Growing Livestock at the Fish Farm

Growing Livestock at the Fish Farm 

Four months ago, we took in a pair of goats (doe and buck) and seven hybrid piglets for fattening in the farm. A friend also gifted us a pair of native piglets.

A pair of newly acquired goats (doe at left is black with white patch, buck is all black)

Seven piglets (about 50 days old) which were bought for fattening

A pair of native pigs (initially housed in a crude pen under the lumber shed)

By bringing in these animals, we diversified our farm produce and expanded the use of the fish farm property. That is, grow bangus, tilapia, white prawns in the ponds, and keep farm animals on the earth dikes. We also hoped that this will add to the earnings of my farm workers who'll share in the profits of the livestock project.

My farm overseer and cook take turns tending the fattening pigs. Thrice a day, they clean the pig house, bathe the pigs, and feed them. For feeds, we fed the piglets commercial starters for the first 90 days. Later it's a mix of growers and some other items (such as corn bran, rice bran, wheat bran). To the mix, they add chopped kangkong (swamp cabbage) stems and leaves.

Measuring various hog feed mix items (commercial feeds, corn, rice bran, wheat bran)

Pouring water into the mix

Adding chopped "kangkong" (swamp cabbage) or other greens to the wet mix to produce pig slop

My assistant caretaker tends the goats. Daily, he retrieves the pair from the goat shed and puts them to pasture. The goats graze on weeds and other wild plants on the earth dikes. Late afternoon (or earlier when it rains), the goats are brought back to their shed.

Pig House for Fatteners
 
To house the pigs, we built a small bamboo structure for the fatteners. Around 5 meters by 2 meters, with bamboo posts, roof frame, sidings and gates. On top are GI sheets for the roof. It has concrete floor with concrete feeder and drinker troughs.

Completed bamboo pig house viewed from west

Our main grow-out pond to the north viewed from the pig house

Before we built the house, we had to prepare the earth dike on which to build the base – reinforce it, widen and level it.

Filling the sacks with earth to reinforce, widen and raise the dike where the pig house will be located

Layered sacks of earth piled on top of each other (this method of earth piling will prevent erosion; notice the slope where base is wider)

Layers of earth-filled sacks viewed from up a nearby tree

We bought some drinker nipples but are yet to install them later.

To shield the hogs from rains and wind, we put protective tarp screens. These can be rolled up or down, depending on weather.

Pig Sty for Native Pigs

Native pigs are normally free-ranging. This is good because we won’t need any pig structure – or so we thought. But after letting them out to graze, the pigs quickly ploughed out the earth dikes of our farm. They uprooted everything in their path – plants, weeds, root crops, etc. in search of food. They were tireless earth diggers. Using their snouts, they dug up the ground, loosened up the soil, ate up any soil creatures and other morsels they could find.

Our fish farm doesn’t have wider tracts of land suited to free ranging (say, like a rice field). So we decided to keep our native pigs in confinement instead. Just like their hybrid fattening cousins. Besides, we can’t allow our earth dikes to be eroded. Bad for our fish in the ponds.

Initially we built a pen under our lumber shed, half roofed and the other half open. It has no cement floor. So after awhile, when rains came, the earth floor turned really muddy. Because of their propensity for ploughing out the soil, the native pigs quickly turned the muddied floor into a mess. Result? Their food was stained with mud, drinking water soiled.

A crude enclosure under the lumber shed originally intended for the native pigs

Pair of native pigs seen resting on the earth floor (later became muddy when the rains came)

Finally, we had to put the native pigs in a separate section of our main pig house. It has cement flooring, feed and drinker troughs, so it’s easy to clean. After relocating them, we noticed that the supposed free-ranging pigs, though confined, seemed to like their new “habitat”. They became healthier, gained weight faster. 

A smaller compartment in the main pig house for our 2 native pigs

Goat Shed 

For the goat-raising project, we built a crude goat house made of bamboo. Located in the middle of the earth dikes between our two grow-out ponds. That’s where they stay overnight. In the morning, my goatherd takes the goats to a new grazing area around my farm, tying them up with a long rope. The doe grazes separately from the buck.

