Pig Farming

Who it is for. Beginners with no formal certificate, including school leavers, farmers who already keep a few pigs, women's groups and persons with disabilities. National Proficiency I is the first level of Ghana's TVET framework.

Why pig farming

• Pigs can be kept in three ways: free-range (scavenging), semi-intensive (housed, fed by the keeper) and small-scale intensive (fully housed, bought feed, sold to a market). Beginners are advised to start semi-intensive, with good housing and good feeding for a small group of healthy pigs.
• Ghana's pig farmers sell pigs by weight. In November 2023 the Pig Farmers Association of Ghana set farm-gate prices of GH¢30 per kg live weight and GH¢45 per kg carcass from 1 December 2023; this price is old, and prices in towns are higher because of transport.
• A pig sow carries her young for about 114 days and a well-managed pig reaches 90 to 100 kg in under 200 days from birth. That is a fast cycle compared with cattle or sheep.

How the module works

Each unit has learning outcomes, performance criteria, the range and the evidence your assessor needs. You are judged Competent or Not Yet Competent. About 70% of the time is practical, following CTVET's Oil Palm programme split of about 30% school and 70% workplace.

For mixing feed rations, this module points you to the Hub's Animal Feed Formulation manual, which has pig recipes from creep feed to lactating sow feed. For biogas from pig manure, see the Hub's Bio Digester Technology manual.

Competency standard

Range. Pigs of different ages on a partner farm. Evidence. Oral questions; a stock-selection checklist filled in; observed safe behaviour.

Words you will use

In Twi a pig is prako.

The breeds

• At a Ghana breeding station, Ashanti Black pig litters averaged 7.5 piglets, with a birth weight of about 1.0 kg and a weaning weight of about 6.2 kg at 42 days.
• Crossing local pigs with Large White and Landrace gives faster growth and bigger pigs, but the crosses lose some of the local pig's ability to eat fibrous feed and to resist disease.
• "Improved" breeds can do well, but they make high demands on feed quality and careful care. As a beginner, a Large White × Landrace cross or a local cross is a sensible start, if you can feed it well.

Choosing healthy stock

Buy breeding stock only from a trusted farm. Look before you pay:

Staying safe around pigs

1. Wear boots, overalls and gloves. Keep a pair of boots that never leave the farm.
2. Wash hands with soap after every visit to the pen, and before you eat.
3. Never get between a sow and her piglets, and never go into a boar's pen alone. A sow about to farrow may bite. Boars and sows with piglets can be dangerous; this is common farm experience, not checked in a source, so work only with an experienced handler.
4. Use a pig board (a flat board held low) to guide a pig. Do not kick or beat pigs.
5. Keep children away from the pens.
6. Pigs can pass diseases to people. Brucellosis in pigs can be passed to humans. Pork tapeworm passes to people who eat raw or undercooked infected pork, and its eggs can cause cysts in the human brain, "the most frequent preventable cause of epilepsy worldwide". Cook pork thoroughly and keep pigs penned.

Check yourself 1

1. What is the difference between a gilt and a sow?
2. Name one strength of the local Ashanti pig and one of the Large White.
3. Why must you never buy cheap pigs from an area where pigs are dying?

Competency standard

Range. One pen on the partner farm; a pen sketch. Evidence. Pen sketch with sizes; daily cleaning checklist; water check record.

Why house pigs

Housed pigs put their energy into growing, more piglets survive, hygiene is easier, feeding can be controlled and manure can be collected.

Pigs have no sweat glands, so they cannot cool themselves by sweating. Strong sun burns pale pigs. A pig's normal body temperature is about 38.5 °C, and above 41 °C a pig dies.

In Western Region heat, the job is to keep big pigs cool and newborn piglets warm.

Choosing the site

The parts of a good pen

1. Roof. Use local roofing. Leaves insulate well but rot fast; iron sheets last longer and are cooler if covered with leaves. Put the long slope of the roof against the wind and rain, with a good overhang.
2. Walls. In the tropics keep walls low, about 1 metre, with an open space between wall and roof for air. Block or cement walls cost most but last longest; if cement is short, use it for the floor first.
3. Floor. Concrete is easiest to clean. It must not be so rough that pigs scratch, nor so smooth that they slip. Raise the floor slightly and slope it so urine runs from the sleeping area to the run and into a drain and pit.
4. Bedding. Dry rice straw, sawdust or dry leaves in the sleeping area; never leaves of the castor oil plant (Ricinus), whose seeds are poisonous.
5. Run and wallow. A walled pen with an outside run suits the tropics. A shallow cement water bath, about 20 cm deep for sows, helps pigs cool down; guard piglets from drowning and clean it often.
6. Trough. Long enough for all pigs in the pen to eat together. Do not keep big and small pigs together, or the weak ones go hungry.

