The demand for chicken meat and eggs is growing daily. Here in South Africa we dont have enough chicken farmers, as a result the chicken meat is
being imported from other countries. The chicken farming industry is full of challenges, on the next page we look at few chicken farming challenges.
Starting a chicken farming business
You do not have to be rich to start a chicken farming business. I always advice my clients to start small and grow with the business.
The returns on chicken farming can be quick depending on how you structured your business.
What is a chicken farming? Before we define what a chicken farming is, let us look at what a chicken is.
What is a chicken?
A chicken (Gallus domesticus) is a domestic bird that cannot fly (edit: some can fly a short distance), chickens have different breeds, some chickens are good for meat those are called broilers,
chickens that are good for eggs are called layers. We will look at the difference between broilers and layers later on.
Piggery farming is when people breed and raise pigs for selling and consumption. Pigs are very clean animals. They like prefer clean environment. They dont pop where they eat and sleep.
Piggs differs per breeds, there have unique characteristics, some of those:
Some pigs grows faster than others
Some pigs grows bigger than others
Some pigs are good for becon
Some pigs are good for pork
Some pigs have highest lean meat
Breeds differs on feed conversion efficiency
Feed conversion efficiency
If a pig breed eats less but gain too much muscle, that breed is feed efficiency. Pigs that converts feed into fats are called Lard Pigs.
Pigs that converts feed into meat are called Bacon pigs or Meat Pigs.
Is pig farming profitable in South Africa?
Raising pigs is a profitable business for both small scale piggery farmers and commercial piggery farmers. The demand for pork is growing everyday.
You can be millionare out of piggery farming, read the story of a Anna Phosa ,a South African piggery farmer who became a millionare.
Piggery farming tools and equipments
Below is a list of Piggery farming tools and equipments that are needed for piggery farm:
Heat lamps and bulbs for warming your swine on cold days
Semen catheter this is a tube for inserting the semen into a gilt/sow.
Boar semen collection equipment is a dummy pig where a boar climbs and releases the semen
Bedding is a material that you will put on swine farm floor. This could be a straw, mulch hay or cornstalks.
Wet feeding is when farmers mix food with water.
Dry feeding is when pigs are given feed that is not mixed with water.
When practicing a dry feeding you must make sure you also provide them with water. Many famers will dry feed a pig,
when it is ready to be sold they will start to wet feed it,
they believe that the pig will gain a big stomach when given wet feed. The advantage of a wet feeding system is that digestibility is improved.
What is izithakazelo noma iziduko? izithakazelo means our clan names,
izithakazelo contains a list of important people that founded tribes many years ago,
izithakazelo are our praises, we all know that zuma is also called umsholo,
that is not his nickname but that is his isithakazelo for zuma surname,
there is trick though a zulu woman is never refered by a surname instead you append ma infront of a surname,
an example: a woman with zuma surname as his birth surname will be refered as MaZuma,
our blog is full of zulu surnames and xhosa surnames,
browser through and find isithakazelo zakini.
Uzozidinga izithakazelo uma usuthumela abakhongi.
Zibalulekile zidlala indima enkulu kuthina ma africans izithakazelo.
