What are some practical ways to reduce pig farming costs?

Choose good breeds and focus on disease prevention. For large-scale pig farming, you must choose and raise "three-way" crossbred piglets. The best are Landrace and Large Yorkshire pigs with a long body, broad front chest, short snout, full hindquarters, and thick, strong legs that compete for feed. They need only about 160 days to reach 90-100 kg, which can shorten the fattening period by 20-50 days. Every spring and autumn, vaccinate the pigs on time with the "triple vaccine," which can effectively control the three major diseases of swine fever, swine erysipelas, and swine pasteurellosis, reduce mortality, and relatively reduce feed consumption.

Raise in pens by group and by stage. After 60 days of age, piglets should be raised in separate pens, with 2-3 pigs per pen, to prevent them from using energy by playing and chasing each other outdoors. During the open period and the first 80 days of pregnancy, sows can be fed mainly green feed, high-quality roughage, and distillers' grains, with only about 1 kg of concentrate added daily. One month before farrowing, feed 2-3 kg of concentrate daily. In this way, while ensuring normal fetal development, each pregnancy of a sow can also save 60-90 kg of concentrate feed.

Castrate early and breed early. Castrating male piglets at 30 days of age and female piglets at 40 days of age increases weight by about 15% compared with the customary castration at 60 days of age, and the wounds heal faster. Weaning piglets at 40-45 days instead of 60 days can promote earlier estrus and earlier mating in sows, shorten the open period, and relatively save feed.

Deworm often and care for the stomach. Deworm piglets for the first time at 60 days of age, and then once every 2-3 months. Give each pig 15-20 mg per kg of body weight of morantel or tetramisole, mixed into feed once, to expel internal parasites. If there are pig lice, mix 0.1 kg of salt, 10 mL of kerosene, and 20 mL of warm water, and apply it evenly to the pig's body surface to kill the insects. At the same time as deworming, dissolve 1 kg of quicklime in 5 kg of water per pig, take the clear liquid on top and mix it into feed, feed twice a day for 2-3 consecutive days to wash the stomach and remove various internal parasites. One week later, grind 1 tablet of rhubarb soda tablet per kg of body weight (no more than 15 tablets maximum) into fine powder, divide it into 3 portions, and mix into feed to strengthen the stomach. In this way, each pig can gain 10-15 kg and the fattening period can be shortened by 25-40 days.

     First, persist in raising first-generation crossbred pigs. First-generation crossbred pigs have strong vitality, grow quickly, and give good raising results. The new "three-ization" technology of improved boars, local sows, and first-generation crossbred piglets should be widely promoted.
Second, persist in feeding mixed feed. According to the nutritional needs of pigs at different growth stages, persist in using complete mixed feed, which is comprehensive in nutrition without waste and has a low feed-to-meat ratio.
Third, implement protective rearing. In summer and autumn, planting bottle gourd, large gourd, squash, sunflower, and other plants outside the pigsty can provide shade and lower the temperature. In winter, promote plastic warm-shed rearing technology, and regularly carry out deworming and immunization injections.
Fourth, change from the "hanging frame" fattening method to linear fattening. Traditional "hanging frame" fattening divides the pig's fattening period into several stages and uses a combination of concentrate and roughage to fatten the pig according to each different stage. This method uses a single type of feed, has incomplete nutrition, cannot meet the pig's growth needs, and results in slow pig growth, a long feeding cycle, and a low slaughter rate. If a linear fattening method with a higher nutritional level is used for piglets after weaning through to slaughter-ready hogs, it can effectively shorten the fattening period, increase the slaughter rate, and raise economic returns.
Fifth, supply sufficient clean water. Lack of water affects pigs' appetite, digestion, and normal growth, thereby reducing feed utilization.