Pen sizes

Tools and materials (where to buy)

Water

• Pigs must have clean water all day. A pig that does not get enough to drink eats less and grows less.
• A growing pig drinks about 2 to 3 kg (litres) of water for each kg of dry feed. A sow can drink 15 to 25 litres a day.
• Water should be low in dissolved salts (under 1,000 ppm). Use the same safe water you would drink.

Daily cleaning routine

1. Put on farm boots and step through the footbath.
2. Look at every pig first (eating? lying normally? breathing quietly?). Write anything odd.
3. Remove dung and wet bedding with a shovel into the wheelbarrow.
4. Sweep the floor towards the drain. Wash the run if water allows.
5. Empty and clean any feed that is left, mouldy or sour.
6. Scrub the drinkers and refill with clean water.
7. Add fresh dry bedding to the sleeping area.
8. Wash tools and hands. Record the clean in your logbook.

Manure: a resource, not rubbish

• Pig dung and urine are good fertiliser. Heap the dung and let it rot, kept moist and turned, before putting it on crops.
• Pig dung makes biogas: about 0.040 to 0.059 m³ of gas from each kg of fresh dung. See the Hub's Bio Digester Technology manual.
• Never let manure or run-off flow into a well or stream. A digester should be at least 30 m from a well and downhill of it; keep manure heaps at least as far.
• In Sekondi-Takoradi, letting effluent run into public drains carries a fine.

Check yourself 2

1. Why do pigs need shade and a wallow?
2. How much floor space does a 70–105 kg pig need?
3. Why must the floor slope?

Competency standard

Range. Pigs of all stages on the partner farm. Evidence. Feeding record for one week; oral questions.

Feed is money

About 60% of the total cost of producing pork is spent between 20 kg and market weight. Feed is "the largest single expense" of a pig farm.

Which feed at which stage

The rations are in the Hub's Animal Feed Formulation manual (Unit 3, Recipes 10 to 15). Buy a good factory feed, or mix one of those recipes exactly.

• Weaners need a protein-rich feed, about 20% protein; most pigs need at least 13%.
• Give the best feed to pregnant and nursing sows and to newly weaned piglets.
• Lactating sows eat more if fed wet feed, in 2 or more meals, in the cool parts of the day.

Change feed slowly

Weaned piglets must not have a sudden feed change. A sudden change of diet is one cause of scour. Mix old and new feed over about a week.

Keep feed safe

Kitchen waste and swill: the ASF gate

ASF spreads when pigs eat material contaminated with the virus, such as food waste, feed or garbage. The virus survives in pork products such as ham, sausages and bacon.

Check yourself 3

1. When must a piglet get colostrum?
2. How much should a lactating sow with 10 piglets eat a day?
3. Why must you never feed kitchen waste that has meat in it?

Competency standard

Range. Sows and gilts on the partner farm; one farrowing if possible. Evidence. Heat check record; farrowing calendar; observed piglet care.

When to breed

• Gilts can conceive at about six months, but wait until they are grown, at about 8 or 9 months if well fed. Mating too early gives small litters and birth problems.
• Young boars should first mate at 8 to 10 months, once a week at first.
• A sow that is not pregnant or nursing comes on heat for 2 or 3 days about every 3 weeks.
• A sow usually comes back on heat within one or two weeks of weaning.

Spot the heat

Check each sow and gilt twice a day, morning and evening, some time after feeding.

1. Look at the vulva: red and swollen, more clearly in gilts.
2. Watch the group: other sows mount the sow on heat.
3. Test the standing reflex: the clearest sign is when the sow stands still and accepts the boar. Your trainer will show you this with the boar nearby.
4. Record the date and time in the sow's page.

Mating

• In hot weather heat is shorter and harder to see. If in doubt, mate twice: at the end of the first day and at the start of the second.
• Mating takes 5 to 20 minutes. Do not disturb the pigs but watch them. Do not put a heavy boar on a light sow.
• Three weeks after mating, check very carefully for heat again. No heat usually means she is in-pig.

Farrowing date

Gestation is about 114 days (112 to 115), or "3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days". Write the expected date in a calendar the same day you mate her.

