The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: JAHZARAFARMS on June 21, 2021, 10:49:13 pm
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Hi, I am a new farmer from out of Jamaica, West Indies. So here's my question:
If I am looking to Slaughter 10 pigs every month for market, How many Sows, Boars and Pigs would I need to do this every month?
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I don't know what breeds of pig you have available in Jamaica, or what an average litter size would be or how long it takes a pig to get to your slaughter weight. You need the answers to these questions to work out stocking levels.
Here it would be reasonable to say an average litter size is 10 and finished pigs are anything from 16 weeks (commercial) to 24 weeks (own consumption). Commercial farmers wean at three weeks and others 6 to 8. All these factors will affect how many sows you need, how many litters a sow will give you in a year and over a lifetime.
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As a very rough ball park figure for ease of calculation - if a sow has 2 litters/year and an average of 10/litter, then to have 10 pigs ready/month requires 6 breeding sows and one boar on the go.
Assuming you have some experience of pigs Jahzarafarms, I'm sure you'll be able to adapt this to your own husbandry methods as you go along.
Alternately you could just buy in 10 weaners/month while you sort out the logistics that work for you.