How this course works
Every module has six written lessons, a five-question knowledge check, and one written capstone piece. Work through them in order: modules 1 to 7 are the breeding business, modules 8 to 12 are the growing-to-market business, and skipping either half leaves real gaps.
These are written lessons, not video lessons. Approximately 43,794 words of teaching text, plus checklists, tables and quizzes. Lifetime access.
The twelve modules
The Business of Pigs
This module treats pigs as a business rather than a hobby. You will learn how the pig's biology sets the pace of your cash flow, how to check a real m
Breeds & Genetics
This module explains what breeds and breeding actually deliver on a smallholder farm, and what they cannot fix. You will learn the strengths of the ma
Housing & Biosecurity
This module shows you how to build pig housing that does its job with local materials and modest money, and how to keep disease off the farm once you
Breeding and Heat Detection
This module teaches you how to get sows and gilts pregnant on purpose instead of by luck. You will learn to read the signs of heat, run a twice-daily
The 114 Days - Gestation Care
This module covers the whole pregnancy, from confirming she is in pig to moving her into the farrowing pen. You will learn how to feed her through thr
Farrowing - The Birth Itself
This module covers the hours around birth, which is when most piglets are won or lost. You will learn what a normal farrowing looks like, how to tell
The First Three Weeks - Piglet Care
Most piglets that die on a farm die in their first three weeks, and most of those deaths happen in the first three days. This module gives you the exa
Weaning and the Nursery Stage
Weaning is the hardest day of a pig's life. It loses its mother, its milk, its pen and its litter mates all at once, and its gut has to switch from mi
Feed and Nutrition Across Every Stage
Feed is typically 60 to 70 percent of the cost of producing a pig, so nutrition is not a technical side topic, it is the business. This module teaches
Growing and Finishing to Market Weight
This module covers the stretch of a pig's life where most of your money is spent and most of it is made: from weaner through grower to a finished mark
Health, Disease and Biosecurity in Depth
This module treats disease as a business risk to be managed, not an accident to be suffered. You will build a physical and procedural barrier around y
Records, Marketing and Growing the Business
This module turns a pig enterprise into a business you can steer. You will set up the five records every pig farmer needs, convert them into a small s
The numbers this course is built on
- Gestation is fixed by pig biology at 114 days (three months, three weeks, three days), regardless of breed or country.
- Pre-weaning piglet mortality typically runs 10 to 20 percent, and can reach 25 percent in poorly managed systems. Crushing by the sow is the single biggest cause, responsible for roughly half of liveborn deaths.
- A sow returns to fertile heat 4 to 7 days after weaning if she is in good body condition. This wean-to-service interval decides how many litters she gives you per year.
- Smallholder litters in East and Southern Africa commonly run 10 to 14 piglets born. Well-managed commercial herds elsewhere reach higher.
- Feed is typically 60 to 70 percent of the cost of producing a pig.
- African Swine Fever has no vaccine and no cure. It can wipe out a herd in days. Biosecurity is not optional reading, it is survival.
Sources: peer-reviewed swine research, the Merck Veterinary Manual, and smallholder pig surveys from Uganda, Nigeria and southern Africa. Figures are ranges. Your herd, breed and management will move them. Verify against your own vet and local extension officer.