20 heads · absentee owner
OFW Investor — 20 Pigs Managed by Family Back Home
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 at PSA's latest backyard price. Adjust feed price, mortality, or market price to match your area, or open it at the DA's August 2026 price .
- Capital
- about ₱268,000
- Time to market
- 5.5 months (160 days)
- ₱ per head
- −₱582 (DA) to ₱1,352 (PSA)
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 figures below assume you have not done this yet; at ₱100 off a sack the batch keeps another ₱8,106.
Cost breakdown
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| 20 weaners @ ₱3,500 | ₱70,000 |
| Commercial feeds, starter to finisher (₱1,775/sack) 207.5 kg a head at the simulator's FCR 2.5, about 4.2 sacks; dead pigs' feed included | ₱143,886 |
| Caretaker salary (5.5 months × ₱5,500) | ₱30,250 |
| Vaccines, dewormer, vet visits | ₱8,000 |
| Pen depreciation ₱60,000 pen, 5-year life | ₱12,000 |
| Remittance & transfer fees | ₱4,000 |
| Total batch cost | ₱268,136 |
Revenue, at two selling prices (never averaged)
18 pigs × 95 kg × ₱172.62/kg = ₱295,180
PSA backyard farmgate, Jun 2026
18 pigs × 95 kg × ₱150/kg = ₱256,500
DA farmgate figure, August 2026 (The Manila Times, 28 Sep 2026)
At 8% mortality 18 pigs reach market. Against ₱268,136 of cost that is a profit of ₱27,044 at the PSA price and a loss of ₱11,636 at the DA's. So the price you believe decides whether this batch makes money at all. That is the knife edge, and it is why most absentee operations need scale (50+ heads) to absorb their fixed costs.
What this leaves out
- ⚠ This calculator does not model the trust cost. If feed gets diverted or pigs get sold off-book by a relative, the loss can be catastrophic. Articles on paiwi and contract-grower terms cover how to structure the arrangement to prevent this.
- ⚠ At 12% mortality (one bad ASF scare, one feed-mixing mistake) only 17 pigs reach market, and the batch ends with a profit of ₱10,645 at the PSA price and a loss of ₱25,886 at the DA's. OFW piggeries fail more often from mortality than from price drops.
- ⚠ The numbers do not include flight cost if you need to come home to deal with an emergency. Budget for one trip per year as a real line item.
Bisaya / Cebuano
Para sa mga mag-uuma
- Para sa OFW nga nagpadala og kapital alang sa 20 ka baboy, ang tibuok batch mga ₱268,000.
- Kung 8% ang mamatay, 18 ka baboy ang mabaligya. Sa ₱172.62/kg (PSA), ganansya nga ₱27,044. Sa ₱150/kg (DA, Agosto 2026), pildi nga ₱11,636. Kung 12% ang mamatay, 17 na lang ang mabaligya ug ganansya nga ₱10,645 sa presyo sa PSA.
- Ang pinakadako nga sayop: walay sweldo ang caretaker. Bayri og sakto, ₱4,000 hangtod ₱7,000 matag bulan, kay kung dili, mapasagdan ang trabaho ug madaot ang mga baboy.
Try your own numbers
The Profit Simulator opens pre-loaded with this scenario.