If you don't know your breakeven price per kilo, you don't know if you're making money. That's it. Every other number in pig farming comes after this one.
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Break-Even Price Calculator
Enter your costs and target weight to get the minimum farmgate price you need.
The Formula
Breakeven ₱/kg = Total Cost per Head ÷ Target Market Weight (kg)
Total all your costs for raising one pig from weaner to market weight (piglets, feed, vaccines, labor, housing amortization, everything), then divide by the kilograms you expect to sell. The number you get is the minimum farmgate price you need to not lose money.
Quick Reference: Breakeven by Cost Level
| Total Cost per Head | Target Weight | Breakeven ₱/kg | Margin @ ₱150/kg (DA, Aug 2026) | Margin @ ₱172.44/kg (PSA, Q2 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₱8,000 | 90 kg | ₱88.89 | ₱61.11 | ₱83.55 |
| ₱10,000 | 95 kg | ₱105.26 | ₱44.74 | ₱67.18 |
| ₱10,000 | 100 kg | ₱100.00 | ₱50.00 | ₱72.44 |
| ₱12,000 | 100 kg | ₱120.00 | ₱30.00 | ₱52.44 |
| ₱14,000 | 100 kg | ₱140.00 | ₱10.00 | ₱32.44 |
| ₱15,000 | 100 kg | ₱150.00 | ₱0.00 | ₱22.44 |
| ₱18,000 | 100 kg | ₱180.00 | -₱30.00 | -₱7.56 |
| ₱19,000 | 100 kg | ₱190.00 | -₱40.00 | -₱17.56 |
At a ₱190/kg breakeven (₱19,000 spent on a 100 kg pig) against PSA's ₱172.44/kg Q2 2026 average, you are losing ₱17.56 on every kilo, or ₱1,756 on a 100 kg pig. Against the DA's August 2026 figure of ₱150 you are losing ₱40 a kilo, ₱4,000 a pig. That is not hypothetical. PSA's national farmgate averaged ₱182.83/kg in Q4 2025, ₱176.03/kg in Q1 2026 and ₱172.44/kg in Q2 2026 (Apr ₱174.00, May ₱171.56, Jun ₱171.76); July to September are not yet published. The DA has since said the national price was ₱150/kg in August, and producer groups put the industry's cost of production at ₱180-₱190/kg. The ₱180 and ₱190 rows are the average farm, and the average farm in this country is selling well below what it costs to produce. Imports are one reason the tight herd hasn't lifted prices: 851,760 MT of pork landed in 2025, EO 116 (19 May 2026) raised the tariff-quota volume from 54,210 MT to 204,210 MT, and January to August 2026 brought in 602,655 MT, against 573,091 MT a year earlier. The DA also blames ASF fear, with raisers dumping pigs early.
Worked Example: A 10-Head Backyard Batch in Cebu
This is what an actual breakeven calculation looks like for a backyard farmer buying Landrace/Large White cross weaners:
| Cost Item | Per Head | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Weaner piglet (10-12 kg) | ₱3,200 | LW cross from local multiplier |
| Starter feed (B-MEG, ~25 kg) | ₱1,050 | ~₱42/kg, first 3 weeks |
| Grower feed (B-MEG, ~80 kg) | ₱2,800 | ~₱35/kg, weeks 4-10 |
| Finisher feed (B-MEG, ~120 kg) | ₱3,840 | ~₱32/kg, weeks 11-18 |
| Vaccines + dewormer | ₱350 | Classical swine fever, deworming ×2 |
| Utilities + misc | ₱300 | Water, electricity, quicklime |
| Housing amortized | ₱500 | ₱50,000 pen ÷ 10 heads ÷ 10 batches |
| Total cost | ₱12,040 |
Target weight: 95 kg at 4.5 months
Breakeven: ₱12,040 ÷ 95 = ₱126.74/kg
Do not price this batch off the ₱210/kg farmgate floor agreed in November 2025. It is an industry target the DA backs but cannot enforce, and the national average has never been paid it since it was set. A few regions have in a few months, the Cordillera most often. Any plan built on it is fiction.
Price it off what the market pays. The DA put the national price at ₱150/kg in August 2026; PSA's last official quarter, Q2 2026, was ₱172.44/kg. At ₱150 this farmer clears about ₱23/kg, ₱2,210 per head; at ₱172.44 it would be about ₱4,300. That margin survives only because the cost stayed at ₱12,040. There is no family-labor line in that table, and no interest. The industry's own cost of production, which carries both, is ₱180-₱190/kg, and at that cost the same pig sold at ₱150 loses ₱2,850-₱3,800. The backyard all-in band on the cost-to-raise breakdown, ₱13,000-₱16,500 a head, runs from a ₱1,250 profit to a ₱2,250 loss on a 95 kg pig at ₱150.
