So you want to raise pigs?

Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
Pork, the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig, is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide. It is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved. Curing extends the shelf life of the pork products. Hams, smoked pork, gammon, bacon and sausage are examples of preserved pork.
By-products of pork have varied uses. Pigskin, for instance, is used for the manufacture of shoes, razor strops, belts and other leather goods. The inedible fat (excluding lard) is utilized in the manufacture of soaps, animal feeds, lubricants, leather dressing, candles, fertilizer, shaving cream, and chemicals.
Hair from hogs also has uses: toothbrushes; mattresses and upholstery for furniture, cars, and passenger airplanes; air filters; baseball mitts; and parachute seat pads.
A number of pharmaceutical products are made from swine glands. Physicians are known to use insulin, liver extract, and other medicines, made in whole or in part from hogs’ glands. They use these preparations to treat people afflicted with diabetes, anemia, and arthritis.
The collagen of connective tissues like sinew, lips, head, knuckles, feet and bones is made into glue and gelatin. Gelatin is used in canning hams and other large cuts and in baking, ice cream making, capsules for medicine, coating for pills and photography.
There are several strengths of the country’s swine industry, according to The Philippines Recommends for Pork Production. These are: relatively large, stable and continuously increasing pig population that is well distributed throughout the country, large and continuously increasing domestic market for pork, high utilization of pork relative to other animal products, and well-organized private industry players.
Other strengths of swine industry include easy access to good genetics and state-of-the-art technologies on swine production, feed milling, and other related activities from both local and foreign sources. Likewise, entrepreneurs, farm managers, and practitioners are technically equipped.
 
Advantages
The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARD) of the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Agriculture, and some non-governmental organizations are batting for raising pigs as it is a profitable venture. Among the reasons cited are the following:
· From the standpoint of the efficient production of meat, pigs are superior to cattle, goats, or sheep when the feed they are eating is of a high quality. However, when the feed is of lower quality, swine is not as efficient as ruminant livestock.
· Pigs are voracious eater of crop by-products, offal of livestock and poultry, kitchen leftovers, restaurant refuse, and grain damaged by rain or fire. Pigs convert these efficiently into pork.
· Pigs of all classes, except young piglets, can tolerate all kinds of feeds, even (to some extent) low quality, highly fibrous foods. Pregnant sows can be fed with freshly cut forage or corn soilage mixed with a small amount of protein food concentrate to reduce cost while improving the sow’s reproductive efficiency.
· Pigs can produce two litters per year or as many as five litters in two years.
· Pigs can contribute a considerable amount of fertilizing manure to the soil. A mature pig can produce 600 to 700 kilograms of manure annually. The nitrogen content of fresh pig manure ranges from 0.55-0.6%; the phosphate content, 0.5%; and the potassium content, 0.4%.
The Philippines ranks third to China and Vietnam in terms of pig production in Asia, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Other top producers of pigs are Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia.
As of July 1, 2014, the country’s total swine inventory reached 11.98 million head, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reported. This was 0.68% higher than in 2013 inventory of 11.96 million head. Stocks in backyard farms went up by 0.94 percent. Likewise, stocks in commercial farms grew by 0.22% against the 2013 level.
About 65% of the total stocks were raised in backyard farms and 35% were in commercial farms. “During the first half of 2014, total hog production was 966.00 thousand metric tons liveweight,” BAS reported. “It was 1.02% higher than in 2013’s level of 956.25 thousand metric tons liveweight.”
 
