Hog, Pig, Swine Raising in the Philippines
It's interesting, fun and a learning experience when raising a few pigs. Raising few pigs may also provide some income on a small scale for families who live on a bigger lot.
Pigs grow fast. They grow from about 3 pounds at birth to market weight at 225 pounds in about 6 months. It takes some 10 months from the time the sow conceives until her pigs reach market weight.
They can be sold alive at a livestock market or perhaps processed into pork for home use at a local livestock slaughtering facility. The most important products from hogs are hams, roasts or lechon, chops, bacon, and sausage.
Swine raising is a very popular enterprise in the Philippines because of backyard producers which dominate the swine industry and a healthy viable commercial sector. Despite the crises facing the swine industry (such as the spread of foot-and-mouth disease), still many people are venturing in this enterprise.
BREED OF SWINE
There are many imported breeds in the country today and its sometimes difficult to determine the best breed most suited to our conditions. Here is a guide to help you select the breed to raise depending on your purpose, money and experience.
1. Yorkshire or Large White
- It is heavy and is all white. The face is slightly couping and its ears are erect. They grow fast and give you high quality meat. They have string legs, are excellentmothers, have good character and wean from 10-12 piglets to a liter. It fine for them to be confined, have very good growth rate, and high feed conversion ratio.
2. Land-race
-White, short-legged and has medium to large drooping ears. Sows have excellent mothering ability and litter size. They are heavy milkers thus they produce pigs with superior growth rate and feed utilization efficiency. When crossed with other breeds, they produce pigs of highly acceptable carcass quality. However, they can't adapt to rugged conditions because of their weak feet and legs. Such defects should be corrected by proper selection and breeding.
3. Duroc
-The Duroc color is of varying shades of red. The sows are prolific and are good mothers. They produce pigs that are superior in growth rate, feed conversion, and "their performance under rugged conditions is better than any of the white breeds.
4. Hampshire
-Hampshire are black with a white belt around the shoulder and body. They are generally short legged and lack body thickness. The sows have a reputation of weaning a high percentage of the pigs farrowed and are able to adapt to very rugged conditions. The growth rate, however has generally been average or below.
5. Berkshire
-Berkshires are black with six white points -four white feet, some white in the face and tail. The ears are erect and inclined forward as the animal grows older. They are known for their style, meatiness and good adaptability to rugged conditions. They have desirable length, depth and balance ofbody but lack good growth and efficiency in converting feed to weigh gain. The sows are not as prolific as the other breeds.
6. Pie train
-The Pietrain is a very meaty type of pig with spotted black and white color. It has well-shaped hams, loin and shoulders. Ears are erect, The carcass has a high lean meat percentage, but it has a poor body constitution. Feed efficiency is not really good and they are a little bit slow grower. This breed is also highly susceptible to stress. Thus, Pietrain is only worthwhile in crosses but not as pure breeds.
Characteristics of the Different Breeds of Pigs
BREED, COLOR, EARS, TYPE, COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, OBSERVATIONS
1. Landrace - White, Hanging, Meat, Denmark, "Long face, good mothers, weak legs, prolific\"
2. Large white - White, Standing, Meat, England, "Fertile, high quality meat, fast grower\"
3. Bershire - Black w/ 6 white points, Standing, Meat, USA, "Short, black skin, more resistant to diseases compared to white breeds\"
4. Hampshire - Black with white bands Standing, Meat, USA, "Short, good quality meat, strong legs\"
5. Duroc - Jersey Red (golden), 2/3 erect, Meat, USA, "Good constitution, strong legs, fast grower, resistant to stress\"
6. Pietrain - Black & white, Standing, Very meaty, Belgium, "Very meaty ham and very suscep-tible to stress"
SELECTION CRITERIA
When selecting breeder sows on the basis of physical appearance, consider the following:
•The gilt should have well-developed udder with a minimum of six pairs of properly spaced function teats. A sow with poor udder development is likely to have poor milking capacity-
•Choose those which do not have inverted teats for such teats are inherited and do not secrete milk.
•A long body is more desirably in sows because it provides more space for udder development.
•The body should have uniform width from front to rear.
•Good development of the ham, loin and shoulder is required of a breeding animal.
•Must have sound and well-placed feet and legs. Animals with medium short feet and short upright pasterns are preferable.
•Make it a point to select the biggest animals within a litter.
•Female breeders should come from a litter of eight or more good-sized piglets with high survivability.
•Do not keep gilts that come from sows in which agalactia (failure to secrete milk) have been observed.
•Select vigorous and hardy pigs from a healthy litter in a herd raised under good swine sanitation. Do not keep gilts or boars nor breed from litters that have physical abnormalities. These may be inherited.
Most of the factors discussed in connection with a selection of gilt or sow also apply in the selection of a boar. However, the following pointers should also be considered:
•Masculinity, both in appearance and action, should predominate in the make-up of any boar.
•The primary sex organs should be clearly visible and be well-developed. Select only those boars whose testicles are of equal size.
•Select However, the best is to select a boar which has been proven and tested for boars with traits that can overcome the defects of the herd. Minor defects in the boar may be ignored provided that they are not present among the sows.
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