Top 5 Mistakes In Pig Farming To Avoid

I witnessed a farm lose its Pig stock due to some dangers of pig farming they didn’t take note of. Pig farming is a very lucrative business to venture into. If you are the busy type of person with less time to care for your pigs you are making a great mistake. In this blog post, we will look at some common mistakes in pig farming to avoid.

What are the challenges in pig farming?

There are challenges in every aspect of farming. Farm animals perform biological activities just like humans do. Any form of maltreatment or lack of care is likely to put their health at risk. Here are some challenges you are likely to face in pig farming.

1. High costs of feeding

To maintain a better pig farming environment for pigs, you will need to put much effort into making sure the pigs have awesome feed and feeding at regular intervals. When we say awesome feed, it means feed free from contamination (toxins, fungal growth, poor quality, imbalance nutrition ratio).

Considering the high costs of feeding, many farms result in feeding the pigs with food leftovers from restaurants, homes, and the canteen. Pigs are naturally okay with consuming a lot of food just like humans. But it can be risky to feed them anything without exercising caution.

In the case of reducing costs in feeding, always make sure food leftovers from restaurants, homes, and canteens are safe to consume. Avoid piling up food waste for pigs. This results in fungi and toxins building up. Also, check feed composition for any missing ingredients for balanced diet feeding. Check how to successfully plan a pig farming business.

2. Poor breeding stock selection

Challenges from a poor pig breeding stock may include, stunted growth, deformity, low fertility in soars and boars, and meat (pork) production. The potential of any breeding stock determines how well your pig farm business will be.

It is advisable to always get your stock from a good source. Don’t buy a stock with poor performance or bad history. Poor mothering is another factor in stock breed selection that should be avoided.

Read Also: Why Your Piglets Are Dying?

3. Poor management

There is a myth that says pigs are dirty animals and eat from the trash. It is never true. When you see a pig scratching the ground it could be in search of iron minerals which is very essential for their growth. In the absence of an iron supplement in their diet, the pig will find alternatives naturally.

Pigs also do not have sweat glands which makes them very sensitive to changes in an increase in temperature. At all times you need to make sure the pig wallow is filled with water for the pigs to cool off when hot. Below is a table with pig growth stages and respective temperatures required in their ambient.

Growth stage	Temperature (F)
Pre-wean	85
Wean pig	75-85
Nursery pig	70-75
Grower	60-70
Finishing	50-60
Gestating sow	50-65
Lactating sow	55 – 65

4. Poor biosecurity

Biosecurity is essentially guaranteeing biological safety in order to avoid disease transmission from the outside into the farm. To guarantee biosecurity on the pig farm, create a boundary for visitors and strictly enforce farm regulations. Learn more about biosecurity on the farm.

5. Practicing proper animal welfare

What exactly does it mean to observe animal welfare on a pig farm? You should think about the rules and regulations that regulate farm animal raising. Not long ago, animal welfare activists in Canada pushed for the passage of laws to protect farm animals from cruel farm practices.

To raise farm animals and enjoy a free market in your state, it is best to observe every rule and regulation in your state. Also, overstocking (overpopulation) needs to be checked in the piggery, and make sure there is food and water at the ad-libetum.

Conclusion

In summary, planning the cost of feeding against the stocking capacity of the pig is very necessary to eliminate poor production. Also, proper management needs to be ensured whiles observing strict biosecurity practices and animal welfare protection policies in each state. Thank you for reading this far. Your comments and suggestions are welcome and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button.