Pig breeding as a business: profitability ideas, how to draw up a business plan
Today, pork is a fairly common food product in almost the entire world. In our country, about 2 million tons of pork are consumed every year. Based on this, it is clear that the demand for meat is quite high. That's why many are interested in: is it profitable to engage in pig farming, and most importantly - how to organize a business. In our article we will answer all your questions.
Is it profitable to keep pigs for selling meat
A competent approach and good financing at the beginning of the business will make raising pigs profitable. In this case, it is important to know the differences between the breeds, especially their content and reproduction.
- The advantages of pig breeding include the following points:
- High lethal yield.
- All products that can be sold make up 70% of the total mass, while the meat yield reaches 60%.
- When building a pigsty, you do not need to use expensive materials.
- Gas foam blocks or metal sheets are considered ideal.
- Pigs rarely get sick, and with good treatment they recover quickly.
- Demand for pork is consistently high, which means that finding a distribution channel will not be difficult.
- Despite all the positive aspects, like any other business, pig breeding has some disadvantages:
- With a lack of territory, difficulties arise in maintaining, controlling diseases and insemination.
- Ready-made feeds are not cheap. Only a few pigs can be prepared on their own.
- Equipment for the preparation of feed is difficult to maintain, but it is impossible to do without it.
- The services of a veterinarian are not an expensive pleasure, as well as keeping an employee on a staff with a small population.
- For slaughter, you need to attract a butcher specialist if the farmer does not have such skills.
Did you know? In many countries, pigs are used as assistants in finding drugs, as their sense of smell is better than that of dogs.
The basic rules for successful cultivation
In order to understand how to succeed in pig farming, it is important to know the basic rules for raising pigs:
- After determining the goal, select the appropriate breed.
- Piglets of different sexes for subsequent breeding are recommended to be purchased in different places so that there are no genetic mutations.
- Only hire specialists to work.
- Purchase food only from trusted suppliers, in this case, the mass gain will be maximum, and the health of the wards - excellent.
- Have your veterinarian vaccinated and examined regularly to identify problems at first.
Drawing up a business plan with pig breeding calculations
For the profitability of pig farming, it is important to carefully study the financial side and only then start investing.
When drawing up a business plan, it is important to consider the following issues:
- construction of a pig farm and a walking platform;
- livestock selection;
- feed purchase;
- meat sales;
- Unexpected expenses.
The following points will require financial investments:
- the construction of a pigsty - 15 thousand dollars;
- purchase of equipment and livestock - 15 thousand dollars;
- annual salary to staff - 18 thousand dollars;
- purchase of feed - 4.5 thousand dollars
In addition, you can calculate almost exactly how much feed is needed.
For this, they rely on information about the slaughter yield of meat and carcass:
- the piglet spends 200 feed units before being transferred to fattening;
- young animals weighing up to 100 kg kept for fattening - 400 units;
- a pig over 100 kg spends 600 feed units.
Now calculate the approximate income:
- when selling young animals for a year, you can get about 9 thousand dollars;
- meat sales will bring 16 thousand dollars;
- fat or bacon will add 6 thousand dollars.
Thus, cost recovery will occur in about 2-3 years.
Required documents
Any business implies the presence of a full package of documents that permits this or that activity. After determining the region for doing business, they turn to the administration, which must give permission to organize a pig farm in a particular area.
Did you know? Despite the fact that at birth, pigs do not know how to swim, growing up, they really love this thing.
To begin construction, you will need to draw up land documents and get all the papers. After that, you will need to register the company and the selected activity. Sanitary documents are received only after the completion of construction and the purchase of animals.
Hired staff
When there are many animals on the farm, help is indispensable. To ensure a comfortable environment for pigs, it is necessary to hire staff.
The staff must be present:
- janitor;
- tractor driver;
- cleaning lady;
- the watchman;
- veterinarian;
- breeder;
- livestock specialist;
- handymen.
Depending on the number and scale of the farm, several people can work at one place at once.
Necessary equipment
When the number of livestock is above average, it is important to purchase equipment.
Farm Recommended:
- tractor with trailer;
- electric mowers for grass.
At first, equipment can be rented.
Home pig farming is unlikely to compete with a full-fledged farm, designed for a large number of livestock.
Where to begin
Creating a farm from scratch requires the following steps:
- determination of the territory where the pigsty and other necessary objects will be located;
- pigsty construction;
- purchase of animals;
- purchase of feed and technical base.
Farm arrangement
To make a profit, you need to maintain a fairly large number of livestock, therefore, a mini-farm in this case will not pay off and will bring losses. Let's consider what a pigsty should be, as well as which breeds of pigs are better to choose.
Pigsty requirements
To create suitable housing conditions for pigs, the pigsty must meet the following requirements:
- for each individual, allocate an area of 2.3 square meters. m;
- in addition, it is necessary to provide a place for new animals with an increase in livestock;
- near attach a small room where the inventory will be kept;
- nearby should be walking area (1 pig - 1 hundred parts of land).
- the temperature in the pigsty should be in the range + 15-30 ºС;
- humidity - within 75% for babies and 80% - for large animals;
- air velocity should be between 0.2–0.8 m / s, depending on the time of year.
Corrals
To keep pigs, it’s important to build the right pens so that all animals feel comfortable. Partitions should rise at a height of 50 cm from the floor, which is made partially slit, while without fail they provide a place for the release of waste products.