Most backyard raisers I know don't calculate this. They know they spent "around ₱12,000" and sold for "around ₱17,000" and figure they made money. But "around" hides the details that actually matter. Did that batch have an FCR of 2.8 or 3.4? Mao na ang kalainan.
What Moves Your Breakeven (And How to Fix It)
These are the five levers, ranked by impact.
1. Feed cost (about 57% of total). PIDS puts feed at roughly 57% of pig operating cost. You will see "60-70%" quoted everywhere, including by me in older posts; that figure comes from a feed-tariff advocacy statement covering poultry and swine together, and 70% is an upper bound, not a pig benchmark. Either way it is the single biggest variable. If you're on 100% commercial feeds like B-MEG or Thunderbird, your feed cost per head runs ₱7,500-₱10,000. Switching to a mixed ration (commercial concentrate + rice bran/copra meal) can drop this to ₱5,500-₱7,500, which cuts breakeven by ₱15-25/kg. See the feed calculator to estimate your specific feed cost, and the guide on cheapest way to feed pigs for mixed ration formulas.
2. FCR (feed conversion ratio). An FCR of 2.8 vs 3.5 on a 85 kg gain (10 kg weaner → 95 kg market) means 238 kg vs 298 kg of feed consumed. At ₱33/kg average feed cost, that's ₱1,980 per head, or ₱20/kg on your breakeven. Track your FCR with the FCR calculator. Backyard FCR in the Philippines typically runs 3.0-3.5; commercial farms hit 2.5-2.8. The gap is mostly feed waste and heat stress.
To improve FCR without spending more: fix your feeder design (trough feeders waste 10-15% more than tube feeders), provide clean water ad-lib (dehydrated pigs eat less), and keep pen temperatures below 30°C with shade and ventilation. These are free or nearly free changes that can shave 0.2-0.3 off your FCR.
3. Piglet price. Weaners range from ₱2,500 (native cross, roadside) to ₱5,000+ (Duroc-sired from accredited multipliers). A ₱1,500 difference in piglet cost moves breakeven by ₱15/kg. But don't just buy the cheapest weaner. A ₱2,500 native cross with FCR 3.5 costs more in feed than a ₱4,000 commercial cross with FCR 2.8. Do the math.
4. Mortality. If you lose 1 pig in a 10-head batch, the surviving 9 must absorb the dead one's costs. Your effective breakeven rises by ~11%. Backyard mortality runs 5-10%; commercial targets 3-5%. Every pig saved is profit. See the guides on disease prevention and ASF biosecurity.
5. Market weight. Selling at 85 kg instead of 100 kg raises breakeven by roughly ₱15-20/kg because your fixed costs (piglet, vaccines, pen) are spread over fewer kilos. Push to target weight. But avoid going past 110 kg where FCR degrades significantly and buyers start discounting for excess backfat.
Regional Breakeven Differences
Your breakeven is not the same in Cebu as in Bukidnon or Tarlac. Feed costs (the biggest component) vary by ₱1-3/kg depending on logistics, and the farmgate spread between the best and worst region was ₱82.12/kg in June 2026, the newest regional month PSA has published.
| Region | Typical Feed Cost/kg | Typical Weaner Price | Est. Breakeven/kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Visayas (Cebu) | ₱33-36/kg | ₱3,000-₱3,500 | ₱120-₱140 |
| Davao Region | ₱31-34/kg | ₱2,800-₱3,200 | ₱115-₱135 |
| Western Visayas (Iloilo) | ₱33-35/kg | ₱2,800-₱3,300 | ₱118-₱138 |
| Central Luzon (Tarlac, Bulacan) | ₱32-35/kg | ₱3,200-₱4,500 | ₱125-₱150 |
| SOCCSKSARGEN | ₱30-33/kg | ₱2,500-₱3,000 | ₱110-₱130 |
The selling side is where most people, including me, have been carrying an out-of-date map. The old rule was that Luzon commands a premium, Visayas runs ₱15-25 below it, and Mindanao sits below that. PSA's June 2026 regional farmgate says otherwise. The top prices were Cordillera at ₱224.10/kg and Central Visayas at ₱208.73/kg. Central Luzon, the region everyone assumes pays the most, was sixth at ₱181.05. Western Visayas was ₱152.75 and SOCCSKSARGEN was the cheapest place in the country to sell a pig at ₱141.98. Those are June figures; the industry's August data had the Visayas and Mindanao together at ₱131.66, so the low end has almost certainly fallen further.
