With the decline of prices for live hogs in Cambodia, due to the outbreak of blue ear disease and cheap live hog imports from Vietnam and Thailand, farmers urgently need to cut their losses and drive profits again.

According to Ly Laville, general manager of Mong Reththy’s pig farm, M’s Pig ACMC (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., who was quoted in the The Post last Friday, Cambodian farmers are losing out when they are selling their live hogs for less than $2 per kilogram.

Imported live hogs, however, sell for $1.75 per kilogram, as Laville stated, which makes it impossible for Cambodian farmers to compete with foreign imports without losing $0.25 on every kilogram they sell.

While it is difficult to control market prices, more and more farmers understand that they have to reduce mortality rate, maximise growth performance and minimise expenses on the farm to become profitable again. Bayer Animal Healthcare Program is the best new solution for Cambodian farmers to address all the above three factors necessary for maintaining or obtaining their farm profitability.

Romain Grosjean, general sales manager for the Singaporean industrial firm Jebsen and Jessen, said his company had just become the exclusive distributor for Bayer Animal Health products in Cambodia.

Bayer, the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant, was founded in 1863 and enjoys a world-wide reputation for world’s best quality animal healthcare product and customer support.

“We have very detailed and adoptable animal healthcare programmes from Bayer, which emphasise preventive care. The programme is quite innovative in the way it focuses on the economic value for the farmer in avoiding health challenges in the first place.

So far we have had very good feedback from our customers who have adopted our programme on their farms,” Grosjean explained and added that broadening farmers’ knowledge and skills in recognising diseases is an important part of reducing costs in the raising of pigs before they are sold in the market.

“What usually happens when you have visible issues or symptoms on your farm is that you are only seeing the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as the economical damage has already taken place in terms of lost or slower growth,” Grosjean said.

The calculation that explains how using Bayer Animal Healthcare products profits the farmer is simple.

“Using our care programmes costs you a maximum of $0.842 per piglet while losing a piglet is losing $50 to $60,” Grosjean explained, adding that it was natural that sometimes pigs would get ill even if they received the best preventive care available.

In these cases, Grosjean said, it is very important to perform a correct diagnosis, and to have the right products with the highest quality available.

“You need to fight diseases with the best tools you can get. We are here to provide you with these tools,” he said.

”With proper care, your returns are much higher when compared to the cost of the treatment. The idea is that the cost of protecting your livestock against disease with premium, effective animal health products is only a fraction of what you stand to lose if you do not use any preventive care, or use poor quality products for treatment.”

For free consultation on the Animal Healthcare Programme, call: 010-888-001