How to make a pig farm yourself
The pig farm and its arrangement is painstaking work. The profitability of a pig farm will depend entirely on the diligence and skill of the breeder. For pigs to bring real income, you need to create optimal conditions for them, provide proper care. Today, opening a farm for pigs is a profitable investment that quickly pays for itself and allows you to get good money with minimal energy costs. A pig farm for 50 pigs - is it a feasible task for self-realization?
Pig farm do it yourself
Where to start
How to open a mini pig farm? Any business begins with preparation, planning, calculations, market research and an adequate assessment of its competitiveness. Part of the pig farm business plan includes an analysis of financial and physical capabilities. At first, there are difficulties with an adequate assessment of their position and capabilities. Many overestimate their strength and eventually fail. It is necessary to calculate everything to the smallest detail.
The business plan for the pig farm includes a building project, which depicts the entire internal structure, up to the feeders and drinkers. Creating a pig farm from scratch will take a lot of time and effort. The case requires significant investment at the first stage. Initially, you should find a suitable piece of land, then purchase equipment and build a room.
When buying a land plot, it is important to remember that pig farms cannot be created within the city, so you need to purchase land outside of it. The distance from the farm to residential buildings should not be less than 15 m. The area of the building will depend on the number of livestock. Pig farms up to 50-100 heads require the use of an area of 250 squares or more.
Building requirements
The construction of a pig farm must take place according to a specific plan, subject to all requirements. Regardless of whether you are going to build a mini-pig farm or a whole pig farm, the requirements will be the same for everyone:
- durable flooring to prevent pigs from digging in and out;
- the internal area should be divided into several functional parts for heterosexual individuals, sows and young animals;
- arrangement of a good ventilation system;
- pig farms for 100 heads must be equipped with heating devices;
- natural illumination in the daytime due to the planning of window openings, artificial - in the dark;
- fenced paddock for walking, always with a canopy.
About 60 m from the pig farm, you need to equip a manure storage. It is this distance that is determined by sanitary standards. In the future, manure can also be sold as fertilizer to nearby farms.
Choosing an area for construction
Considering all the above requirements, the territory is looked after on a small hill. It is advisable to choose a windproof area.The area of the territory should allow not only to build a building, but also to organize areas for walking.
The owner of the pig farm should take into account the fact that his farm should be located away from residential buildings, not closer than 15 m. In this case, the direction of the winds and the slope should be taken into account. This point is intended to prevent the spread of unpleasant odors in the surrounding area, as well as contamination of drinking water during the runoff with faeces. For large pig farms, a prerequisite is the availability of a water supply on the site.
How to calculate parameters
The creation of a farm for pigs will have to devote a lot of time and make a lot of effort in order for the operation of the farm to be profitable. The construction process begins with drawings and calculations. They can be done independently using training materials and videos, or you can contact a specialist and order a drawing from him.
The area of the room and its interior arrangement will depend on the number of heads. The calculation is based on the fact that there are 10 females for one male, therefore, 10 boars are needed for 100 queens. The farm is normally running at least 2 farrowings per year. In good conditions and depending on the breed data, a female can produce an average of 12 piglets.
Ultimately we have 10 boars, 100 females, 2400 piglets, for a total of 2510 individuals. Depending on this, the entire room is divided into machines. The sizes of the pens will also be determined, depending on the number of individuals living in them:
- for one fattening pig there is 1 sq. m;
- for a couple of breeding boars, 8 square meters are allocated. m;
- for the uterus with suckling pigs, it is supposed to allocate up to 10 square meters. m;
- one pregnant uterus will need 6 sq. m.
Based on these data, the area of the entire room is calculated, which is divided into functional machines for keeping individuals of different ages separately. This is necessary in order to avoid a general mortality when infected with an infection, as well as to reduce aggression in the herd. The depth of the machine, regardless of the size, is about 3 m. Do not forget that between the machines it is necessary to equip corridors for ease of movement.