Read that against a ₱180-₱190/kg national cost of production and the picture is blunt: a SOCCSKSARGEN raiser with commercial-level costs was selling ₱38-₱48/kg below what the pig cost to make in June. Low input costs in Mindanao do not fully cover for that. Check the PSA regional series for your own area before you assume your local price floor. This site publishes it at province level, split the way PSA splits it: backyard farms and commercial farms, free CSV and JSON with the retrieval date on every row.
Is Pig Farming Profitable in 2026?
Honest picture based on current numbers:
| Metric | Backyard (5-20 head) | Semi-Commercial (20-100 head) |
|---|---|---|
| Total cost per head | ₱9,600 - ₱14,900 | ₱12,800 - ₱19,200 |
| Breakeven ₱/kg (at 95-100 kg) | ₱96 - ₱149 | ₱128 - ₱192 |
| Farmgate (PSA Q2 2026 / DA Aug 2026) | ₱172.44 / ₱150 | ₱172.44 / ₱150 |
| Profit per head at ₱172.44/kg (PSA, Q2 2026) | ₱1,500 - ₱7,600 | -₱2,800 - ₱4,400 |
| Profit per head at ₱150/kg (DA, Aug 2026) | -₱650 - ₱5,400 | -₱4,950 - ₱2,200 |
So: in this backyard model, which charges nothing for your own labour, the lean end still clears something at ₱150 and the expensive end is underwater. Those negative numbers are not typos. A ₱19,200-per-head operation selling a 95 kg pig at ₱150/kg books a ₱4,950 loss on every animal.
The bigger reason is simple arithmetic. Cost of production across the industry is ₱180-₱190/kg (producer groups, October 2026). Farmgate, on the DA's August figure, is ₱150. The industry average is selling ₱30-₱40/kg below cost, and producer groups say losses run up to ₱50/kg in places. The ₱210/kg floor agreed in November 2025 was supposed to fix this; it is not enforceable and the national average has never reached it since it was set. Meanwhile the national herd is at 8.93M heads (1 July 2026), roughly 30% below the 12.70M of 1 July 2019, the last count before ASF, a series this site publishes quarterly at national swine inventory. It grew 2.6% that quarter and the price fell anyway, because imports fill every gap the herd leaves.
Being profitable in late 2026 is not about waiting for the price to come to you. It is about getting your breakeven under ₱150/kg, because ₱150 is what the DA says the market is paying, and ₱172 is the best the official series has offered all year.
If your breakeven is above ₱160/kg, you are exposed to serious risk in any price dip. Look at where you can cut: switch to mixed feeding, negotiate weaner prices, fix FCR problems. Use the profit simulator to model different scenarios before committing to your next batch.
The operators who survive price dips are the ones who:
- Know their exact breakeven number (not "mga ₱130 siguro")
- Keep FCR under 3.0
- Buy weaners at fair prices from reliable sources
- Time batches to avoid selling into soft markets (February and the March-April hot season are typically weakest)
Sensitivity: How Price Changes Affect Your Batch
For a pig raised at ₱12,000 total cost and 100 kg target weight:
| Market Price ₱/kg | Revenue per Head | Profit per Head | Profit on 10-Head Batch |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₱141.98 (SOCCSKSARGEN, PSA June 2026) | ₱14,198 | ₱2,198 | ₱21,980 |
| ₱150 (DA national, August 2026) | ₱15,000 | ₱3,000 | ₱30,000 |
| ₱172.44 (PSA official, Q2 2026) | ₱17,244 | ₱5,244 | ₱52,440 |
| ₱190 (top of the industry's cost of production) | ₱19,000 | ₱7,000 | ₱70,000 |
| ₱210 (floor target, never met nationally) | ₱21,000 | ₱9,000 | ₱90,000 |
That last row is in the table so you can see what the floor would be worth, not so you can plan around it. The national average has never been paid ₱210 since it was set. Budget on the ₱150-₱172 rows, and remember this table charges nothing for your labour: at the industry's ₱180-₱190/kg cost, every row up to ₱172.44 is a loss.
Every ₱10/kg change in market price moves profit by ₱1,000 per head. On a 10-head batch, that's ₱10,000. This is why tracking current farmgate prices and timing your market entry matters. And honestly, it's why backyard farmers with 5-10 heads are more resilient than semi-commercial operators with 50+ heads. You can hold pigs an extra week or two waiting for prices. A 50-head farm can't.
