How Much Money Do You Need To Start a Pig Farm?

©Shutterstock Closeup of a pig on livestock farm.

Pork is considered a delicacy by many in Ghana. When pork is used in light soup, it gives the soup a nice aroma and flavour. Pork can also be roasted and served as a snack alongside a bottle of beer or any other chilled drink. This is evident by the increasing number of pubs which have roasted pork as the main menu. At this point, it is safe to say that the demand for pork is on the upward trend in Ghana hence pig farming has become a very lucrative business. Before you start raising pigs, here are some of the important things you need to consider.

Carefully determine the breed of pig and the total number you want to start with

You need to select a breed that has a high feed to meat conversion ratio and is well adapted to local climatic conditions. One of the most popular breeds which meet these criteria is the Large White breed. A sow (female pig) can give birth to as many as ten piglets at a go twice a year. Assuming you start with 20 pigs (ie. 18 sows and 2 boars), you could potentially end up with 380 pigs in just one year. These 360 extra pigs will need space therefore, you would have to expand the existing structure, spend more money on feed, water, veterinary costs and other expenses. Not fully understanding how fast pigs can breed and just starting with an unplanned parent stock means you could potentially be setting yourself up for failure.

You’ll need to acquire certain assets

You also need to acquire certain assets which would facilitate the successful running the farm. Firstly, you would need a piece of land to rear your animals. Pigs usually smell a lot therefore the land needs to be located far from a residential location. A rural setting which is accessible to a motorable road for easy transportation of your products to the market center will be very suitable. After acquiring the land, you need to put up the structure. You need to make sure that there is enough ventilation and protection from sunlight for your pigs. Water is an essential nutrient for pigs therefore you may need to construct a well and get a water tank that is capable of storing at least 2 days water requirement for the pigs. You will need to acquire a water pump to pump the water and some nipple drinkers and PVC pipes to connect the water to the sty.

Operational costs

In your day to day running of the pig farm, there are some expenses your farm is going to incur. Examples of such expenses include feed expense, veterinary services, farmhand wages and marketing expense. Before you decide on pricing your pigs you need to consider the operational expenses involved in raising an individual pig. This way, your pricing will be low enough to keep you competitive but high enough to keep your operations profitable.

Breakdown of pig farm startup costs

For this article, we are going to prepare a budget starting with 5 pigs (4 sows 1 boar) as our initial breeding stock.

1. Land: 4 sows could potentially give us 10 piglets each meaning in 10 months we could be having 45 pigs hence we need a sizeable enough piece of land and a standard 2 plots of land will do. Two plots of land in Ghana will probably cost as high as GH₵ 40.000.00 depending on your location.

2. Structure: Since we are projecting to have a total of 45 pigs in 10 months, we can build a structure which can house 50 growers. We estimate the cost of this structure as GH₵ 70,000.00.

3. Drilling of well: Pigs require a lot of water not only to drink but also to cool themselves. This explains why they need to wallow in water or mud. To provide a clean source of water which is reliable and inexpensive, it is advisable to dig up a well. The cost of drilling a well is estimated to be GH₵ 3,000.00

4. PolyTank: For our purposes, we would purchase a 5,000L PolyTank. This will help us store water and deliver it to our pigs via pipes. This would cost us around GH₵ 4,000.00.

5. Water pump: GH₵ 2,000.00 could be required to purchase a water pump.

6. Nipple drinkers: We would want four pigs to share a nipple drinker and since we are projecting to have 45 pigs, we have to purchase about 11 nipple drinkers. Since one nipple drinker costs around GH₵ 15.00, 11 of them will cost us GH₵ 165.00.

7. Breeding Stock: For breeding stock, pigs that are four months old will be chosen hence five of such pigs could cost us GH₵ 800.00 each making a total of GH₵ 4,000.00.

8. Operational Costs:

i. Feed: According to Pastured Proof, the average porker pig will consume around 2kg of feed per day from over the period from birth to slaughter (pigs typically reach slaughter weight after 6 months. Since our breeding pigs are only 4 months old we may have to wait for six months before the sows produce piglets. Assuming the average price for a bag (50kg) of pig feed is GH₵ 350.00 Our projected 45 pigs will consume GH₵ 82,320.00 in 10 months.

ii. Veterinary Services: I interviewed a veterinary expert and he told me that piglets need to be given an iron injection 3 or 4 days after birth which will cost GH₵ 5 per pig. Hence the iron shot for 40 piglets would cost GH₵ 200.00. He also added that pigs need to be dewormed once every month after they’ve been weaned. Again, the cost per pig for the deworming is around GH₵ 5 which implies that estimated cost of deworming for the 45 pig over the course of ten months is GH₵ 1450.00. In view of this, we estimate the cost of veterinary services for our projected 45 pigs at GH₵ 1,650.00 for ten months.

iii. Farmhand wages: Two farmhands are going to work on the farm and let’s assume we are going pay those monthly wages of GH₵ 600.00 each. Hence for the first 10 months, we are projecting a wage expense of GH₵ 12,000.00.

Summary

From the breakdown of the costs above, if you are thinking of starting a pig farm with four sows and a boar, chances are you may need to raise at least GH₵ 179,135.00 in the space of ten months.

If reading this article piqued your interest in starting your piggery venture, it will be in your best interest to write a good business plan. Even if you don’t necessarily have the time to write your own, don’t worry. Just send us a WhatsApp message by following this link https://wa.me/233592239127. And we’ll draft a professional business plan for you at a very reasonable price.