Prospects and downside
Zoilo M. Lapus in a feature which appeared in a website, pig333.com, cites several prospects and shortcomings of pork industry in the Philippines. Among those that were mentioned:
Animal health: The Philippines was declared free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination in 2011. “It signaled the hope that we could start the export of pig meat and breeder animals to other countries. However, we are still held back by a complete clearance on Ebola virus, even if the latter was proven non-pathogenic and not similar to the African epidemic,” Lapuz wrote.
As in the previous years, the country has to address other health problems that include PRRS, hog cholera, PCV2 and associated diseases, porcine epidemic diarrhea, porcine respiratory disease complex and other viral, bacteria, and parasitic problems.
“About 20% of the value of swine production is due to diseases, estimated at P107.6 billion, of which about 19% is lost due to gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases,” wrote Dr. Aleli A. Collado in an article.
Breeders: “The breeder market will continue to be lucrative as the commercial sector is projected to increase while the backyard raisers slowly diminish,” Lapuz wrote. “Filipino backyard raisers, however, will continue to thrive for cultural reasons. There will be greater demand for pig semen due to higher landed costs of live breeders.”
Meat imports/exports: The data from the Bureau of Animal Industry showed pork as the biggest meat import commodity. “The global trend of increasing free trade has sent fears that imported frozen pork poses a big threat to the local pig industry. This also becomes a sensitive issue to local producers due to the problem of pork smuggling,” Lapuz wrote.
 However, globalization should be seen as opportunities to local pig producers. “The large number of overseas Filipino workers is a big potential for common Philippine dishes as canned pork products,” Lapuz said. “Importation of pork bellies, however, could remain strong due to the strong urbanized demand for bacon and pork barbeque.” 
However, the PCAARRD suggests that to enhance its global competitiveness, “the government should work with the private sector in providing the livestock sector with policy reforms on importation, trade, pricing of inputs and support in terms of technology and infrastructure.”
Aside from those mentioned above, there are other issues that need to be addressed. Take feeds, for instance. Feeds constitute almost 80 percent of the production expenses of swine production. “For this reason, it is highly important that economical as well as nutritionally balanced diets are provided during all phase of the life cycle,” wrote W.G. Pond and J.H. Maner, authors of Swine Production in Temperate and Tropical Environments.
The pigs should be given rations appropriate for their ages and their physiological conditions. If these are considered, good animal performance is ensured and unnecessary expenses are avoided. In addition, punctuality and regularity of feeding will have to be observed strictly.
 
Free-range production
Although backyard raising of pigs is still practiced in most parts of the country, there is a method that is gaining acceptance: that of free range. This is a method of allowing pig to grow with their own instinct and natural behavior with the approach of science into management that are applicable between the farms and farmers. 
Although not yet widely practiced in the country, free-range pig production is not new. It was thought to be originally done by our ancestors by raising them in their backyards. Curiously enough, other countries are already developing free-range pig production by adapting the systems from United Kingdom, Australia, France, Denmark, Japan, and United States.
Given the country’s limitations in terms of area and financial assistance, Aris Santos in Pangasinan believes that he can raised free-range pigs using other approaches and methods which can help protect the natural resources, improve profits, help rural communities as well as produce quality meat thereby giving quality healthy life to producers and growers.
In a technology guide, Lorry B. De Jesus reported that a free-range pig production with “the Japanese concept of a happy pigs approach” is being developed at AO Santos Farms in San Quintin, Pangasinan. Pigs are simply released on the ground at about their growing stage. Feeds are based on the usual formulation used in his breeder farm but without the use of antibiotics.
“I got the idea from my previous trainings that we can do outdoor production to specify free-range pigs that allows animals to grow with their own instinct and natural ways,” Dr. Elmer Vitug, the farm’s on-call veterinarian was quoted as saying. “I readily applied that concept in the farm and with good results, we know that it has a potential.”
A study done by Dr. Oliver D. Abanto, it was found that the free-range condition provided the animals a diverse environment which allows them to have more body activities or exercise, thus utilizing energy for work and muscle deposition rather than fat development. More so, the exercise may result in excellent meat color due to higher muscle pigmentation and the resulting resistance of the animal to stress during transportation and animal handling prior to the slaughter. However, the exercise may also result in development of larger muscle fibers and more connective tissues causing toughness in meat.
“In general, the meat of the animal tested is leaner, has bright reddish color, good flavor but moderately tough. However, these observations are just indications and not yet conclusive since data were only taken from one animal, and the animal used was still relatively small (76 kilograms). The result may vary in animals weighing 100 kilograms or more,” Abanto reported.