Growing and Finishing to Market Weight

From weaning to slaughter, a pig eats far more than it ate in its whole life before that point. This is the phase that decides whether your farm makes money. Everything else - housing, breeding, medicine - matters, but feed is typically 60 to 70 percent of the total cost of producing a pig. If you get the finishing phase wrong, no amount of good breeding will rescue the margin.

The three phases

We split the period after weaning into three practical stages. The boundaries are not laws, they are working guides.

• Weaner (about 6 to 25 kg) - a fragile gut adjusting from milk to solid feed. The pig needs the most expensive feed it will ever eat, but in small quantities. Skimping here costs you weeks later.
• Grower (about 25 to 60 kg) - the pig is laying down muscle fast and converting feed efficiently. This is the best value phase in the whole cycle.
• Finisher (about 60 kg to market) - growth continues but the pig starts putting on proportionally more fat, eats more per day, and converts feed less efficiently.

Why efficiency falls as the pig grows

A young pig turns feed into lean meat. An older, heavier pig maintains a bigger body before it grows anything at all, and the tissue it adds contains more fat. Fat costs more feed energy per kilogram than lean meat does. So every extra week of finishing is more expensive than the week before it. That single fact drives the selling decision you will learn in Lesson 6.

Realistic targets

Market weight in most East and Southern African markets is commonly 85 to 100 kg live. A well managed herd on a balanced ration can reach that in roughly 5 to 6 months of age. On poor or irregular feeding, the same genetics take 8, 10 or even 12 months - and every one of those extra months is feed, labour and risk with no extra sale price at the end.

Be honest about which system you are actually running. If your pigs are reaching 90 kg at 9 months, do not write a business plan based on 5 months. Write the plan on your real numbers, then work on closing the gap.

Where the weeks disappear

Late pigs are almost never a mystery. In smallholder herds the usual causes, in rough order of frequency, are:

1. Feed that is low in energy or protein, or that changes every time the maize price moves.
2. Feed that runs out for a day or two at a time, so the pig repeatedly loses and regains condition.
3. Worms and mange quietly taking a share of everything you feed.
4. Not enough clean water, which directly cuts feed intake.
5. Overcrowding, heat stress and pens that are wet or muddy.

Notice that only one of those is about buying better feed. Three of the five are about consistency and management, and cost little or nothing to fix.

Think in cost per kilogram of gain

Stop thinking about the price of a bag of feed. Start thinking about what it costs you to put one kilogram onto a pig. A cheaper bag that gives poor gain can easily be the more expensive feed. You cannot see that from the bag price; you can only see it from weight and feed records. The next two lessons give you both tools.

You cannot manage what you do not measure, and almost no smallholder pig farm owns a livestock scale. The good news is that a pig's chest circumference is closely related to its weight, and a soft tailor's tape and a calculator will get you close enough to make good decisions.

What you need

• A soft, flexible tape measure in centimetres. A tailor's tape or a strip of string you later lay against a rigid tape both work.
• A calm pig standing square on level ground, head up in a normal position, not eating and not stretching.
• A second person if the pig is over about 40 kg.

The two measurements

Heart girth. Pass the tape all the way around the body immediately behind the front legs, over the highest point of the shoulder blades and under the chest. The tape should be snug against the hair but not squeezing. Read the number when the pig breathes out.

Body length. Measure along the top of the back in a straight line from the point between the base of the ears to the base of the tail, where the tail meets the body. Follow the curve of the back with the tape.

The calculation

With both figures in centimetres:

Estimated live weight in kg = (heart girth x heart girth x body length) divided by 14400

Worked example. A finisher pig measures 108 cm heart girth and 96 cm length.

1. 108 x 108 = 11664
2. 11664 x 96 = 1119744
3. 1119744 divided by 14400 = about 78 kg

So that pig is roughly 78 kg live and is not yet ready for a market wanting 90 kg.

How accurate is it

Used carefully, tape methods on pigs are commonly within about 5 to 10 percent of true weight. On a 90 kg pig that is a possible error of 4 to 9 kg. That is fine for tracking growth and for deciding when to sell. It is not fine as the basis of a payment, because the error can run either way. Never let a buyer pay you on a tape reading alone if a real scale is available.

