That is so sad Mikey. I hope you could be able to get back at it again. I've heard of OFW's coming home with the hope of returning home expecting a lucrative business upon their retirement. Unfortunately, similar stories about heartbreaking goings on back home usually happen. But there's still a bright side. Your barn houses must be double in cost if it were constructed today. One thing good about the high investments in hogs are the fixed assets that continue to appreciate despite the loss in the operation itself. Pump in cash again & u'r back in business. This is how i look at my business if in case this venture flops.

But my biggest concern however is that in hog raising, the feeds that traders sell are out of proportion! Their prices are unbelievably incredible. It's like your feeding pigs with gold! I don't blame any hog raiser to end up broke!  ???If there's anything that should be done is to STOP buying from them and go back to the basic creation of our own feed formula.  >:(I have made more than 10 comparisons & you can reduce the prices of feeds if you grow it from your farm. In this way, hog mash producers should revise their prices. I have already been trying this in the past 11 months with several hogs. My first litter produced 9 healthy piglets.

I guess, if I would look at my investment, if the land has no utang, that in itself is not an absolute loss. Land appreciates & that's where the real pork is. Hogs are just good for cash flow. Para hindi tayo magugutom while waiting for the price of land to appreciate. I've heard of someone developing his 15 har property, pouring in millions of pesos to his hog farm. After 5 years, it went broke. But apparently, he's recovering. He converted it into a subdivision and sells houses instead.

I've posted a mash formula that I have to pursue in the next 3-4 months because these are the only raw materials both my land can produce & what I can buy from the local store at somewhat reasonable prices. Dr. Nemo posted it & I was forced to reinvent it from there. The reason why some ingredients are missing is because local stores no longer sell the raw materials for a long time. They have shifted to premix formula, which WILL NEVER be financially viable. So i renovated it in the hope that I could make some profit. I wish somebody would give sound advises before I complete the purchase of this formula. I'm preparing this formula next week good for 20 hogs.

I just hope it works out with my mini-micro hog farm. You can have a look at it in the topic Feed formula.... or something like that title

Hello Doc,

   I guess I have to just improvise with whatever is available in the market. I did a little cost analyses and have come up with this. I am about to experiment this with 10 piglets as Grower Mash formulation. I'd really appreciate anyone who can comment on this. There is a very big disparity in the price vs. that which is available in the market, whether it is in the form of Premix or outright ready to feed Grower Mash.

   Likewise, I just have to know by February if my piglets reached 85 kilos by then.


Ingredients (kilos)               Weight (kg)   % Constituency   Price per Kilo   Amount
  Corn RRC-2                      394.80             26.32%              11.60           4,579.68
  Rice bran                         389.85             25.99%               4.00           1,559.40
  Copra meal                       345.45            23.03%              16.75           5,786.29
  Processed Sorghum           123.30              8.22%               24.00           2,959.20
  Molasses                          88.80               5.92%               20.00           1,776.00
  Processed Soya beans        73.95               4.93%               32.00           2,366.40
  Ipil ipil                            49.35               3.29%                 5.00             246.75
  Fish meal                         24.60               1.64%                11.00            270.60
  Premix                              4.95               0.33%               750.00          3,712.50
  Salt                                 4.95               0.33%                 20.00             99.00

Total                             1,500.00          100.00%                                 23,355.82
No. of Sacks (50 kg)   30.00         
Cost per 50kg sack   467.12         

Thanks again Doc Nemo

[we have to be taught/ educated how to process our feeds]

The instant I read your reply awhile ago, everything makes sense already. Thank you Doc Nemo. Now I know exactly what I should be doing & wished that I took up chemical together with mechanical eng'g.

Cost cutting in business is the only solution. I am convinced that should farmers be given the opportunity to be able think of ways of avoiding expenses, the profitability of any agri venture they place themselves into is not difficult to achieve.

I am concerned especially of my plight for the reason that I have about 10 farmers displaced because they chose not to continue with the DAR's program PD 27/RA 6657. They have discovered that they cannot survive in their farms without our help as land owners. The expensive operational cost in managing farms made them run to usurious loan sharks, consequently make them run into a lot of trouble. Some no longer are possessors of their awarded land because their mortgaged land have been foreclosed. Their Emancipation Patents Titles are just mere shits of paper.

Apparently me & some faithful farmers are faced with these dilemmas. With the prevailing prices dropping down to 50%, we cans hardly make ends meet. It is obvious that a 25-35% profit margin is expected. But with a staggering 50% loss, I really do not understand how they could pay up their loans. If there's anything worth doing in this beautiful property, that is we have to be taught/ educated how to process our feeds (instead of buying these at expensive prices) from the land we grow our produce. Thus,our chances of business survival would be more of a thriving venture. I have to admit, unless we could avail of millions of pesos in capitalization, we would never get our farms to become financially viable. Such wonderful place would just remain empty and useless. Loaning money is not an option. Doing so is like signing a death warrant.

