Michael Wanyoike took up pig farming as a last resort, but through trial and error and his sheer determination to learn, Kongoni Pig Farm is a key supplier to leading meat processor Farmers Choice.
He was a greenhorn then. Today, however, he is a self-taught expert whose work is attracting national attention. In the world of pig rearing, his name has continued to feature prominently since he first scooped the Farmers Choice sponsored Baconer of the Year trophy at the Nairobi International Trade Fair. He has emerged the best for three years consecutively, beating a host of others, including some with vast experience in piggery.
These awards are proof of the wealth of experience he has gained in the past five years on pig rearing. Top pig dealers in the country, Farmers Choice have remained his valued customer, whom he supplies with top quality pork. Returns from his investment are equally handsome. He sells 50 pigs every month, raking in Ksh700,000. He is now planning to take it to a higher level.
“I am working towards becoming the pioneer pig breeder in the country. It is unfortunate that for years now, pigs have been ignored with all energy and resources being directed to cattle, yet we all know that globally, pork is the most consumed animal product while beef is ranked third,” says Mr Wanyoike.
He describes the pig as being among the most misunderstood animals. The general misconception is that the pig is dirty. Unknown to many, this omnivorous animal ranks among the cleanest and most intelligent animals on earth.
“I have heard people argue that they fear venturing into piggery because the market is unstable. On the contrary, pork consumption is on the rise, not only in tourist hotels but in villages and estates where pork joints are competing for attention with the traditional beef and mutton butcheries,” he observes. The success Mr Wanyoike is enjoying is the culmination of a journey that dates back to the post-election violence of 2007/2008. He had just retired from the British American Tobacco (BAT), where he served as human resources director. A few years earlier, he had bought 45 acres of land in Isinya, Kajiado County, and wasn’t sure how to go about it. He started beef rearing, with 12 cattle, which he intended to fatten and sell to butchers. Six months into the project, all the animals were stolen at the height of the post- election crisis. This made him think about a project that would not be vulnerable in Kajiado County, a region mostly inhabited by pastoralists who attach much value to cattle.
“The idea of keeping pigs came into my mind as rustlers are never interested in them. With only some minor renovations, I converted my cattle sheds into pig sties,” explains Mr Wanyoike.He bought six sows and a few weeks later, brought in 30 weaners. He thought then that little care was needed as the animals enjoy soiling themselves in the mud.
He would pay dearly for that mistake.The pigs suffered from mastitis and diarrhoea. He realised he had made a bad start but was not about to give up. He cleared the entire sickly herd and went for the second trial, buying three pregnant gilts.This time, Mr Wanyoike sought all the necessary information from experts and visited Farmers Choice. He was assigned extension officers to visit his Kongoni Farm at Isinya. This interaction with Farmers Choice marked the beginning of Mr Wanyoike’s road to success. “Over the years, I have come to learn not only to treat pigs, but also to control the various pests and diseases. Diarrhoea remains the biggest threat, especially to piglets. Keeping the pig clean and ensuring that it stays in a hygienic environment is the surest way to keep a pig healthy,” he says.
Our sows furrow on the same day but occasionally there could be a difference of a day. We wean them 30 days afterwards and on the fifth day, they are on heat. To keep the pigs healthy and meet our growth target, we have developed a food ration for every stage
His farm, located five kilometres from Isinya Township, on the Nairobi-Namanga highway, presents one with an image of a modern commercial pig farmer. No smelly sties and the pigs are spotlessly clean. Each sty has a fly trap and the 500 animals look healthy and happy. Farm manager Peris Wangari says: “We have 45 sows, two boars, 23 gilts, 70 piglets and an equal number of baconers. The rest are weaners. Ours is a cross breed of landrace, large white and duroc.” The farm has a weekly programme, where Monday is set aside for visitors. Tuesday is a day for artificial insemination for weaned sows while Wednesday is for a thorough general cleaning and disinfection of the sties to control pests and other insects. On Thursday, the sows are weaned, while on Friday the farm welcomes visitors to the office and not to the sties. More cleaning is carried out on Saturdays and Sundays. The five employees conduct AI services on the sows that normally come on heat five days after weaning. To achieve this, the weaned sows are exposed daily to the boar for only a few minutes. On the fifth day the sows, which are routinely weaned on the same day, are on standing heat and ready for AI.
