To Mr. Rene Abad, thanks for the e-mail. I was touched. Because earlier, I was contemplating suicide while I was examining my life as an extension worker.
Kidding!
Today, I would like to tackle FCR. It is feed conversion rate aka feed efficiency. Simply, it is the rate of conversion of feeds into additional body weight gain of pigs (or whatever animal you're growing). It determines the rate of your profit too.
An FCR of 3.0 means that for each kilogram weight gain, 3 kilograms feeds is needed. In other words, a piglet weighing 20 kilograms would be 80 kilograms after eating 180 kilograms of feeds.
Feed conversion is a function of many things but among the important things that should be considered are the following:
It is important that the feed you purchased is properly accounted for. Wastage must be avoided so appropriate feeders must be used to whatever stage of animals you are keeping. Pigs fed via the floors are not growing as they should be and that much of the feeds is wasted. For example, in a pen of 8 pigs, if 200 grams is wasted per pig per day, it’s already 144 kilograms in 90 days. That is already more than 2000 pesos in 90 days. Which makes gravity type round feeders cost efficient.
Ad libitum feeding is recommended for growing animals. This is to prevent starvation among the pigs at any time. Limit fed pigs grow slower than those fed ad lib. So it is not advisable to schedule feeding (like thrice or twice a day feeding) like most backyard raisers do. The observation that pigs are not digesting their feeds properly when given free choice is wrong. Pigs also control the quantity of what they eat. For example a pig would not be able to finish a bag of feeds in a day even if it is available. Pigs only eat the amount of feeds that would satisfy their daily energy requirement so even if feed is available throughout the day, they would only eat what they need. So it is really important to have feeders which can keep feeds clean. Most backyard raisers use troughs (labangan) which is good but it is a must that troughs have grills so that pigs would not be able to step or even urinate or defecate on the feeds.
It is also important to have fresh water at all times. Water is needed in the animal’s body at all times and must be available. Availability is a factor of water pressure and the cleanliness of the nipple drinkers. It has a direct impact on feed consumption so it should always be checked.
Another is the floor area needed. It is difficult to have an exact figure which could be used as guideline because the buildings that backyard raisers use vary. But generally, the hotter the place is, the larger the area needed. For example in our farm, the pens there could only comfortably accommodate 8 heads per pen. We have observed that if we placed 9 or 10 pigs per pen, one to two heads would not grow like the rest. There, we provide more than 1.5 square meters per pig. Appropriate adjustment must be made when the wall of the pen is concrete and the roof is low and without monitors.
As an enterprise, income in growing and finishing pigs is not dependent on the number of heads being reared. Even if only a few is raised if the feed conversion is good, income is almost guarantied.