Being new in goat raising, I didn’t mind buying my initial stock from just any source - not really mindful of acquiring quality goat stock (such as Boer or Anglo Nubian, the more popular breeds in a tropical country like the Philippines). The idea is to just use any grazing goats, even native ones, to control weed growth in our farm.

It was my assistant caretaker who bought the pair from his neighbor. Turned out the pair of goats that we purchased were not the pure local native goats we expected.

Now that they’re a bit older, we can see that they have some features of a cross-bred goat. They’re bigger, black colored, had more bulk compared to those we see around the farm.

Last week, our doe gave birth to a kid. It came as a big pleasant surprise! My goatherd himself was surprised. He didn’t realize the doe was pregnant although my overseer suspected that it was so. How did it happen?

Well, after asking around, we learned that one of the grazing areas near the main entrance had been visited by a large herd of hybrid goats. One day our goatherd decided to put our goats to pasture in that area and left them there. My other farm workers noticed a large buck (probably a graded Anglo-Nubian, but not a purebred buck) loitering around. This buck stayed alone near our doe for hours.

The rest was history. The visiting buck succeeded in mating with our doe, which got pregnant, without anyone of us noticing.

The female offspring – well, she’s colored light brown, just like the color of the “stray” large buck that sired her.

It was a lucky break for us. Our goat stock (at least the first newly born female kid) got upgraded without our knowledge. Amazing. Can’t ask for more.

What We Feed Our Pigs 

For the first 90 days (age of piglets) or the first 45 days from date of purchase, we fed our piglets with commercial hog feeds (starters).

Thereafter and for the next 5 months, we fed them a combination of the following ingredients (we adopted the feeding tips of our Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA)):

· Commercial feeds (growers or finishers)

· Rice bran (locally called “rubber kono” or “darak”)

· Corn bran (“babang mais”)

· Wheat bran (“trigo”)

· Swamp cabbage (“kangkong") or

· Banana trunk or

· Vegetable or fruit rejects (disposed at public market)
 
Note: Some other ingredients are included per the DA tip, depending on availability in your farm (such as "ipil-ipil" leaves).

We buy the commercial feeds, rice bran (“darak”), corn bran (“babang mais”), and wheat bran (“trigo”) at the feed supply shops at the public market. My farm workers gather swamp cabbage (“kangkong”) from around our farm and cut down a trunk from the banana clumps nearby. Sometimes, we get vegetable/fruit rejects for free from our friend-vendors at the public market.

To prepare the feeds: chop or slice the kangkong and banana trunk into small pieces and put in plastic basins. Sprinkle a bit of salt. Then mix all the above feed ingredients in a large plastic pail with some clean water. This type of wet feed (pig slop) is ready to be poured into the feeder trough. Don’t forget to fill the drinker trough with clean water.

My assistant caretaker chopping up the "kangkong" into small pieces (long, uncut stems and leaves are left uneaten).

Before feeding the fatteners (thrice daily), my farm workers make sure the cement floor and troughs are newly cleaned up and washed.

My farm overseer cleaning up the floor with water.
Note: photo shows only two remaining fatteners; others were already sold or slaughtered

Cleaning up the feeding and drinking troughs

Removing dirt and debris from the troughs using broomstick ("walis tingting")

While cleaning the pen, the workers also bathe the pigs to cool them down. Then, they're ready to be fed.

Bathing the pigs thrice a day to cool them down

Cleaned up floor and newly bathed pigs, waiting to be fed

Hybrid fatteners and native pigs at the feeding troughs

How To Monitor and Estimate the Weight of Our Fattening Pigs 

Commercial hog raisers usually weigh their hogs using a metal cage and a heavy duty weighing scale with a hook. The pig enters the cage (with its fixed weight known); the cage hooked up to the scale. The increment (in kilos) represents the pig weight.
 