Holding needs a faster number than PSA's, which is running about four months late right now (June is still the latest month). BAI used to publish farmgate weekly, and this site mirrors both cuts of it: backyard and commercial. Read the gaps before you rely on either. Of 108 weekly slots since January 2023, the backyard line carries 49 published values and the commercial line 68. BAI simply stopped printing them. The blanks stay blank in this site's copy rather than getting filled in with a guess, which is exactly what the blanks are for.
Calculate Your Exact Breakeven
The tables above use typical ranges. Your actual costs depend on location, feed source, genetics, management, and scale. Plug in your own numbers.
Open the Break-Even Calculator →
Sources: PSA OpenSTAT (monthly and regional liveweight farmgate prices through June 2026; national swine inventory, 1 July 2026); DA national liveweight ₱150/kg, August 2026 (The Manila Times, 28 Sep 2026); cost of production ₱180-₱190/kg and losses up to ₱50/kg (Daily Tribune, 2 Oct 2026; BusinessMirror, 9 Oct 2026); January-August 2026 pork imports (Philstar, 24 Sep 2026); ₱210 floor agreement, November 2025 and its non-enforceability (Philstar, 21 Sep 2026); pig333.com production economics; DA-BAI GAHP cost benchmarks; PIDS Discussion Paper on Small-Scale Hog Farming Profitability (feed share of operating cost). Price figures verified 16 October 2026.
Bisaya / Cebuano
Unsaon pag-compute sa imong breakeven price
Ang formula: Total Gasto matag Ulo ÷ Target Weight (kg) = Breakeven ₱/kg
Pananglitan (Cebu, LW x Landrace):
- Total gasto: ₱12,000 (weaner ₱3,200 + feeds ₱7,700 + bakuna ₱350 + utilities ₱300 + tangkal ₱450)
- Target weight: 95 kg
- Breakeven: ₱12,000 ÷ 95 = ₱126/kg
Kung ang farmgate sa imong lugar ₱150/kg (ang nasudnon nga presyo sumala sa DA, Agosto 2026), ang ganansya ₱24/kg, o mga ₱2,280 matag ulo. Gamay ra, ug wala pa diri ang imong kaugalingong trabaho.
Ayaw pagsalig sa ₱210/kg nga floor. Target lang kini sa industriya nga gisuportahan sa DA, dili mapugos. Sukad kini gitakda niadtong Nobyembre 2025, wala pa kini maabot sa nasudnon nga aberids; pipila ra ka rehiyon ang nakaabot sa pipila ka bulan. Ang tinuod nga presyo: ₱172.44/kg ang pinakabag-o nga opisyal sa PSA (Q2 2026), ug ₱150/kg sumala sa DA niadtong Agosto 2026. Ang gasto sa pagpadako sa industriya ₱180 hangtod ₱190/kg.
Pero kung ang gasto nimo ₱15,000 (tungod sa mahal nga weaner o taas nga FCR), ang breakeven ₱158/kg. Sa ₱150/kg, lugi ka na og mga ₱8/kg, o mga ₱750 matag ulo. Delikado na kaayo.
3 ka paagi aron pakunhuran ang breakeven:
- Pag-mix og feeds. Commercial concentrate + darak + copra meal makatipig og ₱2,000-₱3,000 matag ulo kaysa sa 100% commercial feeds. Pero kinahanglan sakto ang ratio.
- Pag-improve sa FCR. Kung ang FCR nimo 3.5, mogasto ka og 298 kg feeds. Kung 2.8, 238 kg lang. Ang kalainan 60 kg × ₱33/kg = ₱1,980. Para ma-improve: ayaw usik-i ang feeds (gamit og tube feeder), hatagi og tubig kanunay, ug pabugnaw-a ang tangkal.
- Ayaw palit og mahal nga weaner kung di na kinahanglan. Ang ₱4,500 nga Duroc-sired maayo kung ibaligya para lechon. Pero kung standard farmgate ra, ang ₱3,200 nga LW cross parehas ra ang ganansya.
Ang pinaka-importante: hibal-i kini nga numero ANTES ka mopalit og weaner, dili PAGKAHUMAN. Gamita ang Break-Even Calculator, libre ra.
Also useful:
- Feed Calculator: estimate feed consumption and cost by growth phase
- How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Pig?: detailed cost breakdown with vaccine checklist
- The Real Cost of Pig Feed: feed price analysis and locally mixed ration economics
- Pig Farming Profit for 10 Pigs: real numbers for a backyard batch
