Breeding pigs at home for beginners: is it profitable?
Farms in developed countries use different methods for raising animals, which differ in their approach to keeping and feeding. To breed pigs for the purpose of selling meat, you must first find and equip a room, provide ventilation and good lighting. To organize a mini-farm, in addition to creating optimal conditions, studying the characteristics of keeping animals, it is necessary to choose the right piglets.
Is it profitable to breed pigs at home
Demand for meat remains and even increases, as the flow from abroad decreases, villagers go to cities and stop breeding animals. Pig farming requires investment:
- for the purchase of land;
- furnishing the premises;
- for the purchase and vaccination of young animals;
- for fodder, medicines.
Money will be needed to install a ventilation system, electricity, salaries for workers caring for piglets, transportation of meat for sale. To make the room convenient to clean, they make floors with slots or build concrete baths with a drain. The profitability of pig breeding is at least 20%, while the net income from breeding chickens does not exceed 15%, and cows - even lower.
Piglets grow up in less than a year. For 3.5 months, the female bears 5-8, and sometimes 10 cubs. From the carcass, 90% of fat and meat are obtained, which is always in demand. Pigs eat whatever they are fed, while cows need hay, rabbits need fresh grass, and chickens need special food.
Business Disadvantages
In breeding each type of animal has its own nuances. Caring for piglets, cleaning the room is not very pleasant. The process takes a lot of time and labor. The female and piglets that have given birth must be kept separately and provided with careful care, otherwise the offspring may not survive.
Pigs often catch the infection, which leads to the death of the livestock. To prevent this from happening, animals must be vaccinated, which requires money. When keeping, one must strictly adhere to sanitary standards.
For which regions is it suitable?
Meat and greasy pigs are in demand in the North, in Siberia, the Khabarovsk Territory. In the southern regions, the forest-steppe, you can breed the Mirgorod breed, which gives a large offspring, in the middle lane for animals of this breed a warm room is required.
Vietnamese pigs can be comfortably kept at home as they require less space.To create a farm, it is not necessary to bring highly productive piglets from afar, because you will have to spend money on transportation. Meat is quickly sold out everywhere, you can engage in pig breeding in any region, provided you choose the right breed.
Estimated starting capital
To develop a business, you should not immediately buy a hundred heads of pigs. You can buy only 10 piglets, which will require at least 30 thousand rubles. For the construction and equipment of the premises you need to spend 50-60. Feed for pigs will cost 40,000, another 3-4 must be paid for the vaccination of piglets. The initial capital for the creation of a mini-farm will be from 120 thousand, and this is not so much money that pays off in a year.
Legal registration of a pig breeding business
In order for the owner of the animals to be visited less by the regulatory authorities, not to issue fines, it is necessary to collect papers for legal registration.If there are more than a hundred animals, you will have to register as an LLC or an individual entrepreneur, and indicate as an activity: raising pigs for meat. With a small number of piglets, you can arrange a mini-farm as a household plot.
Breed selection rules
Every person who decides to engage in animal husbandry should know for what purpose he does it, what product he is going to sell.
Meat-greasy
Pigs of the universal type have a harmonious physique, a wide, elongated body, muscular hams, and a dense belly. Piglets quickly gain weight, give high-quality and tasty meat. After the slaughter of an adult animal, up to 37% fat is present. Farmers often breed Siberian, Northern, Ukrainian White breeds, since piglets provide up to 60% of meat.
Greasy
Mirgorodskaya, meishan, large black have a wide body, strong chest, dense ham, ganaches. Muscles in greasy piglets stop developing by 6 months, and fat accumulates at an accelerated pace. Meat in animal carcasses contains less than 50%, and fat - up to 45.
Bacon
Piglets, in which the chest in girth is smaller than the openings of the elongated body and rather massive hams, quickly build up muscles, fat is deposited slowly. Six-month-old bacon pigs weigh about 100 kg, 75% of the carcass is meat. Farmers prefer to grow landrace, pietrain, urzhum.
