I can help with them as well.

[Boyce]

Very interesting topic, being an ex Butcher from the uk now living in Surin.

Thanks

Boyce

[IsaanAussie]

Very interesting topic, being an ex Butcher from the uk now living in Surin.

Thanks

Boyce

Boyce,

You are a person I would really like to talk to if butchering is still an activity you would like to be involved with. Finding someone with the skills to prepare select cuts is a major challenge for me. If you are interesting please PM me with a phone number and I'll give you a call.

Isaan Aussie