Many pig farmers carefully manage feeding and disease prevention in the early stages, but when their pigs reach 100kg–135kg and are about to be shipped for slaughter, they suffer major losses in the final stage: unexplained sudden deaths, significant weight loss during transport, stress-related defects, and buyers forcing down prices.
At this weight stage, the pigs are large, have thick fat, are highly susceptible to stress, and have the lowest margin for error. The core management goals at this stage are to reduce stress, lower mortality and culling, prevent substantial weight loss, and ensure there are no pigs with defects throughout the process, thereby steadily protecting the annual pig-farming profit.
Today, here’s a no-nonsense, practical, ready-to-implement standardized process for shipping pigs from the farm. Follow it from start to finish to completely avoid the 90% loss issue when shipping pigs.
I. Feeding standards before livestock are sent to slaughter (core loss control)
1. Do not change feed or add supplementary ingredients 7 days before shipment.
Do not change feed or add large amounts of oil, bran, or distillers’ grains. Prevent diarrhea and intestinal fluctuations, and avoid significant weight loss during transport. Do not use moldy feed at any stage.
2. Material stoppage implementation standards
At ambient temperature: stop feeding 24 hours before loading
High summer temperatures: Stop feeding 18 hours before loading
Reminder: The total fasting period should ideally be kept within 24h. Never exceed 30 hours, as this can easily lead to acidosis, stomach ulcers, sudden death, watery carcasses, and substantial weight loss.
Ironclad rule: Stop feeding material, but never stop the water; maintain a continuous flow of clean water throughout.
3. Daily tank control to prevent sudden death
Once every 2–3 days, leave the feed trough empty before refilling it. This reduces feed buildup, constipation, and bloating, inhibits Clostridium welchii, lowers the probability of acute sudden death in large pigs, and optimizes the feed-to-meat ratio.
4. Stress-reduction and quality-improvement plan for livestock before market
Add mold inhibitor throughout
3–5 days before shipment: add VC, multivitamins, and electrolytes to the drinking water; do not use antibiotics indiscriminately
Quality improvement plan 30 days before slaughter: increase dietary vitamin E to 200–300 IU/kg to improve meat quality, reduce drip loss, and increase the selling price
II. Housing Environment Management
1.Warm air ammonia standard
Maintain a stable temperature of 20–22℃; keep ammonia below 20mg/m³, ensuring the pigs do not have watery eyes or nasal irritation; ventilate frequently, and strictly prevent drafts from blowing directly onto the pigs.
2. Must be separated into pens before shipment
Reduce stocking density to prevent overcrowding, fighting, and stress from confinement.
III. Pig herd screening 3 days before shipment
Check each pen: mark lame pigs, pigs with coughing or wheezing, pigs with fever, pigs with redness, and weak pigs separately; move them out separately.
Sick or weak pigs must never be loaded together with healthy pigs to avoid death from trampling, price reductions, or rejection.
Grouping principles: Separate by weight and strength, and keep animals in their original pens and groups to reduce fighting and stress.
IV. Practical Standards for Pig Herding and Loading
1. Correct operation:
Use only a pig board to move pigs slowly and in the direction they are facing. Guide them by pushing their chests or supporting their hindquarters. Guide them gently without agitating the group.
At the time of shipment, pigs are extremely sensitive. Rough handling is the biggest human-caused factor in white muscle disease, downgraded pigs, and sudden death.
Experienced livestock farmers know: no sticks or electric prods are needed—a single thickened pig board can handle the entire process of separating pigs into pens, moving them between groups, and loading them onto a truck.
2. Strictly prohibited operations:
Never beat or whip with sticks, or recklessly drive animals to run; never continuously shock them with electric batons; never violently drag them by their ears or tails.
When loading, keep the density loose rather than crowded. In hot weather, reduce the density by one more level to leave room for heat dissipation and airflow.
V. In-Transit Management
Avoid the midday heat; prioritize loading and transport in the early morning or evening.
For long journeys, provide water only and no feed to reduce the burden on the intestines.
The tarpaulin is ventilated and breathable, preventing suffocation and direct drafts of cold air.
Practical summary
Profitability from selling market hogs doesn’t depend on luck; it depends on standardized loss control.
Four measures—reducing the time animals are held without feed, low-stress handling, allowing ample space during loading, and separating sick pigs—can directly reduce weight loss, mortality and culling, and defective animals, stabilizing the highest profit at market.
Profit in pig farming comes from attention to detail; losses come from carelessness.
Every small operation during the finishing stage directly determines the net profit from your final truckload of pigs.
We recommend liking and saving this standardized process for shipping livestock with zero weight loss, so you can apply it directly during peak shipping season.
To keep pigs less stressed and free of defects, and to sell them at a higher price, a compliant pig board combined with proper handling is the lowest-cost, highest-return way for a pig farm to control losses. It is a practical necessity: a one-time investment that pays off year after year.