Purchase piglets
For further fattening, you need to choose the right cub. It must weigh at least 5 kg, be at least a month old. With proper nutrition, the mass of a he althy piglet increases 3 times in 30 days.
When choosing a pig, you need to pay attention:
- on eye condition;
- mucous color;
- leg length;
- head shape.
You can't buy a piglet with dried feces on its buttocks, as this indicates diarrhea, and a sick cub may not survive. A stiff bristle appears on the body with scabies.
An animal with short legs and a light head should be chosen for fattening for fat or bacon, with high ones for meat. It is better to buy boars and pigs in more than one place, otherwise weak offspring will be born. Active he althy pigtails with a hooked tail are distinguished by excellent appetite, pushing and snatching food during feeding.
Required property and equipment
Even a small farm will need permission to open. A pigsty cannot be kept within the city, next to a source of drinking water. The piglet housing must meet certain requirements:
- The optimum temperature for keeping pigs is 18-25 °C. If the mercury column drops to 12 in winter, the pigsty is insulated.
- Minimum ceiling height is 2.5 m.
- Opening windows are installed for ventilation.
- Walls are advised to be plastered, whitewashed with lime, sheathed with boards in cold regions.
- A separate corner is set aside for feeding, they enclose a walking area for pigs.
You can’t leave a concrete floor in the room, it should be covered with wooden shields, make cracks that will prevent dirt and waste products from accumulating.
For 1 adult piglet, according to sanitary standards, 3-4 m is required, for a pregnant female - 5. The area of \u200b\u200bthe pigsty for 10 heads should be about 60 meters. It is convenient to heat the room with the help of heat generators. In the area for piglets, it is recommended to lay out rugs into which water is supplied from the boiler, install warming lamps, drinkers.
The pig house is equipped with a feed loader or a chain-and-washer conveyor for liquid food, a manure removal system, water supply.
Care and maintenance of pigs
In order for piglets to quickly gain weight, in addition to creating optimal conditions in the room, you need to know how to properly care for them. For beginner farmers, simpler methods of keeping pigs are suitable. With Canadian technology, sand, sawdust and straw are used to build a voluminous bedding that warms the piglets during the cold period. The method is suitable for both a large farm and a homestead.
To reduce the time for caring for pigs, to reduce the specific smell, Danish technology is used, in which cracks are made in the floor, bathtubs are installed under it, where manure residues and waste products of piglets flow. Once a month, the room must be disinfected.
Organization of feeding
Pigs that are raised for sale are given not only food waste, vegetables, but also feed containing vitamins, microelements, animals are given clean water to drink. Piglets' appetite increases when they are outdoors.
How do pigs reproduce?
To breed offspring, the owner of the livestock must study the features of farrowing, caring for the sow. The diet of a young female used for breeding should include:
- grain;
- root crops;
- cake.
In the last stages of pregnancy, coarse food is replaced with bran, flour, silage. Give the pig chalk, table s alt. They feed the uterus three times a day, make sure that they do not overeat. Newborn piglets are applied to the nipples, the babies feed on colostrum for the first days.
Aggressive sow is weaned away, the cubs are brought to another female or gently accustomed to cow's milk.
Staff
If there are many animals, the owner cannot cope with them and is forced to hire workers. For 200 heads of piglets, 3-4 employees will be required who will be engaged in fattening, cleaning the premises, loading hay, weighing pigs, and sending them to slaughter.The veterinarian is obliged to monitor the he alth of animals, vaccinate piglets in a timely manner, and prevent diseases. The livestock specialist is responsible for the regime of keeping, for breeding pigs.
If the farmer does not have enough time to prepare reports, he will have to hire an accountant for at least ½ of the rate.
Product sales
To sell meat or lard, you need to obtain quality certificates and have the conclusion of the veterinary service in your hands. You can supply pork to shops, sell it in your own kiosk or pavilion open on the market. With large volumes of products, manufacturers sign contracts with meat processing plants, slaughterhouses.
The proceeds from the sale of meat of piglets in the first years should be invested in the improvement of the farm, the purchase of equipment. The costs will quickly pay off, the business will bring a stable income.
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