04/25/2026
"Having trustworthy and reliable partner(s) is very important if you are not always present on the farm"
Pigs were slaughtered behind my back.. 11months wasted feeding and watering them every night..
Got nothing out of it.
Not a very happy camper here..!!!
DON’T Start Pig Farming Without Understanding These 3 Things
Starting a pig farm often looks simple on the surface.
Buy pigs, feed them, wait for them to grow, sell and make money.
But the reality is different.
Many farmers only begin to see the real challenges after they have already spent money and started the farm.
And if certain things are not properly understood from the beginning, the farm can quickly become stressful and unprofitable.
There are three things you must get right.
The first is piglet survival.
This is one of the biggest factors that determines whether your farm will make money or struggle.
A sow can give birth to 8–12 piglets, but if a good number of them don’t survive, you’ve already lost a large part of your potential income.
The cost of feeding that sow throughout pregnancy has already been spent.
If the piglets don’t survive, the return on that investment becomes very low.
But when piglets survive and are properly raised, the farm has options. You can sell some as piglets, raise some for meat, and avoid the constant cost of buying new stock.
That alone can make a big difference in profitability.
The second thing is feeding.
Feeding will take the largest portion of your money.
This is where many new farmers get surprised. They start with too many pigs without fully understanding how much it will cost to feed them consistently.
Yes, pigs can eat many things.
But not everything they eat will support good growth.
When pigs are fed poor-quality or unbalanced feed, the result is slow growth, longer time before sale, and higher feeding cost over time.
So instead of rushing to keep many pigs, it is better to start with a number you can comfortably feed and manage well.
Good feeding, done consistently, will always give better results than trying to manage too many pigs with poor feeding.
The third thing is staff integrity.
This is something many people overlook until it becomes a problem.
On many farms, losses don’t always come from disease or market conditions.
They come from inside the farm.
Feed gets stolen.
Pigs are sold without the owner knowing.
Animals are poorly managed when supervision is low.
These things may look small at first, but over time, they add up and affect the entire business.
That is why having trustworthy and reliable workers is very important if you are not always present on the farm.
Pig farming can be profitable, no doubt.
But it becomes profitable when these realities are understood early and managed properly.
Many farmers learn them after they have already lost money.
🔴 From your experience, which of these has been the biggest challenge on your farm? 👇
