Methods and Key Technical Points for Raising Earthworms with Pig Manure

Pig manure is originally the metabolic waste of pigs, and many people do not know its uses. In fact, pig manure still has many uses, and it can turn waste into treasure. Raising earthworms with pig manure is a very good example. It can both create the wealth of earthworm farming and fully realize the value of pig manure.

Methods for Raising Earthworms with Pig Manure

First, the pond for raising earthworms has no bottom, because building a bottom will affect the growth of earthworms. This is because earthworms like to live in moist soil, and the environment must have good air permeability. A cement pond with no bottom directly connected to the ground can regulate the water level during droughts and floods, ensuring air permeability.  

Second, pig manure cannot be used to feed earthworms directly. When earthworms were introduced for the first time, Old Du put the earthworms in the pond and began to add pig manure. The next morning, when he looked, all the earthworms had escaped. A friend who raised earthworms told him that his problem was probably caused by the pig manure fed to the earthworms. Other people used cow manure to raise earthworms, so what was the difference between pig manure and cow manure?  

It turned out that the ammonia smell in pig manure is relatively strong, and this is related to the feed the pigs eat. Pigs usually eat mostly concentrated feed, which has a high protein content and easily produces an ammonia smell. Especially for fattening pigs, a large amount of corn and soybean meal is added to the feed. When pigs eat it and cannot digest it completely, the ammonia smell in the manure becomes even stronger, driving the earthworms away. On the contrary, cows eat very little concentrated feed, and most of it is roughage. The roughage they cannot digest is excreted with the manure, so the smell of cow manure is relatively lighter.  

In fact, because pigs eat finely, more nutrients remain in the manure, which should be a good thing for raising earthworms, but the smell is too strong and the earthworms cannot stand it. Old Du remembered that there is a difference between feed for sows and feed for fattening pigs. Sow feed contains more crude fiber. Because constipation in sows must be prevented during production, the protein content in the feed cannot be too high, and more crude fiber needs to be added, so the ammonia smell in sow manure is lighter.  

So Old Du and the workers mixed sow manure and fattening pig manure together to dry and ferment. After a period of drying, the ammonia smell in the pig manure had mostly dissipated. However, when adding pig manure, Old Du also learned his lesson and switched to adding it in separate spots so that the earthworms could gradually adapt to the pig manure. First ferment the pig manure, then add it in separate piles. This method satisfied the living conditions of the earthworms, and they settled down in Old Du's pig farm. However, this was only the beginning, and the earthworms still had to reproduce more so as to provide more protein feed for the pig farm. Old Du thought that after the first batch of earthworms reproduced, he would not rush to use them, but let them reproduce for several more batches, and then use them in a concentrated way. But something unexpected happened again: many earthworms escaped again, and all the large ones escaped.  

The Environment Earthworms Like to Live In

The first is humidity. Earthworms like a moist environment because 80% of their bodies is water, and if the environment is too dry, they lose water very easily. Therefore, if the humidity of the place where they live is unsuitable, the earthworms will escape. In order to keep the soil at a suitable humidity, the workers at the pig farm often sprinkle water into the earthworm pond. In summer, the temperature is high and water evaporates quickly, so in summer even more attention must be paid to frequently sprinkling water into the earthworm pond to create a moist environment for the earthworms, and the workers did this very well. Because the farming was outdoors, Old Du was also afraid that the earthworms would not survive the winter. When winter came, Old Du had the workers spread corn stalks in the pond. Once the corn stalks were spread, it was like covering the earthworm pond with a thick quilt, playing a role in cold protection and heat preservation.  

As for temperature and humidity, there were no problems, and the earthworms had always lived quite well. With a friend's guidance, Old Du finally figured it out. It turned out that earthworms have a habit: they like to live with the same generation. If mother and offspring live together, the large ones will move away and escape. Earthworms have strong reproductive ability and grow very quickly. Generally, sexually mature earthworms begin to lay eggs one week after mating, and small earthworms can hatch in about 20 days. After only two months of growth, the small earthworms can reach sexual maturity and can mate and lay eggs again. In this way, the relationships in the pond become more complicated, with mother generation and offspring generation all living together.  

