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“BABUYANG WALANG AMOY”

September 2, 2014

While fairly new, the practice of natural hog raising

or “Babuyang Walang Amoy” in the Philippines,
has increased steadfastly through the years. More
and more Filipinos, both experienced farmers and
those new to farming, have begun to adopt this
technology of growing healthy pigs. Many new
farmers have built their own backyard “Babuyang
Walang Amoy” using indigenous and even
recyclable materials available in their
surroundings. And many current backyard raisers
have also opted to convert their existing
conventional pens into this more economical and
sustainable technology.

There is more to the “Babuyang Walang Amoy”

(literally “piggery with no smell”) technology than
being just odor-free. While its most distinct feature
is being free from bad odor that is present in most
conventional piggeries, its most important feature
is that it mimics the natural habitat of pigs, which
allows for stress-free pigs that are less prone to
sickness and diseases. This technology is easier,
cleaner, and more cost-effective for farmers, it
reduces antibiotic dependency in pigs, it is
environment and community-friendly, and it
promotes humane animal treatment. Coupled
with natural, antibiotic-free, fermentable feeds,
the “Babuyang Walang Amoy” system produces
meat that is natural, healthy, and safe for human
consumption. Farmers are also able to further
capitalize on this technology by going into other
related ventures like organic farming,
vermiculture, organic fertilizer production, pond
aquaculture, and many more.

Using the “Babuyang Walang Amoy” technology,

pigs are able to roam around freely within the pen
on a soft bedding of organic materials – such as
rice hulls, they are free to cool themselves off in a
shallow wallowing pond, and they are able to
exercise their natural behaviors like burrowing.

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BABUYANG WALANG AMOY

CONSTRUCTION

Location
Before starting construction of a “Babuyang
Walang Amoy” several factors have to be
considered. The “Babuyang Walang Amoy” should
be located in a place with ample sunlight
penetration as sunlight is a natural disinfectant
and also provides vitamin D for the animals. It is
also important to note that the location must also
allow for ample wind to flow through the piggery.
A cool environment helps foster more stress-free
pigs.

Make sure to avoid lowlands where flood

incidence is high during rainy seasons. The earth
flooring below the natural piggery must be at the
highest possible level in case of flood.

And to make it easier, choose a location that is

accessible to main roads. It will be easier to
transport feeds to the piggery as well as transport
harvested pigs from the piggery to be marketed.

Space Requirements
The basic parts of a “Babuyang Walang Amoy” are
the bedding, wallowing pond, and feeding trough.
It is recommended to allocate about 1.5 to 2
square meters per pig for the bedding. The
wallowing pond should be about 1 meter wide
spanning the length of one side of the pen. The
feeding trough is usually placed opposite the
wallowing pond. The feeding trough is only about
10 inches wide – wide enough for the pig to eat
from and narrow enough to prevent the pigs from
sleeping on the trough. In a typical “Babuyang
Walang Amoy” with ten pigs, the dimensions of the
pen are usually 4m x 5m for the bedding and 1m x
4m/5m for the pond for a total area of up to 25
square meters.

Materials Needed
Farmers can use whatever materials they have
readily available in their areas. It is important that
the materials used to construct the piggery are
sturdy enough to withstand the elements and
strong enough to hold the pigs inside the pen.

Typical “Babuyang Walang Amoy” use a

combination of concrete and bamboo or wood,
and nipa, anahaw, or G.I. sheet for the roof. Other
materials that may be available can also be used
as long as they do not potentially hurt or stress
the pigs.

The roof may either be shed type, semi-monitor,

or monitor type. When deciding which roof to
make, it is important to make sure that the piggery
allows for ample wind to circulate. Larger piggeries
will benefit from semi-monitor or monitor type
roofs that have openings at the top.

Bedding
It is recommended to use rice hull or other high
lignin or organic materials as bedding. Some
farmers have used wood chips, coffee shells,
shredded corn cobs, saw dust, coco dust, and
others. The bedding must be 2 to 3 feet deep and
is placed above the soil/ground level. There is no
concrete flooring below the rice hull bedding.

Wallowing Pond
The wallowing pond should be about 1 meter wide
spanning the length of one side of the pen. It is
shallow and should be able to hold only up to 6
inches deep water. The pigs use the pond to cool
off. They also usually defecate/urinate in one area
of the pond.

Feeding Trough
The feeding trough is located opposite and/or
perpendicular the wallowing pond. It may also
span the entire length of the piggery or at least
long enough to accommodate all the pigs. The
feeding trough is curved/half-circle inside and is
about 8 inches wide and 6 inches tall inside.

Automatic Drinkers
It is ideal to have automatic drinkers installed on
the wall on the wallowing pond side of the pen.
Any excess water will fall into the wallowing pond
when the pig is drinking. There must be 1 drinker
for every 3 pigs. It is recommended that the height
of the drinker be adjustable. The drinker must be
low enough for piglets to reach and must be
adjusted higher as the piglets grow taller.

BABUYANG WALANG AMOY

MANAGEMENT

Maintaining the “Babuyang Walang Amoy”

properly and timely not only ensures an odor-free
and clean piggery but also assures stress-free pigs.
Waste must be collected every now and then by
sweeping it out from the pond or scooping it out
the bedding. The waste can be set aside and used
as fertilizer for plants.

The bedding depth must also be maintained. From

time to time the bedding sinks (due to the weight
of the pigs) or gets wet, so it is important to add
fresh bedding. After harvest, it is recommended to
change all the bedding and replace to new
bedding before new piglets are stocked.
The wallowing pond must be filled with up to 6
inches deep water every morning and must be
drained and cleaned every afternoon. It is not
advisable to leave water there overnight because
the temperature of piggery area may become too
cool for the pigs.

FEEDING

It is also important that the pigs are fed organic

feed or natural feed, such as Feedpro, that contain
no harmful antibiotics or harmful growth
hormones. Some growers have experienced
shortcomings when growing their pigs (e.g.
piggery has bad odor, growth targets are not
achieved) because they use non-natural feeds.

Feedpro follows the typical feeding program or

feeding schedule of conventional feeds. It can be
fed to pigs dry (which is the conventional way of
feeding), wet, or fermented. To ferment feeds,
Feedpro is soaked in water (1 kilo of feeds to 3
liters of water) for up to 12 hours. The fermented
feeds are then given to the pigs in its liquid form.
Fermentation is recommended because it further
stimulates the Probiotics in the feeds before they
even reach the gut. Please note only Feedpro
feeds from starter to finisher are allowed to be
fermented.

PROBIOTICS

Feedpro natural feed contain select strains of

Probiotics – live yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and
organic acids – that all work together to improve
the pigs’ gut health. In turn, it improves their
digestion thereby allowing their bodies to
optimally absorb the nutrients in the feeds. The
Probiotics or good bacteria work by outnumbering
the number of pathogens or harmful bacteria in
the digestive tract and competing with these
harmful bacteria for their food source. Because of
these healthy Probiotics, pigs are able to achieve
the same growth rates or even better growth rates
than conventional feeds that use antibiotics and
medications.

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