Chicken and Pig Rearing
Senior 3 · Agriculture
Chicken and Pig Rearing
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
A broiler chick weighs about 40 g when it hatches; five or six weeks later it can weigh 2 kg. A piglet born at about 1.5 kg can pass 90 kg in six months. Nearly all of that growth is built from feed, and feed is usually the largest single cost of keeping chickens and pigs. MINAGRI's livestock strategy notes that Rwanda's feed factories work below capacity for lack of raw materials (2024), so farmers who understand feeding, and can mix rations from local ingredients, keep more of their profit. Chickens and pigs are monogastric: they have one simple stomach and cannot digest much fibre, so they need concentrated, balanced feeds.
Definition
Ration: the feed given to an animal in 24 hours. A balanced ration supplies all the nutrients it needs, in the right amounts.
Concentrate: a feed rich in energy or protein and low in fibre, such as maize, bran or soybean meal.
Crude protein (CP): the protein content of a feed, as a percentage of its mass.
Feed conversion ratio (FCR): the mass of feed eaten divided by the gain in body mass. The lower the FCR, the more efficient the animal.
Creep feed: feed put in the creep area for piglets that are still suckling.
Swill: kitchen and food waste fed to pigs.
| Nutrient | Use in the body | Local sources |
|---|---|---|
| Carbohydrates and fats (energy) | energy for movement, warmth and growth | maize, sorghum, rice and wheat bran, dried and processed cassava |
| Protein | muscle, eggs, feathers, milk, growth | soybean meal, sunflower cake, dried small fish (such as isambaza), blood meal, insect larvae |
| Minerals | bones and eggshells (calcium, phosphorus), blood (iron), body fluids (salt) | limestone or crushed shells, bone meal, salt, mineral premix |
| Vitamins | health, fertility, resistance to disease | green leaves and grass, vitamin premix |
| Water | digestion, cooling, carrying nutrients; an egg is mostly water | clean water, always available |
| Bird and stage | Feed | Crude protein (typical) |
|---|---|---|
| Layer chicks, 0 to 8 weeks | chick starter mash | about 18 to 20% |
| Pullets, 8 weeks to first egg | grower mash | about 15 to 16% |
| Laying hens | layer mash, with extra calcium (about 3.5 to 4%) for eggshells | about 16 to 17% |
| Broilers, first 3 weeks | broiler starter | about 22% |
| Broilers, 3 weeks to market | broiler finisher | about 19 to 20% |
| Pig | Feed and amount (typical) |
|---|---|
| Newborn piglets | colostrum (first milk) within the first hours: it carries antibodies against disease; iron injection at about 3 days old, because sow's milk lacks iron |
| Suckling piglets, from 1 to 2 weeks | creep feed (about 20% CP) in the creep area |
| Weaners and growers | weaner, then grower meal (about 16 to 18% CP); about 1.5 to 2 kg a day as growers |
| Finishers (fatteners) | finisher meal (about 14% CP); about 2.5 to 3 kg a day |
| Pregnant (dry) sows | about 2 to 2.5 kg a day, with plenty of fibre; do not let them get fat |
| Lactating sows | about 2 kg plus 0.5 kg for each piglet suckling, a day |
| Boars | about 2.5 kg a day; kept fit, not fat |
Pigs also eat sweet potato vines, vegetable waste, brewery waste and forage, which cut costs. All pigs need plenty of clean water at all times: a lactating sow can drink 20 litres a day or more.
A farmer can mix two feeds to reach a target protein level. Put the target in the centre of a square, the two feeds at the left corners, and subtract along each diagonal (ignoring minus signs). The answers at the right corners are the parts of each feed to mix (Figure 14). The target must lie between the two feeds' protein levels.
Figure 14. A Pearson square for an 18% protein feed made from maize and soybean meal (typical protein values).
Worked example 1: using the Pearson square
Problem. Using Figure 14, how much maize and soybean meal are needed for 100 kg of an 18% CP feed? Check the answer.
Solution.
Answer: about 74.3 kg of maize and 25.7 kg of soybean meal. (A real ration also needs minerals and vitamins, so a premix is added.)
Worked example 2: feed conversion ratio
Problem. A broiler hatched at 40 g ate 3.6 kg of feed and weighed 2.0 kg at sale. Feed costs 600 Frw per kg (illustrative). Find the FCR and the feed cost per bird.
Solution.
Answer: an FCR of about 1.84 (1.84 kg of feed for each kilogram of gain) and 2,160 Frw of feed per bird. Wasted feed, cold houses and disease all raise the FCR.
Warning
Safety and common mistakes
Tip
Memory hook for the Pearson square: "Target in the middle, subtract across, read off the parts."
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the text, the tables, Figure 14 and the worked examples. Protein levels and feed amounts are typical values; follow the feed label or your veterinary or extension officer's advice.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
