How much water do pigs need to drink? In hot weather they go to the watering point and seem to be looking for more water. Is giving them water once or twice a day enough? They tend to knock containers over and waste water. What is the best way to…
Brian Musonda (57) runs a mixed farming operation on his 10ha small-scale commercial farm outside the Copperbelt town of Ndola. An engineer, who graduated from, a German Polytech, Brian has spent the greater part of his working life in the engineering sector. At some point he realised that farming was a…
The right balance in a pig's diet is the key to successful feeding and profitable pig farming, whether they are free-ranging or penned. Pigs are monogastric omnivores like humans, and cannot digest the amounts of fibre that ruminants thrive on. They eat a combination of plant- and animal- based ingredients. There…
One experienced pig farmer unlocks the potential of aspirant pig farmers, and farm workers, by using the pig farms of his clients as his classroom. He takes his teaching to where it makes a real difference to people and pigs. Elder Phiri (50) of Chilanga, Lusaka, spent 30 years working…
He’s a white collar worker who left the comfort of a corporate job to toil on a farm. And engineering graduate Gyavira Bwalya (49) is one of several farmers to do just this. Farming is Gyavira Bwalya’s first love, and he had no choice but to divide his time between…
Question: Do pigs get diseases that can be transmitted to other livestock, such as sheep and goats? The majority of pig diseases affect only pigs, and can’t be transmitted to other livestock. Even with diseases that occur in many species – sarcoptic mange or colibacillosis (E coli) for instance –…
I have started pig farming with five six-month-old females and a nine-month-old boar. I don’t know very much about pigs and would like to find out about pig breeding. I’ve read that females should be eight months old and of a decent weight before breeding and that the boar should…
Plan carefully and put a business model together for pig farming. Funding should be enough to set up the piggery and cover the running costs for at least a year. Profit is not immediate because of the investment costs. Even the best planned and implemented commercial projects experience a lag…
Mange is caused by a mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, that lives in tunnels in the pig’s skin. It feeds on skin cells as it tunnels into the pig’s epidermis. Adult mites burrow into the skin and lay eggs, and develop through stages from larvae to nymphs and adults. Pigs are infected…
Piglet and sow health will be key to your pig farming operation. Here are some basic signs to look out for. Check that the head, body and limbs of the piglets are all a normal shape. Healthy piglets move after they’ve been born. They struggle to free themselves from the…
A small-scale commercial farmer training programme gives farmers a chance to enhance their skills and equip themselves for the commercial market. The Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Authority (TEVETA) in Zambia, recently launched new programmes to help small-scale farmers in the commercialisation process. “The main purpose of these programmes is…
