18/10/2016
Hog raising is one of the most lucrative home businesses that you can easily start with, especially if you are living in a home with a wide backyard. Hogs can be used for various purposes: they can be sold in as pork meat in the market, or processed into cold cuts, or traded live for those who are into the roasting business.
Starting a hog business at home doesn’t require a big capital, compared to other forms of entrepreneurial ventures. All you need are a few things, such as patience and perseverance, and the passion for raising animals, as eventually you can integrate other farming ideas with your already existing hog business.
Purchasing piglets
When raising hogs, you need to start with piglets. You cannot take adult hogs under your wing anymore because they already have bigger needs in terms of feeding and maintenance, so you’d have to start with the young ones.
There are basically two generic breeds of hogs that you can raise, the foreign and native ones. Foreign hogs are those with light pink with black patches and high hooves, while the native breeds are those with black complexion. Native hogs grow bigger but have tough meat, thus they ideal for breeding with other variants instead of being sold for their carcass. However, if you are raising hogs for meat produce, you can go with the foreign breeds instead.
One-month old piglets are usually the ones sold for raising. They cost somewhere between Php 2,000 to
Php 3,000 per head, depending on the breed, age and gender.
If you have a big space to raise hogs, such as a small farm, then you can go and start with 10-20 heads; however, if you are a newbie in the hog business, then you can start with one to two hogs first until you learn how to take care of them efficiently.
Constructing the den
Starting a hog business at home doesn’t require a big capital, compared to other forms of entrepreneurial ventures. All you need are a few things, such as