Doc, if it is not difficult to do, would there be any chance you can teach us how we could process these so we can come up with reasonable prices with our feeds without compromising the growth of our hogs? Can anyone, suggest what we can do? I really pity my remaining farmworkers because they have been very loyal & industrious people whom my Dad worked with before he passed away.

Thanks

[for every 50kg]

Ooops. Sorry. "The price for milling them is only P30per kg in our local mills". This should be "The price for milling them is only P30 for every 50kg (for every sack of corn) in our local mills".

Thanks Dr. Nemo. I really appreciate you redirecting me to the site. I have several questions that emanated from your formula. Btw, I grew up in the city and barely have hands on in the agriculture endeavor. When I knew that I had land to use, I fell in love with it & for 2 years of putting up projects, I am not without challenges.

Doc, I took the liberty of putting a % constituency for the formula you posted for so that I could make a cost analyses for every ingredient you have posted. I am an engineer by profession & it has been helpful to do things by the numbers. Anyway, here it is. I hope that by the time I post this table, it could still be understood.



Grower Mash      
Protein content  16%      
Fiber content     7.98%      
      
Ingredients (kilos)      
                         Weight (kg)      % Constituency
Corn bran                 400             20.00%
Rice bran                  395            19.75%
Copra meal                350            17.50%
Yellow corn               135              6.75%
Sorghum                   125              6.25%
Meat and bone meal   105              5.25%
Pollard                     100              5.00%
Molasses                   90              4.50%
Corn grits                  90              4.50%
Soya bean meal          75              3.75%
Ipil ipil meal                50              2.50%
Corn germ meal           50              2.50%
Fish meal                   25              1.25%
Addmix                        5              0.25%
Salt                            5              0.25%
                                _____    __________
Total                       2000        100.00%
Volume or Equivalent No. of Sacks (50 kg)   40sacks   
      
Now, for the questions:

1. Supposing I could come up with all the ingredients I presume that Grower Mash has to be introduced. How much of his Mash should I place for every 200 kgs feeds?      
      
2. What's the difference between Corn bran, Corn germ meal & Yellow corn? I am thinking to combine these 3 materials. The price for milling them is only P30per kg in our local mills. From our local crop, I will have corn milled by way of grinding them in local mills to a fine texture, similar to rock salt sizes (halite size). My simple (and admittedly naive) understanding would somewhat look like this:
      
Ingredients (kilos)      
                                  Weight (kg)   % Constituency
Corn  (local produce)            585                 29.25%
Corn bran                            ____                0.00%
Rice bran                            395                19.75%
Copra meal                          350                17.50%
Yellow corn                         ____                0.00%
Sorghum                             125                 6.25%
Meat and bone meal             105                  5.25%
Pollard                               100                  5.00%
Molasses                             90                  4.50%
Corn grits                            90                  4.50%
Soya bean meal                    75                  3.75%
Ipil ipil meal                          50                  2.50%
Corn germ meal                   ____                 0.00%
Fish meal                             25                  1.25%
Addmix                                 5                   0.25%
Salt                                     5                   0.25%
                                       _____               __________
Total                                2000                100.00%
Volume or Equivalent No. of Sacks (50 kg)   40   
      
Doc Nemo, would I still achieve the same constituency as you have posted in http://pinoyagribusiness.com/forum/feed_formulation/grower_mash_formulation-t687.0.html?
      
3. Lastly, how do I process copra meal from the copra our farm produces. Would it be safe to say, get a sack of dried copra, boil it and have it served together with the above formula?

I guess this will be all for now. I still have more questions; probably next time would be great to post them after hearing from you.
   

Too bad. I was looking forward to a kind of real-life drama unfolding. Whether it continued/s to be a success or a bad ending I believe would really be beneficial.

I'm putting up a farm on the next town where Sara was planning to locate. I started small about 2 years ago, but I'm hesitating to go full blast. On the other hand, what attracts me though are the prices of raw material like corn and rice bran which are way way cheap in that area. I could really use some suggestions since the land could be a good source of feeds for hog and poultry pioneering entrepreneurship. Can anyone post a good feed material percent constituency using crops direct from the land? Like Sara, indigenous materials like lumber and bamboo could temporarily be used until such time a good ROI could be achieved coupled with a consistent market -then, just like what's being advised, go full blast! With these indigenous matl's and cheap labor, I have come up with only 1/4th (thereabouts) the cost of construction of hog houses posted in one of the topics discussed here. Last July, I planted  and my corn crops yielded a double turn-over considering that prices of corn dropped to P7.50 per kilo because of the crop glut. But as soon as the glut fizzles out, a whopping P13 per kilo is being offered! Problem is, no corn would be available by then in the market. Likewise, fish meal is P10 in the local market. In short, the properties in that area have promising prospects. I could say it does because in spite of the devastation that typhoon Frank brought about, in just a year, one could be able to recover its losses.

