What Is A Pig Farming?
Pig farming or pork farming or hog farming is the raising and breeding of domestic pigs as livestock, and is a branch of animal husbandry. Pigs are farmed principally for food and skins.
What Does Pig Farmer Do In Uganda?
Pig farmers are part of an industry that has segmented the raising of an animal into specialized farms: breeding and taking care of pregnant female pigs, farrowing (birthing baby pigs and weaning them), nursery (post-weaning period), and finishing (feeding hogs until they are ready to be slaughtered).
How To Start A Pig Farming Business In Uganda?
As I mentioned earlier, piggery is one of the lucrative businesses which is easy to set up. However, before you engage in this business there some things you need to consider.
- Capital
This is the initial amount of money you going to invest in your pig farm. Capital is not standard but depends on the size of the farm you want to have. This money is used to purchase the piglets, build facilities, buy equipment, feeds and pay for labour. You should ensure that your capital is enough for the start and push you for some months. Making a budget for the requirements with price allocation is advised.
- Type of breed you are investing in.
Having full knowledge about the breed you choose is very crucial as this can affect your plans. Some breeds compared to others have longer maturation rates, high meat gains, demand more feeding and more differences. You need to make sure the breed matches your plans.
Besides this, the breeding stock you get can also affect your piggery unit. Poor quality stocks may be cheaper, but become costly in the long run. High quality breeding stocks on the other hand maybe expensive but are cheaper as time passes. You should therefore prepare to pay for the high quality stocks for better farm results.
- Market
You need to ensure that you have ready market for your pigs before you start the business to avoid running on luck to find buyers when the pigs are ready for sale.
- Knowledge and skills.
To avoid incurring mistakes that will cost you money you need to have expert knowledge and skills of running a piggery farm. Learning this information also helps you ensure that you get the most from farm.
- Feeds’ and water availability.
Feeds are an important aspect in piggery farming; taking up almost 80% of the cost of production. Even though pigs can feed on variety of food stuffs, for full nutritional gain the pigs should be fed on recommended feeds. The feeds are usually composed of maize grain, crushed silver fish, coffee husks, and other concentrates.
Water is equally important and contributes a lot to the live weight of the pigs. Water requirements of pigs changes according to weather conditions. You need to ensure that you have a reliable source of water especially if you’re dealing in a farrow enterprise because lactating sows need a lot of water (about 150 litres per sow per day) for milk production.
How Many Pigs Should I Start With In Uganda?
Starting with 2 or more pigs will definitely cost you more than starting with one pig. However, it is advisable to start with one boar and two sows (gilt). With three pigs, you can be able to monitor them and make sure they get enough nutrition and care. Once you get used to caring for them you can then add more pigs.
What Do I Need To Start A Pig Farm In Uganda?
READ Small-scale pig farmer implements commercial practices. SAPPO recommends that a farmer start with a herd of 250 sows to make a decent return on investment and cover overheads.
Space allocation.
READ Make money with free-range chickens.
Environmental permission.
What Are The Best Feeds For Pigs In Uganda?
Among the common fodder given to pigs in Uganda are sweetpotato, banana and other root and tuber ‘residues’, such as vines, leaves and peels.
Is Piggery Profitable In Uganda?
Pig farming is widely practised in all regions of Uganda and has remained a profitable venture to many households. Unlike other key agricultural enterprises, over the last 3 decades, pig farming has experienced fundamental improvement in the number of both pigs reared and households that rear at least 1 pig.
What To Feed Pigs To Grow Faster In Uganda?
Whatever you choose, 50% of your feed should be yellow corn. The remainder of your pig’s feed should be a mix of barley, wheat, and sorghum. Feed your pig various grains and see which it likes best. Use the pig’s favorite grain in abundance in order to increase its weight.
What Food Is Good For Pigs In Uganda?
Pigs can eat all kinds of scraps, or leftover food such as mealie-pap, bread, vegetables, fruit and pig pellets. Real pig pellets are, however, the best feed. Do not only feed one vegetable (such as cabbage), because pigs need a varied diet to stay healthy.
How Much Does It Cost To Start A Pig Farm In Uganda?
On a small scale, a presentable pig farming business can cost less than 2million Uganda shillings. On a large scale, a pig farming business may take all you have. Though it isn’t wise to go in headfirst. We would advise you to start small with up to ten pigs, there after expand slowly.
What Are The Challenges In Pig Farming In Uganda?
The major challenges to the pig industry are inadequate slaughter facilities, unorganized marketing, inadequate supply of breeding stock, high price of feeds, as well as, low quality feeds.
Is Pig Farming A Good Investment In Uganda?
Pig farming is a profitable business, and that’s exactly what Farmpower wants everyone to realize. The investment platform that caters to Agricultural needs is on a mission to revolutionize Agriculture in the country, as well as the continent. There is a huge customer base for pork.
Why You Should Engage In The Piggery Business In Uganda?
Reduced feeding burden.
- Traditionally pigs are known to eat anything organic and therefore have a variety of sources from which they can feed. Pigs feed on plants, and leftover food stuffs. Usually small scale farmers use household food leftovers to feed their pigs and those with crops sort out the damaged ripped crops and store it for the feeds. This basically means that cost burden of feeding pigs is not as big as other animals like chicken or cows.
High maturity and reproduction rate.
- Pigs usually mature within a period of 8 to 9 months both physically and re-productively. A fully reproductive sow can farrow about two times a year with each parturition round producing 6 to 10 piglets. With a gestation period of 114 days, pigs are bound to give you returns in a comparatively short period of time as compared to other animals like cows which have a gestation period of 283 days.
High feed conversion efficiency
- Among the animals reared for their meat, pigs have the highest feed conversion efficiency. What do I mean?
- Most of the plant organic matter taken by pigs is turned into tissue at a very rapid rate. This means that within a few months your pigs will be ready for market.
Numerous market opportunities.
- The piggery industry may not have a large staged market but has a bounty of market opportunities. These are usually micro markets spread throughout the country. With butchers, abattoirs, supermarkets, hotels, restaurants pig meat (pork) has high demand. Besides the pork, pigs are one of the largest sources of animal fat. Animal fat is used in manufacture of soap, various chemicals, and paints. As such, pig fat has market in those sectors and given that pigs store fat at a high rate, their fat has high demand.
Massive profits.
- Compared to what you invest when beginning your piggery farm, the profits you get are insane. In the piggery business you can get up to 100%profit and may exceed it. For instance, currently, a single piglet which costs between UGX 50,000 and UGX 100,000 can reach a market value of up to UGX 700,000.
Low cost of production.
- If you are to look into the capital requirements, cost of production of other agricultural enterprises such as cattle rearing or poultry you may find that piggery is relatively cheaper in all aspects. You will invest at lower costs on the building, feeds, and tools required and still get a good profit. Therefore, if you want to start a lucrative agricultural business but you’re falling short on capital piggery is your best option.
Large source of manure
- Owing to the fact that pigs eat a lot, their level of defecating is relatively high. As a result, pigs are a major source of manure which a could be recycled for several purposes. For instance, the manure could be used as a natural fertilizer in gardens or fed into bio gas digester where it is used to produce energy.