What are the six fatal weaknesses commonly found in family-farm-style pig farms?
Since backyard raisers withdrew in large numbers, family farms have sprung up rapidly and become the main force in the pig market, occupying more than half of it. But many of their farming concepts have not undergone a fundamental change, so they have not truly escaped backward production methods. In most cases they work hard to no avail, sinking deeper and deeper on the road to wealth through farming and unable to stop, and they will inevitably face another transformation! Only those who are good at learning can keep improving and keep up with the times; sticking to the old ways and standing still is bound to fail.
Since backyard raisers withdrew in large numbers, family farms have sprung up rapidly and become the main force in the pig market, occupying more than half of it.
The pace of scaling up exceeded what most people expected, but if we look carefully, it is not hard to see that these farm owners are none other than the mid-to-large backyard raisers who have grown up. The apparent difference is that their farming sites have moved from around the house to relatively separate courtyard-style pig farms. They have left behind traditional farming methods, adopted modern farming equipment, and greatly increased their numbers of animals, and many have moved from the old model of buying piglets to fatten to the farrow-to-finish model.
But many of their farming concepts have not undergone a fundamental change, so they have not truly escaped backward production methods. In most cases they work hard to no avail, sinking deeper and deeper on the road to wealth through farming and unable to stop, and they will inevitably face another transformation!
Looking across family-farm-style pig farms, we find that they share these fatal human weaknesses:
Gambling——the gambling habit remains
In China, the lower a person's level, the more willing they are to gamble, and even if they lose everything they never think gambling is what ruined them; they only blame heaven and others, feel their luck is too bad, and at the same time deceive themselves into believing that fortune will soon turn and they will get rich overnight! In farming, gambling is the last thing you should do, especially for small and medium-sized farms, which cannot afford to lose, and the vast majority of people cannot win! The result is inevitable: when you are losing money, the pens are full of fat pigs, and when you are making money, there are no pigs to sell.
What small and medium-sized farms should do right now is: immediately adjust their profit model for farming, set a bottom line for scale, stick to a balanced strategy, do not expand blindly, and earn the normal profit the industry deserves, rather than gambling on the market to make big money.
Stinginess——making money through low costs
The biggest advantage of a family farm is absolutely not low cost, but refined management! The biggest bottleneck for large enterprises is personnel management, while the problems of small enterprises mostly come from disorderly operation. Small and medium-sized enterprises often lag in their thinking and always want to make money by saving, refusing to invest in improving production efficiency, which keeps production levels low and actually makes the unit production cost higher.
Indeed, smart people do not spend money wastefully, but wise people spend money where the return is high, and foolish people refuse to spend money at all. Anyone who tries to achieve big things with little money will fail. There is also another type of person who will not make it: the one who is only willing to spend money on themselves, is unwilling to spend money on employees, and is even less willing to invest in the pigs. So the source of competitiveness for small and medium-sized enterprises is absolutely not low cost, but the high level brought by lean management. The so-called low cost of small and medium-sized farms is misleading, caused by errors in financial accounting, and it is fake!
Greed——losing big for small gains
Many farm owners are the local clever ones, and by playing petty tricks they often gain small advantages. Once you take shortcuts too often, you no longer want to walk the straight path, and once you stumble, all your previous efforts are wasted! An enterprise must make money based on its own operation and management. The mistaken idea that "a horse grows fat only on night grass, a person grows rich only on outside windfalls" has ruined countless clever people. There is no more reliable way to make money than running things properly. Greed is "today's shell," focusing only on immediate gains while losing long-term gains without even realizing it. Being honest, doing things steadily, and earning money through hard work is the wisest choice for people at our level.
Delusion——taking on what is beyond you
Farm owners are currently the group in the industry chain with little capability and poor experience, yet many of them have chosen farrow-to-finish, the most difficult farming model. How could they possibly succeed? Wasting manpower and money and getting half the result for twice the effort naturally ends in failure! I believe 80% of farrow-to-finish farms need to transform into specialized fattening farms or multiplier breeder farms, and only a few high-level ones can keep this model. We farm owners should clearly recognize what we make money by. If it is by labor, then we can only choose to buy piglets to fatten or become the fattening farm of a large integrated company. If it is by technology and management, then we can choose to keep sows and sell piglets. If it is by strong operational and management ability, then we can choose farrow-to-finish. You must know that what kind of ability you have determines what kind of money you earn! Few people can do whatever they want; ordinary people can only do what they are capable of. Ordinary people mainly succeed in two ways: one is following the right person and doing the right thing, and the other is doing what you are good at to the extreme!
Laxness——too much arbitrariness
This mainly shows in daily operation and management having no rules, lacking scientific systems and procedures, and orders changing from morning to night at whim. The pig farm is as messy as the home! I often say that what kind of person you are determines what kind of pigs you raise; there is nothing wrong with the pigs, only with the people. In fact, what is more frightening than messiness is slackness. Behavior that does not respect scientific knowledge will inevitably make diseases hard to control and then make it impossible to continue. The larger the scale, the deeper the harm of laxness.
Laziness——unwillingness to learn on one's own initiative
The vast majority of farm owners are not unwilling to work hard; they are afraid of learning. Some people studied little in the past or did not do well enough, and grew weary and fearful of studying; this is understandable. But there are many paths and ways to learn, and you need not be bound by form. Only those who are good at learning can keep improving and keep up with the times; sticking to the old ways and standing still is bound to fail. The more you lack, the more you must step out and broaden your horizons; the more confused you are, the more you must invite others in and humbly and patiently seek advice. The desire to improve has nothing to do with age, and the more you work at learning ability, the stronger it becomes.
Since ancient times, those good at war are not necessarily good soldiers; a general's decisive battle is not only on the battlefield! As farm owners, only by cultivating ourselves and enduring, completely bidding farewell to gambling, stinginess, greed, delusion, laxness, and laziness, and establishing correct values and sound business thinking, can we complete our own upgrade and transformation and complete the change from farmer to boss. Only then can we step out of the smallholder mentality and become modern new-type entrepreneurs with the ability to run things in an industrialized way!