Broilers are a six-to-eight-week sum; pigs are a sow's sum. A sow eats through about 115 days of pregnancy and six weeks of nursing before she hands you a litter of weaners, and the feed she eats in that time, divided by the piglets that live, is the first cost of every pig you will sell. This page works that out from September 2026 De Heus feed prices and a 2022 study of sows in Ejisu, then follows the weaner to market weight, and gives two calculators: one for a sow's litter, one for a batch you are fattening.
First written 19 September 2026. Updated 8 October 2026: sources read are De Heus Ghana's September 2026 price list (PDF), the Ejisu sow study (Int. J. Tropical Veterinary and Biomedical Research, 2022), a Kenyan smallholder study (Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 2004), a Teagasc research summary, a Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science trial (1998), Farmer's Weekly (29 Nov 2025), the Pig Farmers Association price announcement (Nov 2023) and One Africa Markets' playbook (June 2025).
With made-up inputs (a 5 kg daily ration while nursing) one litter of 7.5 weaners cost about GH₵ 428 each in sow feed alone, before the boar, drugs, labour or the sow herself. If every pig then needs the feed of the Ghana trial in the table below, the GH₵ 30 a kilo price no longer covers it.
| Item, 50 kg bag | GH₵ | Source (read 8 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Gestation sow | 320 | De Heus Ghana market advice pricelist, Tema, effective 1 Sep 2026; other depots up to GH₵ 10 more per bag |
| Lactating sow | 358 | |
| Rearing gilt | 358 | |
| Pig starter | 402 | |
| Pig grower | 378 | |
| Pig finisher | 353 | |
| Live weight, farm gate | GH₵ 30 a kg minimum, GH₵ 45 carcass, from 1 Dec 2023 | Pig Farmers Association via ModernGhana, Nov 2023. I found no newer announcement; confirm with a buyer. |
| Weaner piglet | No dated published price | Ask two farms near you and write both down |
Changed on this page since 19 September: the GhanaWeb story about 18 Ashanti farms closing when maize rose from GH₵ 250 to 360 a bag, and its 2024 live price, are removed because I could not open the article again to confirm them. The De Heus bag prices are unchanged and re-confirmed against the September PDF.
The most useful Ghanaian number set is a cross-sectional study of 50 pig farmers in the Ejisu Municipality, with farrowings on 3 farms followed to weaning at six weeks (Atawalna, Cobbinah Junior and Ennu, 2022, FAO AGRIS record; abstract confirmed on the journal page).
| Measure | Ejisu, Ghana, 2022 | Kikuyu, Kenya, 2004 |
|---|---|---|
| Litter size | 9.5 (+/- 1.4) | 9.0 live-born (median) |
| Stillbirths per litter | 1.6 | not in abstract |
| Gestation | 115.1 days (+/- 2.6) | not in abstract |
| Piglets weaned per litter | about 7.7, my arithmetic from 9.5 and 18.7% | 7.5 (median) |
| Pre-weaning deaths | 18.7% by day 42 (range 7.3 to 28.3 across farms) | 18.7% to 8 weeks |
| Time between litters | weaning to heat 0.7 days | interfarrowing 6.4 months (median); weaning to service 3 months |
The Ejisu authors name the early causes: in the first two days crushing by the sow (8.9% of piglets) and starvation (7.2%), then diarrhoea (2.5%) and anaemia (1.5%) in the first two weeks; mastitis (23%), agalactia (18%) and stillbirths (18%) were the commonest sow problems reported. They call sow performance satisfactory and pre-weaning mortality high. The Kenyan figures are from Wabacha and others, 2004, 74 smallholder herds in Kikuyu Division, and are another country; they show how far a smallholder's litter gap stretches. Arithmetic, not a source: 115 days of pregnancy, 42 days of nursing and 1 day to the next heat is 158 days, or 2.3 litters a year; at the Kenyan median of 6.4 months it is nearer 1.9.
Sow feed amounts: a Teagasc (Ireland) trial treated 2.3 kg a day throughout pregnancy as the recommended allowance and tested raising it to 3.5 kg a day from day 80 to 112, which raised the next farrowing rate (Teagasc technology update, project 5366). That is a European herd on European feed; Ghanaian rations and sow sizes differ, so treat 2.3 kg as a starting point to compare with what your own sows eat. I found no Ghanaian lactation-feed figure, so the calculator asks for yours.
Grey placeholders are the sourced figures above, except the nursing ration, which is an example (made-up number, replace with yours). Nothing leaves your phone.
Costs are the sow's side only, before the sow's own price and her house.
Two published ranges are far apart. A CSIR Animal Research Institute trial on 48 Large White pigs starting at 20 kg measured feed conversion over the whole grower-finisher period of 4.0 kg of feed per kg of gain on the control diet and 4.41 to 4.77 on diets with palm kernel cake (Rhule, Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science 31(2), 1998, read 8 Oct 2026). It is an old trial on station feed, not today's commercial feed. South African pig-farming guidance gives typical modern conversion as 2.1 to 2.7 kg of feed per kg of gain, with market weight about 112 kg (Farmer's Weekly, 29 Nov 2025). Genetics, feed quality and health explain the gap; which end your pen is at, only your bag count shows.