Where it goes wrong

• Measuring a pig that is stretching, lying down or fighting the tape.
• A tape that has stretched with age, or string measured against a bent rule.
• Measuring straight after a big feed or a long drink, which inflates girth.
• Very fat or very thin pigs, and very young piglets, where the relationship shifts.

Build your own correction

This is the step most farmers skip and it is worth real money. The next time you sell pigs across a certified scale at an abattoir or a buyer's yard, tape each pig the morning before it leaves. Write the tape estimate beside the scale weight. After eight or ten pigs you will see a consistent pattern - for example your tape estimates might run about 4 percent light. From then on, adjust every estimate by that factor. Your tape becomes a calibrated tool for your genetics, your feeding and your hand.

Make it routine

Tape every pig, or a fixed sample of five pigs per pen, on the same day of every month. Record the date, the pig or pen number and the estimate. Those numbers feed directly into the growth and feed conversion calculations in the next lesson.

Two numbers tell you almost everything about how your growing pigs are performing. Average daily gain (ADG) says how fast they grow. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) says how much feed each kilogram of that growth cost. Together they turn feeding from a guess into a decision.

Average daily gain

ADG in kg per day = (end weight - start weight) divided by number of days

Example: a pig taped at 32 kg on 1 March and 59 kg on 30 April. Gain is 27 kg over 60 days, so ADG is 27 divided by 60 = 0.45 kg per day, or 450 grams a day.

In smallholder conditions ADG in the growing and finishing period commonly falls somewhere around 0.3 to 0.5 kg per day. Well managed herds on balanced rations commonly achieve 0.6 to 0.8 kg per day. Use the range as a mirror, not a target to copy blindly: your feed, genetics and climate all matter.

Feed conversion ratio

FCR = total kg of feed eaten divided by total kg of weight gained

A lower FCR is better. It means less feed per kilogram of pig.

Example: a pen of 6 pigs went from a combined 190 kg to a combined 355 kg over 8 weeks. Gain is 165 kg. Over the same 8 weeks the pen ate 22 bags of 50 kg, so 1100 kg of feed. FCR = 1100 divided by 165 = 6.7. That is very poor and tells you something is badly wrong - most likely feed wastage, worms, or feed being eaten by other animals.

In growing and finishing pigs, FCR commonly runs about 2.5 to 3.5 kg of feed per kg of gain in smallholder conditions, and better than that in well managed commercial herds. If your number is far above 3.5, investigate before you buy anything.

The number that actually pays: cost per kg of gain

Cost per kg of gain = FCR x price per kg of feed

This is how you compare two feeds honestly. Using clearly labelled placeholder prices, call your currency units CU:

Feed B looks 30 percent cheaper in the bag and is actually more expensive per kilogram of pig. You would never see that without records. Get your own real feed prices by phoning three suppliers today; do not use the placeholder numbers above for any decision.

How to record feed honestly

FCR is only as good as your feed record. Keep one feed log per pen. Every time you open a bag for that pen, write the date, the pen and the weight. Do not estimate at month end. If pigs from two pens share a trough, you cannot calculate FCR for either - separate them or accept that you are measuring the group.

Reading the diagnosis

• Low ADG, low FCR (efficient but slow) - the pigs are simply not eating enough. Check feeder space, water, heat and feed availability.
• Low ADG, high FCR - feed is being wasted or stolen, or the pigs are carrying worms, mange or disease. Investigate parasites first, it is the cheapest check.
• High ADG, high FCR - the ration is probably unbalanced, often energy heavy and protein light, so the pig eats a lot to grow.

A feeding programme is not a recipe. It is a plan that says what each group of pigs gets, how much, how often, and what you will do when an ingredient becomes too expensive. Write it down and it survives the day you are not on the farm.

Phase feeding

Feeding one type of feed from weaning to slaughter is simple but wasteful. Young pigs need a higher protein density; older pigs need more energy and less protein. Feeding finisher feed to weaners slows them down. Feeding weaner feed to finishers burns money.