Getting ready for farrowing

1. About one week before the date, move the sow to her own farrowing pen, cleaned and disinfected first.
2. Ask your vet about worming her and treating lice and mange before she goes in; the vet chooses the product.
3. Wash her with soap and lukewarm water.
4. Give plenty of dry bedding for a nest.
5. Fit crush rails: a rail along each wall, 15–20 cm from the wall and 15–20 cm above the floor, so the sow cannot lie on piglets against the wall.
6. Make a warm, dry creep corner for piglets that the sow cannot reach. If you have power, a heat lamp in that corner helps.
7. Have ready: clean towels or cloths, a bucket of clean water, soap, a torch, a record sheet and the vet's phone number.

Signs that farrowing is near

• In the last 14 days the udder grows firmer and the teats stand out.
• About a day before, the udder reddens, milk can be pressed from the teats, and the sow is restless and builds a nest.
• Sows usually farrow at night or in the evening.

At farrowing

1. Stay close but quiet. A sow may not want people near.
2. Piglets usually come every 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Dry each piglet with a clean cloth and put it on a teat at once, so it drinks colostrum.
4. Clear the membrane from the nose and mouth if it has not broken.
5. Keep the piglets warm in the creep corner between feeds.
6. Count piglets born alive and dead. About one in 20 is still-born normally.
7. The afterbirth usually comes 30 minutes to an hour after the last piglet.

The first days

• Navel care: the vet or your trainer may show you how to dip navels in iodine to stop infection.
• Iron: sow's milk lacks iron and piglets on concrete become anaemic in 2 to 3 weeks. In intensive systems iron injections are often given in the first days, and the vet sets the product and dose. A shovel of clean soil from a place where no pigs have been, put in the pen each day, is a cheap help.
• Teeth clipping and castration are cutting acts. At this level you watch only; the vet or a trained person does them.
• Crushing: most early piglet losses happen when the sow lies on them. Crush rails, a creep corner and dry bedding help.
• Creep feed from about 7 days (Unit 3).

Check yourself 4

1. Name three signs that a sow is on heat.
2. How long is a pig pregnancy?
3. Name two things that stop the sow lying on her piglets.

Competency standard

Range. One litter at weaning; one pen of growers. Evidence. Weighing record; completed record book; calculations.

Weaning

• Piglets are weaned between 3 and 6 weeks. Small farms in the tropics often wean later, at about 8 weeks; the Ghana breeding station in the study weaned at 42 days. Your trainer and vet will choose for your farm.
• Take the sow away and leave the piglets in their own pen; they keep their familiar nest, and the sow comes on heat sooner.
• Keep the same creep feed until the weaners reach about 10 kg.
• Keep each litter together in one pen.
• Give feeder space of 6–7 cm per weaner.

Growth targets

These figures are for Large White × Landrace crosses. Local pigs grow more slowly.

• Pigs are sold at 75 to 110 kg; well-managed farms reach 90 to 100 kg in under 200 days from birth.
• Never keep big and small pigs in the same pen; the weak ones go hungry.

Two sums every pig farmer uses

1. Average daily gain (ADG) = (weight now − weight before) ÷ number of days.
2. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) = kg of feed eaten ÷ kg of weight gained. Lower is better.

How to weigh a pig

1. Use a hanging scale with a sling or crate for small pigs, or a platform scale for big pigs.
2. Set the scale to zero with the empty crate or sling.
3. Move the pig calmly with a pig board. Never lift a big pig alone; work in twos.
4. Read the weight when the pig is still. Write it at once with the pen number and date.
5. Weigh at the same time of day each time, before feeding.

Records

Keep a notebook with a few pages for each sow:

Mark pigs so you can tell them apart. Ear notching (cutting small notches in the ear edge in a code) is cheap but is a cutting act; ask the vet or a trained person to show you. Ear tags need special pliers.

Check yourself 5

1. Why take the sow away at weaning instead of moving the piglets?
2. How do you work out daily gain?
3. A pig ate 30 kg of feed and gained 10 kg. What is its FCR?

Competency standard

Range. The partner farm. Evidence. Daily health check record; biosecurity checklist; oral questions on ASF.

Healthy or sick?

Taking a temperature: your trainer will show you with a digital thermometer in the rectum, about 5 cm deep for a pig, tilted so the tip touches the wall.