Example (made-up weights, replace with yours). A weaner at 20 kg raised to 90 kg gains 70 kg. At the grower bag price of GH₵ 378 and the weaner cost of about GH₵ 428 from the calculator above (GH₵ 428):
| Feed conversion | Feed, kg | Bags | Feed, GH₵ | Cost per kg live with the weaner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 147 | 2.9 | 1,111 | 17.1 |
| 2.7 | 189 | 3.8 | 1,429 | 20.6 |
| 4.0 (Ghana trial, control diet) | 280 | 5.6 | 2,117 | 28.3 |
| 4.77 (Ghana trial, palm kernel cake diet) | 334 | 6.7 | 2,524 | 32.8 |
Against the association's GH₵ 30 a kilo, the last row loses money before labour, drugs or the pen; the first two leave GH₵ 9 to 13 a kilo to cover them. Feed is the lever, which is why the bag count per pig is the number to write down. The same pattern holds for the batch calculator below. Other planning figures: a fattened pig is sold in about 6 to 8 months and a sow carries for about 114 days, and the playbook's start-up range is GH₵ 5,000 to 20,000 (One Africa Markets, June 2025); it gives no cost table.
For farms that buy weaners instead of keeping a sow. One batch, from weaner to sale. Placeholders are the September 2026 prices above. Nothing leaves your phone.
Put in the number of pigs first.
MoFA's Feed Ghana strategic document (2025 to 2028) lists improved breeds, feed and vaccines for livestock farmers, including pigs (MoFA, read 8 Oct 2026). No subsidy percentage is published on that page. Ask your district agriculture office what is on offer this season, and write down what you were told and by whom.
A sow's cycle is long enough to forget how many bags she ate. Written as it happens, the litter keeps itself, and so does the tax side: the small-business tax calendar shows what you file on the sales. Credit sales to a butcher go in who owes me; on paper, the debtors book and the daily sales record do the same job. Broilers run on a faster cycle: break-even per bird.
| You say | CountMy writes |
|---|---|
| "Bought 5 weaners, 6,000 cedis" | Stock, weaners, GH₵ 6,000 |
| "Sow feed 358" | Cost, sow feed, GH₵ 358 |
| "Dewormer 80" | Cost, dewormer, GH₵ 80 |
| "Sold 2 pigs, 5,400 cedis" | Sale, pigs, 2 × 2,700, GH₵ 5,400 |
| "The butcher dey owe me 2,700" | Butcher owes you GH₵ 2,700 |
| "How much this month?" | It answers out loud |
Free. Twi, Pidgin or English. No password, no MoMo PIN, no Ghana Card.
It depends on feed per kilo of pig. In an example with made-up weights, a weaner at GH₵ 428 fattened to 90 kg costs GH₵ 17 to 21 a kilo at modern feed conversion (2.1 to 2.7) and about GH₵ 33 at the 4.77 measured in a 1998 Ghana trial, against the association's GH₵ 30 a kilo live minimum set in December 2023.
One Africa Markets' June 2025 playbook gives GH₵ 5,000 to 20,000, the lower end for fattening weaners and the higher end for a few sows, with no cost table. No dated Ghanaian breakdown of a small pen exists that I could find, so use the calculators with prices from your own area.
De Heus Ghana's list effective 1 September 2026 (Tema), per 50 kg bag: pig starter GH₵ 402, grower 378, finisher 353, gestation sow 320, lactating sow 358, rearing gilt 358. Other depots are up to GH₵ 10 higher.
At the farm gate the Pig Farmers Association set a minimum of GH₵ 30 a kilo live weight and GH₵ 45 a kilo carcass from 1 December 2023. I found no newer announcement; retail prices in Accra are higher because of transport.
No dated price per pig is published. At the association's live-weight minimum of GH₵ 30 a kilo, a 90 kg pig (an example weight) would be GH₵ 2,700.
A study of sows in the Ejisu Municipality found a mean litter of 9.5 piglets with 1.6 stillbirths per litter, and 18.7% of piglets dying before weaning at six weeks (7.3% to 28.3% across farms).
About 2.3 if she is mated again a day after weaning: 115 days pregnant, 42 days nursing and 1 day is 158 days. A Kenyan smallholder study found a median gap of 6.4 months between litters, which is about 1.9 a year.
Write down a sow's feed per litter, piglets weaned, bags per pig to market and the price per kilo you sell at; the two calculators on this page give the break-even weaner price and the cost per kilo live. One Africa Markets' playbook lists 6 to 8 months from weaner to sale and about 114 days of pregnancy.
Every figure is quoted from the linked source with the date it was read (8 October 2026) or its own date; the calculators use only what you type, and worked examples are labelled as made up. General information, not farming or financial advice. Questions: message us on WhatsApp.