A Detailed Guide to Pig Farming Techniques, with a Full Explanation of Scientific Breeding Methods
SummarySelecting superior breeds: when choosing piglets, select healthy pigs that are large, have tall legs, a uniform build, and no red spots on the body. Feeding superior feed: to meet the pig's adequate and comprehensive nutritional needs during growth, feed must be rationally matched. Rationally designing pig housing: change cohabitation of humans and livestock to separate housing for humans and livestock, and the pig pens must also be rationally designed. Improving feeding methods: change cooked feeding to raw feeding, change thin feeding to dry-wet feeding, change feeding a single feed to feeding a mixed feed, and change random feeding to timed and measured feeding.
1. Selecting Superior Breeds
China has relatively large differences in region, geography, and climatic conditions, and there are also many local pig breeds. Based on meat quality, they can be classified into lean-meat type, fat type, and meat-and-fat dual-purpose type pigs. When choosing piglets, select healthy pigs with a uniform build, no red spots on the body, a large size, tall legs, normal feed intake, and ears that do not feel hot when touched at the base.
1. Lean-meat type: high-quality breeds introduced from abroad, with lean meat accounting for about 60-65%, such as Large White pigs, Duroc pigs, and Landrace pigs.
2. Fat-type pigs: local breeds in China, with lean meat accounting for 35-45%, such as Neijiang pigs, Liangguang Small Spotted pigs, Yunnan Small-Ear pigs, and Quanhua pigs.
3. Meat-and-fat dual-purpose pigs: imported superior breeds used as the sire and local superior breeds used as the dam for crossbreeding, that is, crossbred pigs. This type has relatively more lean meat, grows faster, has relatively strong disease resistance, and has relatively high feed utilization.
2. Feeding Superior Feed
The nutrients pigs need for growth, reproduction, and maintaining life can be divided into 6 major categories, such as fat, mineral elements, vitamins, water, carbohydrates, and protein.
The nutritional level of feed depends on the crude protein content contained in the feed. The protein content of feed for finishing pigs needs to be about 14-18%. Pigs can basically obtain all the nutrients they need from feed, except water. Feed can be divided into energy feed and protein feed, that is, feed containing more than 20% crude protein is protein feed, and feed containing less than 20% is energy feed.
1. Protein feeds include: fish meal, silkworm pupae, soybeans, peanut cake, soybean meal, blood meal, and so on.
2. Energy feeds include: corn, cassava, wheat, and rice bran, and so on.
3. Rationally Designing Pig Housing
1. Pig housing should be selected in a place that is sheltered from the wind and faces the sun, has good ventilation, is convenient for drainage and manure discharge, and is on higher ground. Pig pens can be designed at 1.2 sq m of land per pig, and the length of the trough should be designed at about 40 cm per pig. To make washing and cleaning easier, the floor can be paved with the side for manure discharge lower and the other three corners maintained at an appropriate slope.
2. To avoid the occurrence of some diseases, cohabitation of humans and livestock can be changed to separate housing for humans and livestock, and pig pens, human toilets, pig manure water, and biogas can be combined into sanitary pens.
4. Improving Feeding Methods
1. Change cooked feeding to raw feeding
Cooked feeding: feed is usually cooked before being fed. During the high-temperature cooking process, some nutrients are destroyed, especially large amounts of vitamins are lost. If cooked improperly, it may cause poisoning in pigs and, in severe cases, even death.
Raw feeding: nutrients are not lost, and it can also save manpower and material resources and avoid nitrite poisoning.
2. Change thin feeding to dry-wet feeding
Dry feeding: it more easily causes pharyngitis and makes pigs choke, because dry feed needs more saliva and gastric juice to moisten it.
Dry-wet feeding: with a consistency similar to porridge, gastric juice can play a better decomposing role, which helps promote the digestion and absorption of feed and lets pigs grow faster.
Thin feeding: too much water dilutes gastric juice, increases the burden on the internal organs, causes fast and large excretion, is not conducive to the digestion and absorption of feed, and with too much water the nutrition cannot be met and the feeding amount is hard to control. This is the reason pigs are full but still do not grow.
3. Change feeding a single feed to feeding a mixed feed
Single feeding: using only one kind of feed for feeding leads to malnutrition and relatively low feed utilization, thereby affecting pig growth.
Mixed feeding: scientifically proportioning multiple feeds and then mixing them for feeding not only provides balanced nutrition but also has high feed utilization, and it also helps pigs grow quickly, thereby increasing farming income.
4. Change random feeding to timed and measured feeding
Feeding can be carried out at fixed times and in fixed amounts according to the pig's body weight. For pigs above 60 jin, feed can be given at 5% of body weight; for medium pigs between 60-120 jin, feed should be given at 4% of body weight; for large pigs, feed can be given at 3% of body weight. This not only ensures nutritional needs but also avoids wasting feed, and is more conducive to rapid pig growth.
5. Timely Marketing
When pigs reach a body weight of about 90-110 kg, they can be sold or slaughtered. They must be sold at the right time to avoid affecting economic returns.