What to build a barn
The next stage of organizing a pig farm is the preparation of materials for construction, as well as the purchase of equipment. For work with pouring the foundation, sand and cement will be required. Waterproofing is often done with roofing material. The inner side of the walls is most often insulated with plywood. Sheets of plywood are also laid outside, and mineral wool is laid inside.
The roof is insulated in the same way. Slate is required to equip the roof. Modern technology also involves the construction of modular buildings for a barn. However, their price will be much higher, and for their construction it will be necessary to hire specialists, which will also cost a pretty penny.
Floor covering
One of the important points is the laying of the floor. This nuance should be addressed at the planning stage. Many breeders make the floor solid, however, according to the technology, it will be correct to make the floor from wooden logs, leaving gaps between them. To carry out all the work on arranging the pigsty, you will need the appropriate equipment.
A dry bedding of hay, straw or sawdust is placed on the floor. It is very important to keep the litter clean. Manure removal is a top priority in livestock breeding. In many large industries, the automation of cleaning the premises is provided. The automated pig farm is located in the Volgograd region of the Russian Federation. Focusing on it, many breeders also began to adopt useful ideas for automating their production.
Not so long ago, the technology of raising pigs on a fermentation bed came to us from the East. This method saves a lot of time on cleaning the room and effectively removes odors.The essence of the method is that any biomaterial is placed on a disinfected slit floor and sprinkled with a substance with coprophages. These are bacteria that live off the processing of feces and urine. The beauty is that this kind of bedding can last up to 4 years.
Ventilation
Installation of ventilation is another important point in the organization of a typical pig farm. A ventilation system is needed to control and stabilize the indoor climate. If the air exchange is insufficient, ammonia fumes will begin to accumulate in the room, which can lead to poisoning of most pigs.
You can build any ventilation system with your own hands, or you can buy it in a store if you don't want to get your hands dirty again. Under the headings buy and sell, you can buy a used air conditioner with climate control at a very low cost. In large buildings, it is necessary to equip a forced ventilation system.
Before doing ventilation ducts, you need to check if there are drafts in the room. It should be borne in mind that in the summer, much more air must enter the room than in the winter. In winter, the air temperature in the pigsty should not fall below 15 ° С, in summer it should be in the range of 20-25 ° С.
Heating systems and plumbing
Opening a pig farm is hard work. At the final stage of construction, you need to make sure that not a single piglet freezes in winter. Most often, the barns are not additionally insulated with batteries or electrical appliances. The walls and roof must be properly insulated, then the pigs are not afraid of frosts. Returning to the fermentation bed, it must be said that its use solves the problem of additional heating.
During the breakdown of the waste products of animals, coprophages generate heat, and in the lowest layers the temperature can reach up to 60 ° C. Of course, if there are frosts of -50 ° C outside in winter, any room will have to be additionally insulated. Plumbing equipment in a pigsty is a must. This move will greatly simplify cleaning. Plus, pigs constantly need drinking clean water, and the presence of a water supply system solves this problem in no time.
Final part
Starting a pig farm is an interesting business idea. Today, pork meat is a fairly popular product. The fauna is diverse, and you can, in principle, choose any livestock, but pigs are the most economical in terms of feeding and have the highest productivity compared to others.
Pig farm equipment and all necessary materials must be purchased in advance. The operation of the farm under normal conditions is quite capable of providing 2 farrowings per year for each female. The number of pigs is increasing more than 10 times. Such a rapid increase will more than pay off all costs in the first year.
In the form of a pig farm, you can build a small seasonal farm in your summer cottage. At home, it is very easy to care for piglets, They are omnivores, so even waste from your own table can be introduced into their diet. Meat breeds, such as Duroc, gain 100 kg in a month, so that by the beginning of autumn they can already be sent for slaughter.
Of course, when organizing a farm with an initial number of 100 heads, it must be taken into account that in a year with successful breeding, more than 200 piglets will appear on the farm. For such a number, it will be necessary to hire management personnel who will carry out feeding, cleaning and caring for the pets, because it is impossible to cope with so many pigs on your own.
Today the most profitable business is pig feeding for meat. Meat pigs gain weight literally in 6-7 months, which makes working on a real pig farm quite comfortable and affordable for everyone.