“Our sows furrow on the same day but occasionally there could be a difference of a day. We wean them 30 days afterwards and on the fifth day, they are on heat. To keep the pigs healthy and meet our growth target, we have developed a food ration for every stage and weighing of the animal. The animals are fed twice a day-at 6am and then at 4pm,” she explains.
Wanyoike’s winning formula for Kongoni Pig Farm
Mr Wanyoike says four factors determine a good baconer. They are fat depth, leanness of the muscles, maturity of the animal within a particular time span and weight of the carcass. These factors he adds are influenced by the feeding programme, the feed itself and management of the pig farm. By following an established operational programme strictly at his Kongoni Farm, the farmer says he is able to achieve over 90percent of set goals.
“Everything in Kongoni Farm is programmed and I can tell you with certainty when a particular sow will furrow, the Pig management days the piglets will graduate to weaners, to porker and the day I will sell them as baconer,” he says.
Feeding programme
Problems associated with quality of feeds saw Mr Wanyoike establish his own feed manufacturing firm. Bewa Farmcare Limited is located in Thika Town and manufactures pig, poultry and cattle feeds. He also sells the animal feeds to stockists.
The farmer says feeds determine pork quality. Fat control in the pig is of utmost importance. It is one of the key determinants in grading and pricing of the carcass. The preferred fat depth of a carcass weighing 70kg is between 8mm and 12mm.
The secret to success is having the right feed for the right age and in the right quantity. However, the cost of feeds might seem prohibitive and farmers have been known to go for cheaper types with low nutritional value, resulting in failure to attain the desired outcome.
For a better return in piggery, a piglet should be ready for sale seven months after birth and it must have attained a weight of between 90kg and 100kg so that dead weight comes to around 65kg.
Piglets
The gestation period for pigs is three months, three weeks and three days. The sow can furrow between 10 and 20 piglets, although Mr Wanyoike says 12 are preferable since they are born healthy and competition for mother’s milk is not so intense. Weight at birth is about 1.5kg. Piglets are fed on creep-a feed palatable by the small ones and easy to digest. This feed, however, is currently not readily available in the country since it is manufactured using special raw materials.
Weaners
At Kongoni Farm, the piglets are weaned after 30 days, having attained about 7kg. They are separated from the mother and weaned too solid feed. This feed is specially made for young pigs that are yet to develop a system to digest feeds suitable for adults. At this stage, they are given starter feeds and the quantity is adjusted as they continue to gain weight. By the time they attain 25kg, they move to the next stage.
The cost of feeds might seem prohibitive and farmers have been known to go for cheaper types with low nutritional value, resulting in failure to attain desired outcomes
Porker
At porker stage, the pig weighs 25kg. Here it is fed with growers feed until it attains 60kg. The feeds here have lower protein content compared to what is fed to piglets and weaners.
Baconer
Baconers are fed with finisher feeds. This has lesser protein, but which is balanced with energy -giving feed so that it can attain the desired weight quickly. Th e feed ingredients are made to help burn the fat but at the same time it adds weight. Mr Wanyoike says weight and not age should guide a farmer when moving a young pig from one stage to the next. Performance indicators are necessity and if they are not achieved at every stage, an intervention is necessary. He says there is no magic in rearing high quality baconer within seven months or even less. The secret lies in adhering to the feeding programme strictly and ensuring the feeds for a particular stage of growth have the right levels of nutrition. Health of the animal, high standards of hygiene and de-worming are other factors that a pig farmer should ignore.
FACTFILE
- 50 – Number of pigs he sells monthly
- Sh700,000 – The revenue he earns monthly from the sales
- 45 – Acreage of his farm in Isinya
- 2008 – Year his beef cattle fattening project collapsed as a result PEV
- 500 – Number of pigs he now rears. 45 sows, two boars, 23 gilts, 70 piglets and an equal number of baconers. The rest are weaners.
Markets
A farmer wishing to venture into piggery need not worry about the market but how to rear quality baconers. The misconception that a pig gets fat by feeding on anything is misleading and will never give good results.
“Pig farming is proving to be one of the most lucrative undertakings for any serious livestock farmer. With the influx of Chinese and many people turning to pork as their preferred meat, it is the best time to venture into piggery,” Mr Wanyoike says.