Therefore, to prevent earthworms from escaping, it is necessary to harvest one batch for every batch reproduced, and promptly harvest the large earthworms. The collected earthworms are made into dried earthworms, and the dried earthworms are processed and ground into powder, which becomes a very good protein feed for pigs. In the past, at Old Du's pig farm, the animal protein feed added was fish meal, at about 2%. Although the proportion was not high, because fish meal is quite expensive, for a farm like Old Du's with several thousand pigs, it was also a considerable expense.  

Earthworms have a very high protein content, and dried earthworms even have a higher protein content than fish meal. They can completely replace fish meal and be added to feed, and the vitamins and trace elements contained in earthworms are also good for pig growth. Therefore, using earthworms to replace fish meal to feed pigs not only helps the pigs grow but also saves costs. By raising earthworms, Old Du not only handled pig manure but also obtained high-protein feed, achieving two goals at once. 

Uses of Pig Manure  

1. As fertilizer  

2. Dried as feed, using a small proportion to feed cattle, sheep and chickens.  

3. For biogas.  

4. Raising fish with pig manure: after the fish pond is cleaned up, apply 250-300 kg of pig manure per mu of water surface, and topdress once every 10 days or so, applying 50 kg of pig manure each time.  

5. After pig manure is fermented, put it into the maggot-raising pond of the maggot-raising room to raise maggots.  

6. Pig manure can be used to raise earthworms. Collect fresh pig manure and pile it up. Spread each pile to dry until it is 70% dry, then add 20% soil, 3% wheat bran and rice bran, seal the manure pile tightly with plastic film, and the pig manure will ferment in about 7 days. Then spread the fermented pig manure flat in a pit, cover it with green grass or straw curtains and other materials to keep it moist, and it will be ready in about 20 days. 

Market Prospects for Earthworm Farming  

The rise of the earthworm farming industry has not only opened up a new source of animal protein feed for the development of livestock, poultry and aquaculture industries, but has also found a new way for cities to purify the environment and handle public hazards; moreover, with in-depth research on the physiology of earthworms, valuable raw materials can also be provided for industries such as food and medicine. Therefore, the prospects for earthworm farming are broad.  

1. Earthworms can be used to make medicine. At present, the international market price is 80,000-150,000 yuan per ton of dried earthworms, or even higher. According to analysis, earthworms contain various medicinal components such as lumbrokinase, lumbricus antipyreticin, lumbricus toxin, xanthine, antihistamine, choline, cholesterol, nucleic acid derivatives and B vitamins. At present, lumbrokinase can already be scientifically extracted from earthworms and used to treat diseases such as cerebral vascular infarction, and lumbrokinase oral or injection products have already been put on the market. Experiments have proved that earthworms can be fully used for clinical treatment.  

2. Earthworms are hailed as the best protein feed in the world. They contain extremely rich nutritional value. Earthworms contain 18 kinds of amino acids, various minerals and vitamins. Therefore, earthworms can be used to raise loach, rice field eels and other aquatic products, helping to increase the production of aquatic products. Earthworms can also be used to raise pigs, chickens and other poultry, improving their own nutritional value. Earthworms can also be made into earthworm powder as a growth agent for pigs. Using earthworms to raise pigs, chickens, ducks, rice field eels and loach not only makes them grow quickly and gives good meat quality, but also costs less.  

3. Earthworms can also handle urban garbage and waste, purify the environment, accumulate fertilizer and so on, solving the difficult problem of garbage disposal in various urban districts. It can thus be seen that raising earthworms is also a good way to become rich. The workload of raising earthworms is not large; 1 person can manage about 3-4 mu of land. It is suggested that farmers can use their spare time to develop earthworm farming, which not only increases family income but also improves social benefits. 

It can thus be seen that raising earthworms with pig manure is a very good way to turn waste into treasure. In fact, before raising earthworms, it is necessary to fully understand the living environment and living habits of earthworms so as to raise them better. Do not underestimate the inconspicuous earthworm. In fact, it has many uses, and market demand is also very large. It can likewise create enormous wealth.