20 heads · absentee owner
You are working abroad, your kuya or pamangkin is on the ground, and you are wiring capital for 20 pigs. The math from the 10-pig backyard scenario does not transfer cleanly. Absentee management raises mortality, adds a worker salary, and introduces information lag that costs real money.
Open this scenario in the Profit Simulator
The numbers below are pre-filled. Adjust feed price, mortality, or market price to match your area.
OFW pig farming math has a hidden tax that nobody puts in the spreadsheets you see in Facebook groups. Mortality runs higher because problems are spotted later — by the time your sister sends a photo of a sick pig, the window for sulfa or oxytetracycline has often closed. An 8% mortality assumption (instead of the textbook 5%) is honest for an absentee setup. I have heard of much worse.
Then there is the worker. Twenty pigs cannot be managed for free by an extended family member who already has a day job. ₱4,000-7,000/month for a part-time piggery caretaker is the going rate in most provinces in 2026 — and that is on top of the per-head feed and vaccine costs. Skipping this line item is how OFW piggeries quietly go cashflow-negative.
On the upside: 20 pigs is the smallest scale where it makes sense to negotiate feed direct from a B-MEG, Thunderbird, or Vitarich dealer rather than buying retail. That can knock ₱50-100 off each sack. The break-even calculator below assumes you have not yet done this; if you have, the profit-per-head range bumps to ₱2,500-4,000.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
20 weaners @ ₱3,500 | ₱70,000 |
Commercial feeds for 20 pigs over 5 months | ₱192,000 |
Caretaker salary (5 months × ₱5,500) | ₱27,500 |
Vaccines, dewormer, vet visits | ₱8,000 |
Pen depreciation ₱60,000 pen, 5-year life | ₱12,000 |
Mortality buffer (8% = 1.6 pigs) | ₱22,000 |
Remittance & transfer fees | ₱4,000 |
| Total batch cost | ₱335,500 |
Revenue line
18.4 pigs × 95 kg × ₱185/kg = ₱323,380
At 8% mortality the net is 18.4 pigs to market. Revenue ₱323,380 on ₱335,500 cost is a small batch loss — meaning the scenario is on the knife edge of breakeven. A ₱10/kg price swing decides the outcome. This is why most absentee operations need scale (50+ heads) to absorb their fixed costs.
Bisaya / Cebuano
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The Profit Simulator opens pre-loaded with this scenario.