Profit Margin
Feeds remain the major input that eats into profits. However, the cost is set to go down following interventions made in the 2016/2017 national budget. But Mr Wanyoike says even when the cost of feeds was high, a farmer was assured of 30 per cent from the investment. “It is easy to have grow a herd with just two sows. A pig gives birth twice a year, furrowing not less than ten piglets. The young ones are ready for sale after just six months and at a price of Sh14,000 per baconer, a farmer may decide to sell the 20 of them and pocket Sh280,000,” says Mr Wanyoike. He says Farmers Choice pays 24 hours after delivery. It is easy for any farmer to become a contracted farmer after fulfilling some simple conditions set by the leading pig dealer in the country. Desperate and eager to avoid the high prices of animal feed, Samuel Mbugua had to think ‘out of the box’ on how to keep his piggery business, Grandeur Africa, afloat. This led him to hydroponics, the art of growing crops without soil. “The space in Nairobi is not getting any bigger but demand for food is growing by the day. People have to eat; hydroponics is a solution,” he says.
Hydroponics means working with water, a life giving resource that with some science is being used to grow life − literally. Hydroponics uses only 1.2 litres of water to produce a kilogramme of fodder, whereas fodder grown on land uses up to 90 litres of water for the same.
Mr Mbugua begun growing fodder hydroponically in 2012, when the Government increased the tax levied on animal feed. He used an eighth-of-an-acre inherited from his parents in Mwiki, in the outskirts of Nairobi.
Hydroponics means working with water, a life giving resource that with some science is being used to grow life. Hydroponics uses only 1.2 litres of water to produce a kilogramme of fodder, whereas fodder grown on land uses up to 90 litres of water
He uses perforated aluminum or plastic trays that are slanted on a shelf-like structure. When seeds are moistened to facilitate growth, the excess water drips down from one tray to the next in a downward motion. This water is then collected into a drainage that leads to a reservoir. The water in the reservoir can be reused on the seeds. Fully germinated hydroponically grown fodder represents a six inch grass-like plantation on aluminum trays. It has a clean look, perfectly green with an underlying carpet of its milky white roots.
Its growth is not inconsistent as it is independent of significant limits of the atmosphere and soil. In Kenya, a special variety of barley is used to grow hydroponic fodder. It is called six-rose; because of its growth of six heads during the early stages of germination.
Using very little water, hydroponic fodder is fully grown in a maximum of eight days. Germination days are dictated by the fibre content required by an animal. Ruminants require 7 to 8 days of hydroponically grown fodder to achieve optimum roughage points and proteins. Pigs and rabbits require six days while poultry only require four days, since they do not need roughage.
In comparison to other fodder crops, Barley has the highest protein concentrate of 23 per cent, oats have 21 per cent but are very expensive to purchase and grow. Oats also require high maintenance and are susceptible to diseases. Wheat has 19 per cent, millet 12 per cent, sorghum 11 per cent and maize a meager six per cent. Hydroponically grown fodder has both consumer and investment inclined advantages. Mbugua has observed a 40 per cent reduction on feeding costs in his piggery and poultry business since diverting to hydroponic fodder. While you need at least five acres of conventionally grown fodder to feed five cows, hydroponic fodder grown on a 5 by 3 by 3 structure feeds up to 20 cows in a day.
Grown solely for its nutrient value, 95 per cent of it is digested by animals as opposed to commercial feed where only 60 per cent is digested. Its protein is readily accessible to animals without processing.
This ensures maximum absorption of nutrients. When administering the fodder to animals, there is little wastage on feeds. Animals clear the fodder completely while feeding, but with commercial feeds like dust or pellets, a lot is wasted as the animal pours it while feeding.
Grown solely for its nutrient value, 95 per cent of it is digested by animals as opposed to commercial feed where only 60 per cent is digested. Its protein is readily accessible to animals without processing
“I used to get only a litre of milk from my cow, now I get up to 8 litres since I started using hydroponic fodder,” says a Mwiki farmer who has used hydroponic fodder from Mr Mbugua. Mbugua adds that he has noticed significant weight gain in his animals. The pigs gain up to 0.5 Kgs in a week with hydroponic fodder.
This rapid growth leads to more profit in a shorter time. His venture has been so successful that he has decided to educate other farmers. His charges KSh500 per head to train farmers on Saturdays and has trained up to 10,000 recorded farmers from various counties in Kenya. Mbugua is currently testing hydroponics on lettuce, kales, strawberry and coriander.