PIG FARM IN GHANA

I would believe to start a pig farm you need to put a floor plan together...how much you want to out lay in the initial stages will depend on your size....gather together some idea of what you want to sell, and how many you want to sell per week, fortnight or monthly.
You need also to know what pig prices are doing....you do want to make a profit....not a loss!

What you intend to feed them and how much storage you require. Whether you crush yourself or you use pellets. You need to find out how available the products such as grain and pellets are and the cost of both and weigh up which one to use. Different storage for grain and pellets. What you intend to use for a drinker system and for water storage. Whether you are on the main line from town or do you have to put a bore down or do you have a dam or a natural spring. How much water is there to accommodate all the pigs you intend to produce.

What type of fence structure you are going to errect. 2 line hot wire system or a ringlock and hot wire system. Whether you run it as a block of 1 hectare units or in a radial system.

If you want to run say 100 sows then you need to put sows in 25 - 30 for hectare. So you need 4 pens of 1 hectare each to house your pigs. You can have them on troughs for drinking water. You can house them in a tunnel house structure made of bent pipe with tarp over the top to keep out the wet weather and to give them shade. You need a wallow also in each pen. Feed the sows on the ground.

Can have boars and mate naturally or you can also use AI as well. You then have to manipulate your breeding program.

For growers you need also to work on 1 hectare blocks.....a set of yards and a small shelter off these yards to house the weaners for a day or two till mum has forgotton about them. then be able to shift them to a 1 hectare pen to begin their growth to pork or to back. I would work on a 1 hectare paddock for each mob. So I would probably have say 4 or 5 pens.
All with a tunnel house structure mae of bent pipe with tarp over the top to keep out the wet weather and to give shem shae. You nedd to have them on a trough and also a wallow. Feed in self feeders to allow a little and often.

I would allocate 4 1 hectare pens to farrowing, with 6 huts in each pen. Wean every 3 weeks. Make these with cool room panalling to give a little more relief to the pigs from the hot humid conditions. Feed pigs in troughs and water in troughs. Make a wallow that is shallow so little pigs dont drown.

Yards need to be a little bit firmer.....made of pipe. There are many diagrams on the internet and the one that suits will be of your choice or make one up.

Lane ways are an important tool in an out door setting.....make them wisely in your design.

If you use the radial then you have one lane way in and out with a set of yards in the middle of the radial. Each of the pens runs down to the middle. You feed from the outside and the wallows an drinkers are on the outer edge of the radial. The inner is just used to move pigs around. Make this as big or as small as you wish. Can have even sized pens or uneven sized pens. Run dry sows in them and growers in them. Have them with 2 wires (cheaper option) or with ringlock (dearer option).

Set your yards where pigs dont have to walk miles to get to them, or you might set up a second set later to suit.

Set your farrowing pens away from the radials/blocks of 1 hectare to allow a quiet peaceful time with their piglets.

Equipment: Tractors, mills, augers ( pencil and standard), truck and crate
Silos, feeders, gates, electric fence unit.

Do you want to become organic? Do you want to become Free Range or are you going to go Indoor production?

Your first limit is the 40 acers to making the commercial pigfarm, I suggest you make a plan making the size of pig production are 500 sows of pigs that you can produce the fatten pigs are 25-30 pigs per day.you make 5x100 of sows farmhouse. Which can make the small piglets (15 -25 kgs) about 200 pigs per 1 week and you make the fatten pigsfarm sizes 200 pigs x 16 fatten pig farm houses, so you can sell out the 100 kgs of pigs about 200 pigs per 1 week. About the technology of farm house the best is evaporationsystem farm house but you should be think of the quality of electric system can support the evaporation or not if not sure you can make the open air farm house.

APICHART UNNANAN

Hallo Sir,

I think one mistake first time pig producers make is this idea of starting a big production unit without a good understanding of the risks involved.

We should not forget that a lot of money is invested in piggery projects. The size of your piggery unit you want to have will only be clear after you have some experience with your existing small and manageable pig farm. I would avise you to start small and grow gradually. 

Avoid the common mistake of ploughing too much money into structures and only to realise at a later stage that the infrastructure is lying idle, whilst at the same time you are problems taking care of the pigs.

Even the meat processing unit you are talking about will just fit into your project growth smoothly, at a laterstage. I hope you a Farm Plan in which you have set targets and timeline.

I wish you the best of luck

Rodreck Mutanhaurwa your comment is really helpful and reassuring, I just started this year and am really grateful for the fact that I started small because you meet a lot of unforeseens along the way not to talk of feeding for the pigs which is a major factor ones you start.

Dear Mr. Opoku Agyeman

Planning a new pig farm begining from zero is a matter where you need get all kind of information regarding official rules to build a pigfarm, information from the enviromental point view, then get information about consumption or demand of slaughter pigs to focus how are the opportunities to success in this enterprise.
Know the climate sorrounding the area where you go to build the farm. This is important to tha material to build floor, walls evern the ceiling. So, is necesary be prepare to get a lot information about pig production before begining your plan.


Have good luck

i am an agriculture graduate from Nepal, I want to start a pig farm in Nepal, I dont have the idea about the feeding practices and prevention and control of the diseases occuring in the pig. I am looking for quick help on this matter. I am starting the pig farm with 20 piglets initially and make it large within a year.

i would like to start commercial farming in Zambia but i don't know where to start from and how?
best regards,
Brian Chitalu

really, the pig farm is one of profitable business, year by year demand is increasing. this is live stock business, and pig are very sensible, they are affected by cold or hot tempreture very soon. protective measure should be strictly implementation. this way we can eradicate lot problem creating due to minor mistake in take care.i think we pay more attention on diet, physical structure, fresh water and right tempreture 

if you strictly monitor the operation, lot of problems which pig business are facing can be reduced considerable.
thank
madhu shanker

Dear noni,
i would like to start a pig farm and would like some advice from you my email address is nathanik21@gmail.com..
please write to me so that you can help me with the experience you have gained so that i can avoid making mistakes from your helpful wisdom.
thank you
Karim

I want to start pig farming next year. I do not have much money, I want to start small and grow my farm gradually.
What would be the type of structures to use.how do I manage my farm. I also know feeding constitutes about 70% of the cost of production,what plants can I grow on the farm that would serve as feed.

Sylvia

I want to start a pig farm in Nepal, I dont have the idea about the feeding practices and prevention and control of the diseases occuring in the pig and way of controlling smell. I am starting the pig farm with 100 piglets initially and make it large within a year. And which is the best species for the meat purpose and which produces more piglets. and I want some information on construction and structure of pig hoses. I am looking for quick help on this matter.

Kwamina Banson
Sir, I hope you are fine.
Could you please give me Mr. Dagbui's number or email address?

Thanks.