Most backyard hog growers have no livestock scale for weighing their pigs. They go to a weighing station a few kilometers away to get live weight for a fee.

But it’s always best to have a good estimate of the weight of your fatteners at any time. How? Use the technique applied by backyard hog raisers (available at the internet).

· Measure the length of the pig (in inches) from base of tail to base of ear along the spine.

· Get the diameter of the body (in inches) (called “girth”) using a string or tape measure which is wrapped just behind the forelegs (think of armpit)

· Get the square of the measured diameter or girth in inches

· Multiply by the length in inches

· Divide the result by 400 to the get the estimated weight in pounds

· Divide the weight in pounds by 2.2 to get the weight in kilos

We tried this technique ourselves and compared the above “formula weight” to the actual scale weights for our 3 pigs. Unfortunately, the above “formula or derived” weights are consistently higher by around 7 to 8%. A possible explanation, I presume, is that the above formula is based on Western standards and experience, and applies to US hogs. Most likely, the hog breeds, type of feeds, and method of feeding in the US differ from those in local Philippine conditions.

To adjust this weight to local conditions, we reduced the derived weight further by 8% to get the “adjusted” weight. The result, based on our samples, is very close indeed to actual weight using a scale.

Thus the modified formula that applies to us locally (Philippine conditions) is:

(Length in inches x square of girth in inches) / 400 = weight in pounds / 2.2 = derived weight in kilos x 92% = adjusted weight in kilos

Selling the Fatterners 

For backyard growers, selling is a tricky part of the business. There is no ready market for fattened hogs. After feeding and caring the pigs for 4.5 to 5 months, they are supposed to be ready for disposal.

Live weight can range from 60 to 100 kilos per hog. After 4.5 months of feeding, two of my 7 hogs weighed over 90 kilos, two were in the 80 kilo range, two in the mid 70 range, while one was a laggard and was in the 60 kilo range.

Backyard growers are often at the mercy of pig brokers or private buyers who dictate live weight prices. Also, live weight prices are subject to seasonal fluctuations. Higher when Christmas season nears. Prices remain high first half of year, then drop after that during rainy season.

Brokers sense when backyard growers need to quickly dispose of their hogs. Growers have limited capital and have no financial leverage to negotiate. When hogs reach marketable weight, growers are anxious to sell their livestock to generate cash. Keeping the hogs longer means spending for more feeds and draining the household cash some more. So, it’s the brokers who have the upper hand and can dictate prices.

Increasing Profits from Backyard Piggery 

It’s plain to see that backyard growers who raise fattening hogs and sell all their hogs to brokers after 4 to 6 months hardly make any profit. Because of the low selling price per kilo live weight, sales would be minimal. Cost of major inputs (feeds and piglets), on the other hand, remain high and continue to increase. Resulting profits, thus, suffer.

Given this, it would be foolhardy to take this route, given the length of time, high cost, and amount of effort involved in caring for and feeding the fatteners.

So, what can backyard growers do?

Well, slaughter the pigs and sell meat cuts to end users. This is the only viable option.

In our case, we needed to slaughter one fattener every two weeks, cut them up into meat pieces, and offer them to farm neighbors and friends. For procedures on how to cut up a whole pig, pls. click this.

So far, we slaughtered 2 of our 7 fatteners. Another is scheduled for slaughter in a few days. Earlier, we sold 3 hogs to live weight buyers. The remaining one, we'll keep as our future sow.

The downside in selling pork retail to household consumers is that meat cuts are usually sold on credit – mostly two weeks to pay. Best way to implement this is to make use of canvassers who receive a commission (add-on) for every kilo of pork sold, collected and remitted.

Lastly, an important tip is to keep detailed records of all costs and expenses, sales and receivables. Also the types and quantities of feeds consumed. Without meticulous record-keeping, a backyard grower would have no idea if his piggery project makes money or not.

In addition to our goats and native pigs, we recently introduced native chickens in our fish farm (courtesy of my farm overseer). To learn about our experience with chickens, pls. click this.
 
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