The main problems you will meet

• Worms are among the most serious threats to pigs, especially outdoor pigs and young piglets. Clean pens daily. The vet sets the worming programme, often including the sow about a week before farrowing.
• Mange and lice cause itching and skin damage. Some old treatments, such as lindane, are very dangerous to people; use only what the vet prescribes.
• Scour (diarrhoea) in piglets can come from germs, dirty or mouldy feed or a sudden feed change.
• Anaemia in piglets (Unit 4).
• Heat stress: panting, lying in water, not eating. Give shade, water and a wallow.
• Trypanosomiasis, spread by tsetse flies. A 2024 study in two forest-zone districts of Ghana found the parasite in about 46% of pigs tested.

Biosecurity: keep disease out

"Biosecurity" means stopping germs getting in, spreading inside, or getting out. Follow these rules every day:

African swine fever (ASF)

• There is no treatment and no vaccine. The virus survives months in carcasses.
• ASF does not infect people and is not a risk to human health. But it can destroy your farm and your neighbours' farms.
• ASF must be reported. Ghana's Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83) requires owners to notify the authorities of animals that have died or are suffering from a disease, and lets veterinary authorities order isolation, disposal and movement controls. Countries must notify WOAH of ASF cases.

What the vet decides

Meat from a pig recently treated with antibiotics must not be eaten or sold. The withdrawal period is on the product label and the vet will tell you; write the safe-to-sell date in the health record.

Buy medicines only on the vet's advice, and only FDA-registered products with a registration number and expiry date.

Check yourself 6

1. Name four signs of ASF.
2. What are the first three things you do if you suspect ASF?
3. Who decides which wormer or vaccine a pig gets?

Competency standard

Range. The trainee's own plan. Evidence. Costing sheet; one-page business plan.

Selling and slaughter: the rules

• Under the Public Health Act 2012, no one may use premises to slaughter animals for selling the meat unless the premises are registered by the District Assembly, and where an area has a slaughterhouse, animals must be slaughtered there; the Assembly may give special permission for good cause.
• The Veterinary Services carry out meat inspection in slaughterhouses together with the FDA.
• Sekondi-Takoradi charges a slaughter fee per pig and fines people for slaughtering animals at unapproved places and for stray pigs.
• Meat inspection protects buyers from pork tapeworm and other diseases.
• During a disease outbreak the Veterinary Services can ban the movement, slaughter and sale of pigs. Moving pigs without cover documents can lead to arrest.

Who buys pigs

• Pork butchers and slaughterhouse dealers, chop bars and "khebab" (kebab) sellers, households at Christmas and festivals, other farmers buying weaners or breeding gilts.
• The Pig Farmers Association of Ghana holds an annual pork awareness event, Porktober, and announces farm-gate prices.
• Sell by weight, not by guess. Buyers pay by the kg.

What does one porker cost? (all figures are examples)

Location settings that give good returns

Small business ideas and ingenuity

Start small. Experts advise inexperienced farmers to grow step by step, because intensive pig farming needs major investment and carries great risks without experience.

Marketing yourself

1. Choose a farm name and keep a neat record book: buyers trust records.
2. Post clean photos of your pens and healthy pigs on WhatsApp Business. Never post photos of sick pigs or dead pigs.
3. Sell by weight, with a written receipt.
4. Keep a phone list of regular buyers and tell them two weeks before pigs are ready.
5. Join a pig farmers' group to share transport, buy feed in bulk and hear about disease alerts early.

Accessibility: a farm for everyone

Persons with disabilities have equal rights to work under the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715). Many pig farm tasks can be adjusted. This table is design advice from the course author, not from a source; check each task with the person's own wishes:

Check yourself 7

1. Where must pigs be slaughtered for sale?
2. Which cost is usually the biggest in raising a porker?
3. Name one farm task suited to a wheelchair user and one adjustment.

1. Name the three pig breeds in this manual and one feature of each.
2. Why do pigs need shade and water to cool down?
3. How much floor space does a 35–70 kg pig need?
4. How much water does a growing pig drink for each kg of dry feed?
5. When does a piglet need colostrum, and when does creep feed start?
6. Why must you never feed swill with meat in it?
7. How often does a sow come on heat, and for how long?
8. How long is a pig pregnancy?
9. Name three things to prepare in a farrowing pen.
10. A pig gained 21 kg in 35 days. What is its daily gain?
11. What are the six steps if you suspect ASF?
12. Where must pigs be slaughtered for sale?

Best next reads: Agrodok 1, Pig keeping in the tropics; the Hub's Animal Feed Formulation, Animal Health Assistant and Bio Digester Technology manuals.

What this module does not cover: medicine doses, vaccination schedules, castration and other cutting acts, artificial insemination, pork processing, and running a large commercial piggery (see Levels 2 and 3).

Every source used in this manual is listed, with links, in the Teacher Copy.