• Weaner feed - highest protein and quality, fed from weaning to roughly 25 to 30 kg. Small quantities, so buying good commercial feed here is usually worth it even for a small farm.
• Grower feed - moderate protein, fed to roughly 55 to 60 kg.
• Finisher feed - more energy, lower protein, fed to market.

Change between phases gradually over about a week, mixing old and new feed, so the gut adjusts and you avoid scours and an intake dip.

Ad libitum or restricted

Growers up to about 60 kg are usually fed to appetite. They rarely get too fat and the extra intake buys you speed. From roughly 60 kg some farmers restrict slightly to control fat cover, but this only makes sense if your buyer actually penalises fat. If your buyer pays on live weight with no grading, restricting feed simply slows your sale down. Ask your buyer before you decide.

Feed intake as the pig grows

Daily intake rises through the finishing phase. A grower around 30 to 40 kg eats far less each day than a finisher near market weight, which commonly eats in the region of 2 to 3 kg a day. This is why the last month of feeding is the expensive one and why late pigs hurt so much.

Using local ingredients safely

Maize bran, brewers grain, sweet potato vines, cassava, kitchen and market waste, and forage crops all have a place. Four rules keep you out of trouble.

1. Bulk is not energy. Bran and forage fill a pig up before they meet its needs. A young pig has a small stomach and cannot eat its way to enough nutrients out of bulky feed. Keep bulky ingredients low for weaners and growers.
2. Protein is usually the missing piece. Cereal by-products are short on protein and on the amino acid lysine. Something must supply it - a soya or sunflower cake, a fishmeal, a legume, or a bought concentrate.
3. Some ingredients need treatment. Raw cassava and raw soya must be processed correctly before feeding. Feed them raw and you can cause serious harm. Follow the specific preparation guidance for each ingredient.
4. Never feed uncooked swill containing pork or pork products. This is one of the main routes by which African Swine Fever gets onto farms. Module 11 covers this in full. In several countries swill feeding is also illegal - check your national rules.

Consistency beats perfection

A moderate ration fed every day at the same times beats an excellent ration fed erratically. Every gap in feeding costs you compensatory days later. Buy in a way that keeps a buffer: aim to always have at least a week or two of feed in store before your current supply runs out.

Write the plan

Your written programme should say, for each pen: which feed, how many kg per pig per day, how many feeds per day, who feeds, and the exact trigger to reorder. Pin it on the feed store wall. Anyone standing in for you should be able to feed correctly by reading it.

Farmers spend a great deal of thought on feed and almost none on water, space and heat. Yet these three silently cap growth on many farms. Fixing them usually costs less than a single bag of feed.

Water is the first feed

A pig that cannot drink will not eat. Feed intake tracks water intake closely. Growing and finishing pigs commonly need in the region of 5 to 10 litres a day, and more in hot weather or on dry feed. A useful working rule is that a pig drinks roughly two to three litres of water for every kilogram of dry feed it eats.

Practical points that matter more than the exact number:

• Water must be available all day, not just at feeding time. A pig that drinks only twice a day eats less.
• Clean it. A trough with faeces in it is a disease route and pigs drink less from dirty water.
• Check nipple drinkers by hand every day. A blocked or weak nipple can starve a whole pen without any visible sign until growth records drop.
• Position drinkers away from the sleeping area so spillage does not wet the bed.

Space

Overcrowding causes fighting, tail biting, uneven growth and disease spread. As a working guide, finishing pigs approaching 90 to 100 kg commonly need somewhere in the region of 0.8 to 1.0 square metres each of solid pen floor, with less needed for smaller growers. Check your own country's welfare or licensing rules, which may set a legal minimum.

The visible test is simple. Watch the pen when the pigs are asleep in normal weather. If every pig can lie flat on its side without lying on another pig, and there is still floor to spare, space is adequate. If they are stacked and squeezed, you are overstocked.

Feeder and trough space

Even with enough floor, too little trough length means the smallest pigs eat last and grow slowest. That is where uneven pens come from. Every pig in the pen should be able to reach feed at the same time unless you are using a well managed self feeder. Uneven pigs at sale time cost you real money because the small ones hold the whole batch back.