Depending on the selected feed supply system, each piglet should have its own place near the feeder; on average, they emit about 30 cm for each, after they have grown up, the area increases to 1 square. m
Access to water should be free, an average of 6 piglets determine 1 nipple drinker. In addition, it is recommended to add water at the rate of 1 liter of liquid per 1 kg of feed. Cleaning is carried out using a spatula or brush, water is used only after the pigsty is free.
Breed selection
It is not recommended to save on the purchase of livestock, while it is important to pay extra attention to the choice of supplier, the only way to get pedigree pigs with good rates. Depending on the goals, you need to purchase a certain breed of pigs.
The following breeds are selected for fattening for meat or fat:
- large white;
- Murom;
- Ukrainian steppe;
- Lithuanian white.
The following breeds are most often grown for meat or bacon:
- Estonian bacon
- landrace;
- duroc.
Important! In order to avoid the appearance of genetic mutations from related coatings, it is recommended to purchase females and males from different suppliers, since only completely healthy animals will bring a good income to the owner.
Feeding
It is impossible to raise healthy pigs without proper feeding.
Today, two options are known:
- Wet food - involves the use of various mixers. The diet includes food waste, vegetables, boiled potatoes, as well as a variety of cereals and fresh grass.
- Dry food - based on various crushed grain mixtures. In addition, they add oilcake, pea flour, as well as vitamins and mineral supplements.
In summer time
At this time of the year, half the ration of pigs should be juicy green feed. This will contribute to appetite and, as a result, weight gain. It is recommended to cut the grass or pass through a meat grinder.
Learn how to make co-feed for pigs with your own hands. The amount of green mass, depending on the weight, is as follows:
- up to 20 kg - 2 kg of greens;
- up to 40 kg - 5 kg of grass;
- up to 80 kg - 8 kg of green mass;
- more than 80 kg - 12 kg.
- before feeding, the feeders are thoroughly cleaned from malnutrition;
- Pigs should not be given soapy water;
- coarse feed is chopped before serving;
- it is forbidden to feed very hot food;
- before feeding, the grass is not only crushed, but also mixed with turf;
- any mushrooms can be given, they contain up to 10% of the digestible protein;
- open water should be clean water.
- concentrates (barley, oats and wheat), which have a high nutritional value and are also easily digested - 75%;
- hay of grain and leguminous plants, without processing - 12%;
- succulent feed and food waste;
- meat and fish waste (only in boiled form);
- acorns and mushrooms - give about 2 kg.
- lethargy;
- poor appetite;
- refusal of food or water;
- skin diseases;
- discharge from the eyes or nose;
- digestion problems;
- bleeding.
- Buy only thoroughbred young for breeding.
- It is better to buy piglets from different sellers.
- Feed pigs meat breeds first.
- No need to immediately wait for large incomes.
In addition, for growth, animals require a large amount of protein and minerals. However, these substances are absorbed only in the case of vitamins and easily digestible carbohydrates, which are present in green feed, root crops, melons and kitchen waste.
Features of fattening in the summer consist of the following points:
As additives give crushed eggshells at 50 g per day. Chalk is also given in the same amount. Additionally, between the main feedings, fresh grass is put in the pigsty, while the pigs are released for a walk.
In winter
In the cold season, the diet should be as balanced as possible. The main part should be mixers with different impurities. Basically, most of it is food waste with hay flour and dust. Hay is harvested from forbs. For fattening, they give root crops and increase the amount of water for evaporation.
The diet should consist of the following feeds:
Important! If the waste is purchased in public catering establishments, it must be steamed and given together with tar, green mass and succulent feed.
Animal care
Caring for animals consists of certain actions, one of the most important is cleaning the pigsty. It is advisable to conduct it daily, in addition, it is mandatory to change the litter and clean the drinkers and feeders before each feeding. It is also important to monitor the well-being and activity of animals daily.
Contact your veterinarian in the following cases:
Approximate economic calculation of profitability
To calculate profitability, you need to know the number of livestock. In our case, this indicator is 400. For their livelihoods, it will be necessary to procure 35 tons of grain and 300 kg of various additives.
On average, from 15 sows receive about 150 piglets per 1 farrow. This usually happens twice a year. Most often, pigs are raised to a weight of 100 kg, on average, this happens in less than a year. As a result, the net meat yield is 55 kg. To calculate the income, we multiply this figure by the number of livestock and the market price of 1 kg of meat.
On average, this figure should be $ 47 thousand. Subtract expenses from the amount and get a net profit of $ 15 thousand. Based on this, the payback will occur after about 3 years, which means that the profitability of pig production is on average 30% .
Did you know? Very often pigs suffer from the same diseases as humans, while their treatment is carried out with the same drugs.
Sales and distribution channels
Developing a business plan involves identifying meat buying points. The first buyers can be neighbors and acquaintances, and you can also sell in the nearest stores or even in the regular market. It is better to find implementation paths in advance. You can sell not only meat, but also lard, as well as live piglets.
Useful Tips for Beginners
To make it easier for beginners to start a business, experts in this matter developed the following recommendations:
As can be seen from the above information, raising pigs with a competent approach to this issue can be quite effective. In this business, as in any other business, to make a profit you need not only to invest money, but also to work hard.