My family just got a decision from the DAR -30 hars to be exact last 2007 exempting it from the CARP program because of its terrain of above 18% slope. 2 creeks traverses this steep property ending up in a river adjacent to the entire property. There are several springs in that barangay, so much so, that if one taps & engineers wisely, water will be a free-flowing supply to poultry/hog houses. The property is just adorable and I don't know where to begin. And it's too bad we haven't heard from Sara. I imagine he too has something like this.

Anyway, it would be nice to hear from Sara, you know, how his prospects turned out.

Hello everyone,


It's been about 2 years now since Sara & company has updated this topic. Any news about his business? Has it prospered?

Thanks

Hello Nemo,

I'm interested to know if this is the same machine that i could use for pellet production for my pigs? So far, corn and rice husk (the ones edible for pigs that is sometimes called bran) are very common & available commodity in our place. I am planning in venturing to plant surgum and soy beans since my pigs have been in a steady diet of corn & rice husk only. May i ask how I could be able to avail by way of purchase this machine.

gunder

Thanks for the pdf files. I might just as well start on my own backyard.

Thanks

Thanks for the video feed Nemo. It was very interesting. Yes, that was hydroponics indeed. But there is such a thing called aquaponics which I suppose is a derivative of hydroponics. So what would you say about this in terms of viability –say the economics of it? Would this be rewarding in terms of alleviation to our daily demand for veggies?

The recent typhoon Frank devastated the entire island of Panay. What I really want to say here is that because of such devastation, the middle income going down to the poor could no longer easily afford to buy vegetables. My mom gave a heavy sigh when I arrived home this evening about the rising prices of commodities. She told me that the prices of vegetables that used to be costing her P100.00 in the wet market down at La Paz is already P300.00. This is very alarming considering that land over here is very fertile, not to mention 2nd in rice production next to the Central Plains of Luzon! My mom is an advocate of vegetable diet. That's probably one reason why cancer or hypertension has not been a big issue in her side of the family. Our country having been a dumping site in the past 2 decades of disease causing food in canned goods, synthetic sweeteners and the like by these rich and advanced countries.

Take for example aspartame. This has been the culprit of cancer in laboratory mice! It is being banned in other countries -but not in our country. As a matter of fact the manufacturer -ajonomoto, sold aspartame as the only ingredient as a sugar substitute. This among others are being drained in our bodies like as if we are invulnerable to these diseases! And the worse is multinational chain stores sprawled all over this country has brought about these food items and a generation or two has developed a passion and taste for these well-advertised poisonous food! What's happening? Are we just going to give up our children to this disease causing ready-to-eat food?

So to everyone out there, I am pleading, especially those who have degrees or to say the least courses in agriculture to input in this message board ways whereby we could have alternative means of  availing cheap source of vegetables in the area of hydroponics/aquaponics.

And as for my friend's aquaponic/hydroponic project, I have seen pictures of his set-up before Frank devastated everything he has worked hard for in this project he had set up. What interested me most was that everything in this endeavor has no synthetic/chemicals are incorporated! Everything is organic. I wish he would rebuild what was lost.

Lastly, I hope that we could make this not just a source of nutritious vegetables but also a handsome & attractive method of landscaping our yards.

Once again Nemo, thanks. I really wish we could be able to extract more info about this subject

gun

Hello Everyone,

I am apparently getting tired of beating around the bush with regards to the monetary returns of my business in the agricultural side. Let's face it, the high cost of living that is proportionate to the crazy economics of raising pigs, chicken and all these livestock animals will have difficulty surviving considering the cost vis-à-vis the prices we sell these in the market.

I suppose it’s just a matter of time and many of us will close shop!

However, I happen to meet a farmer friend asking my opinion about pumps. Bringing up the matter to light, he told me that his new (& crazy) hobby was aquaponics. Believe you me, even Microsoft Word underscored this word with a red line. He showed me several pictures he has accomplished in his backyard & I was almost convinced that my friend is going mad!

Apparently, if it weren’t for his track record of being a genius (having finished # 9 in the nursing board exam without enrolling at a review center) I would have dismissed his project as a work of an insane person.

But what the heck, I sat down for 30 minutes, and my-oh-my this guy was indeed talking sense!

I suppose somebody in this forum must have some idea about what this is all about!

Thanks

Gun

Hello everyone,

May I ask from anyone in this forum your best designs that you can recommend for a forrowing pen designed for fattening and breeding? I agree there are risks in raising piglets, especially the suckling ones without this equipment. I also need to know their dimensions & perspective view if it wouldn't be too much to ask.

Thanks a lot -gun