Heat

Pigs cannot sweat. In much of East and Southern Africa the middle of the day is a growth brake. Signs of heat stress are panting, pigs lying spread out on wet floor, reduced feeding during the day and increased night feeding.

What actually works:

1. Shade over the pen, and roof insulation or a second layer of thatch on hot roofs.
2. Open sides oriented to catch the prevailing breeze; avoid solid walls that trap air.
3. A wallow or a wetted section of floor for outdoor and semi-outdoor pigs, kept separate from the sleeping and feeding area.
4. Feed the largest meal early in the morning and again in the cool of the evening rather than at midday.
5. Plenty of cool drinking water, refreshed during the hot hours.

Dry beds

A pig that sleeps wet spends energy on staying warm at night and is at higher risk of pneumonia and lameness. Slope the floor, keep bedding dry, and separate the dunging area. Most pigs will dung in a chosen corner if the pen layout lets them; work with that habit rather than against it.

Do the walk

Once a week, stand at the pen and check five things: water flowing and clean, every pig able to reach feed, dry sleeping area, no pig limping or gaunt, and no pig obviously smaller than the rest. That five minute walk protects the feed you already paid for.

Selling too early leaves weight and money on the table. Selling too late burns feed on a pig that is barely growing. The decision is not a feeling - it is a small calculation you can do on a page.

The core question

For each extra week you keep a pig, ask: does the extra value it gains exceed the cost of the feed it eats plus the risk of keeping it? When the answer turns to no, sell.

The four numbers you need

1. Current live weight. From your tape estimate in Lesson 2.
2. Current ADG. From your records in Lesson 3. This tells you how much weight another week will add.
3. Cost of a week of feed. Daily intake in kg x 7 x your real feed price per kg. Phone three feed suppliers for the real price.
4. Your buyer's price basis. Per kg live weight, per kg dead weight, or a flat price per pig. This changes the answer completely.

Worked example with placeholder prices

These prices are invented for the arithmetic only. Replace every one of them with prices you get by phoning three local buyers and three feed suppliers this week.

Pig at 82 kg live. ADG 0.5 kg per day. Intake 2.6 kg per day. Placeholder feed price 10 CU per kg. Placeholder buyer price 25 CU per kg live weight.

• Extra weight in 7 days: 0.5 x 7 = 3.5 kg
• Extra revenue: 3.5 x 25 = 87.5 CU
• Feed cost of that week: 2.6 x 7 x 10 = 182 CU

The week costs 182 CU and earns 87.5 CU. On these placeholder numbers you should sell now. Notice what drives this: when the price per kg is lower than roughly the feed cost per kg of gain, holding the pig destroys value. In this example the cost per kg of gain is 182 divided by 3.5 = 52 CU, well above the 25 CU per kg the buyer pays.

The flat price trap

Many local buyers offer a flat price per pig within a weight band. If a buyer pays the same for a 75 kg pig and a 95 kg pig, then every kilogram above 75 kg is feed you gave away. Under a flat price, the profitable move is to sell at the bottom of the band. Ask the buyer for the exact band boundaries before you plan a batch.

Live weight versus dead weight

Abattoirs commonly pay on carcass, or dead, weight. Dressing percentage is the carcass weight as a share of live weight, and in pigs commonly falls in the region of 70 to 80 percent depending on whether the head, trotters and offal are included and on the condition of the pig. Confirm exactly what your abattoir includes.

To compare a live price with a dead price: dead weight price x dressing percentage = the equivalent live weight price. For example a placeholder dead weight price of 35 CU per kg at a 74 percent dressing yield is equivalent to about 25.9 CU per kg live. Now the two offers are comparable.

Other things that shift the date

• Seasonal demand. Holidays and festive periods often lift prices. Plan farrowing and finishing so pigs are ready then, not two weeks after.
• Disease risk. If there is African Swine Fever in your district, a finished pig standing in your pen is a large amount of money at risk. Sell finished pigs promptly.
• Pen space. Holding a finished pig delays the next batch. Count the lost throughput as a real cost.

Build the table

Make a simple table with your own numbers: weight, ADG, weekly feed cost, weekly revenue gain, and a sell or hold column. Update it monthly at weighing. Once it exists, the decision takes two minutes and stops being an argument.