Which One is More Profitable, Poultry Farming or Pig Farming?

A lot of farmers would love to raise both chickens and pigs on a commercial scale simultaneously, however, the capital required to start both business ventures is more than what most farmers can afford. Farmers are therefore forced to choose between poultry or pig farming. Before the choice is made, the farmer would definitely want to know the venture that offers the biggest return on investment within the shortest possible time. In this article, we are going to compare the two livestock ventures based on certain parameters so that you can decide as to which one is more profitable for you.

First of all, let’s consider how long it takes to start making revenue. If you decide to rear egg-laying birds which are popularly known as layers, you will have to wait for about 18 to 20 weeks before the birds start laying eggs, however, for pig farming, you may have to wait for a year before selling your first set of pigs. For instance, if you purchase 1 boar (male pig) and 2 sows (female pigs), all at 4 months of age, you have to wait at least 2 months for the sows to reach full sexual maturity. Assuming the sows get pregnant at six months of age, it would take another 4 months before they give birth. After the piglets are given birth to they reach slaughter weight at around six months of age hence you may have to wait for as long as 12 months before you start making revenue when rearing pigs but you only need to wait between four to five months before making revenue with poultry farming when raising layers. If generating revenue quickly is what you want, then raising layers may be a better choice for you.

The next thing we would consider is how often you can make revenue and the profit margin. When you rear layers, you know that the egg production rate increases steadily till it reaches its peak and then gradually declines until keeping the birds is no longer economically viable. However, when you raise pigs, you may only be able to sell just 1 set of market-ready pigs in the first year, but you can sell two sets of market-ready pigs per year in the subsequent years. To put things into perspective, if you started with 1 boar and two sows as stated in the previous paragraph, you could have 20 pigs available for sale during the first 12 months, however in the second year, you have 2 batches of 20 pigs amounting to 40 pigs assuming you maintain the 2 sows and 1 boar breeding stock. A bigger profit margin can be obtained from selling pigs as compared to selling eggs. This is because eggs tend to have fixed prices depending on their size while pork can be sold for as much as possible depending on how well it’s packaged.

Finally, we have to consider which of the two ventures has a more ready market. Both eggs and pig products have a high demand in Ghana but generally, it is easier to sell eggs in large quantities as compared to live pigs, pork or other pig products. One of the reasons for this is that not all religions allow their adherents to consume pig products so you may struggle to make sales if let’s say, for example, you find yourself in a Muslim dominated area.

In a nutshell, both of the ventures are very profitable. In selecting the one that is more suitable for you, many different factors come to play and all of these factors need to be examined on a case by case basis to ascertain the best choice. For instance, you can charge relatively higher prices for neatly packaged pork but you need to have the required skills and patience to efficiently market them. If you want to rear layers instead, you may not need too much in terms of marketing skills to sell eggs. At the end of the day, there is no clear-cut winner as to which one is more profitable so it is best that you analyze both livestock ventures properly to find out the pros and cons before selecting the one that best suits you.

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