Pig Farming Basics: Scientific Feeding Points for the Three Growth Stages

AbstractThe pig rearing process mainly consists of three stages. Suckling stage: after piglets are born they must receive good colostrum and be kept warm, and red, yellow and white scours disease prevention must be carried out. Nursery stage: weaned piglets should be reasonably grouped and managed, and their diet changes from liquid breast milk to feed. Growing and fattening stage: at this stage a single type of feed will cause malnutrition in the piglets and affect their growth rate, so scientific feeding must be carried out, deworming must also be done, and vaccines must be injected on schedule.

1. Living environment

Pigs need to live in a dry, ventilated and well-lit place. This provides the pigs with a clean and tidy environment, allows them to grow better, and also reduces infection by harmful bacteria and lowers the disease rate of the pigs.

2. Suckling stage

Temperature: after piglets are born they must receive good colostrum, because newborn piglets are afraid of the cold. From day 1 to day 3 after birth the temperature should be kept at about 30°C-32°C, from day 4 to day 7 it should be kept at about 28°C-30°C, and from day 8 to day 30 it should be kept at about 22°C-25°C. As the days since birth increase, the temperature becomes lower and lower until it is finally kept at room temperature.

Disease prevention: piglets must be protected against red, yellow and white scours. The most critical thing is to give the piglets a clean living environment, and secondly to carry out drug prevention.

You can orally give the piglets 2ml-3ml of a 0.1% potassium permanganate aqueous solution, then put the remainder into their drinking water and let the piglets drink it themselves;

Or take one jin of garlic and six liang of licorice, chop them up, add one jin of baijiu and soak for 5-7 days, then take 1 ml of the original juice, add 4 ml of water and administer it by drenching, twice a day;

You can also add chlortetracycline to the supplementary feed for prevention, or use furazolidone at 0.4 g-0.5 g per pig per day, given orally in two doses, or use sulfaguanidine at 1 g-2 g, twice a day for 3 consecutive days.

Diet: piglets must be weaned at 30 days-40 days, and supplementary feed must be started at 7 days-10 days. You must not forget to keep the place where the piglets eat their feed clean and tidy, and to change the fresh drinking water every day. Piglets raised this way can bring better economic benefits.

3. Nursery stage

After weaning, piglets must change from the nutrition they mainly suckle, from warm liquid breast milk to solid dry feed, and from a life dependent on the sow to completely independent living. Their living environment also changes from the farrowing room to the nursery room, and they are also prone to bacterial infection and thus illness. Therefore the piglets' living environment and virus defence work must be strictly ensured, and weaned piglets must also be reasonably grouped and managed. At this stage piglets lose condition, their physique weakens, and the probability of disease increases. Improper rearing can easily produce stunted pigs, ultimately leading to the death of the piglets.

4. Growing and fattening stage

Lean-type piglets should be chosen as the basis for developing pig farming. Piglets must not be fed a single type of feed all the time, as this will cause malnutrition in the piglets, waste feed, and also slow their growth. Piglets must also be dewormed 1-2 times. For external deworming, a 0.5%-1% trichlorfon solution can be sprayed to kill lice, mites and other parasites on the body surface. For oral deworming, piglets can be given albendazole at 5ml-40 ml per kg of body weight, and levamisole hydrochloride at 8 ml per kg of body weight orally. When administering these it is best to have a veterinarian present to avoid poisoning. Piglets must also be injected with vaccine against swine fever.

5. Timely marketing

Fattening pigs are best slaughtered when they reach 90 kg-120 kg. If they are slaughtered before reaching 90 kg, the meat yield rate is very low and the economic benefit is also low. If they are above 90 kg, the pigs then mainly deposit fat. For example, when binary pigs reach 70 kg, internal three-way cross pigs reach 80 kg-85 kg, external three-way cross pigs reach 95 kg, and British PIC pigs reach 105 kg, at this point the pigs should be sent to market. If the market price is high, the heavier the pig the better; conversely, when the market price is low, a lighter pig is better, as this can reduce costs and lower feed consumption.