Hand feeding numerous feeder pigs?

[OneFineAcre]

I had my pigs in a 100'x70' pen (my garden) fenced in 2"x4"x4' non climb horse wire. They never got out. I had bought electric wire set up, but took it back. The man we bought them from had huge sows in some really crappy pens that they could have got out of if they wanted, but they didn't , go figure.

Have a special treat that your pigs like, if they do get out, shaking a coffee can of treats will bring them running. And have a special call for them when you have treats. The boiled eggs would be a good treat.

What did you end up with a hanging weight?

 

[Baymule]

Live weight was 204, 224, and 289 pounds. When I get total pounds on wrapped meat, I will do a cost analysis and post on my feeder pig thread. If I didn't need my garden space back, I would have kept them longer to feed them longer so I could get bigger, piggier pigs!

 

[OneFineAcre]

Live weight was 204, 224, and 289 pounds. When I get total pounds on wrapped meat, I will do a cost analysis and post on my feeder pig thread. If I didn't need my garden space back, I would have kept them longer to feed them longer so I could get bigger, piggier pigs!

That's about wher you would want to be depending upon how much fat and mArbeling you want
Maurine's dad likes 250 lb pig we like 270 lb pig

 

[blucoondawg]

Got the pigs out in their woods pasture area today, not really a pasture but it's a nice big pen. They figured out the electric fence right away, 3 of them ran right through it and back in they kept running through for maybe 5 minutes then they figured out if the run out than they have to run back in and get nailed again, now they avoid it and back up when they do hit it. They figured out the nipple waterer in about 15 minutes I just had to keep sticking marshmallows on it until they realized it was a water valve

 

[blucoondawg]

I made some troughs out of a water heater probably gonna weld the 2 together at some point and make 1 longer one

 

[Baymule]

I would use the water heater trough for water and make a wooden feed trough. Your pigs are looking good!

 

[blucoondawg]

I have a wood trough I built to but I expect it to get destroyed. With the nipple waterer I don't have need for a water tank and unless I welded some sort of stabilizers on it they'd just dump it anyways, they probably still would dump it if I did weld legs on. I wet their feed down to a almost runny consistency. One half the tank will just barely fit all 7 if they cooperate with each other which they don't for very long. The other half of the tank has all the holes where the pipes were threaded in I'm gonna weld them closed and either have 2 troughs or weld them together for 1 long one.

 

[Baymule]

I would do 2 troughs. I love water heater tanks! I have a BBQ pit made from one.

 

[blucoondawg]

Well I've modified my feeding a bit, still feeding in the troughs twice a day but it seemed they were a little behind growth wide from what I've been reading on the web so I've upped the feed to the point that they leave a fair amount in the trough, they go sleep it off for a bit then they'll pick away at the leftovers through out the day and usually finish it off before evening feed time then I do the same again.
These pigs were born in mid January so they're 4 months old now but the biggest one is just getting around 90 lbs by tape measure so it seems to be they're Little behind but we have had a lot of cold weather which I suppose could slow them down a bit.

What would you think is a reasonable expectation for a butcher date on these heritage hogs to be in the 250 live weight range? I need to get a appointment at the butcher, I was thinking October or November but I'd think they should get there before that?

 

[Baymule]

I raised three half Large Black and half Berkshire, in my garden area. They had to go to slaughter in March because I needed my garden back. I got them in November, they were probably 2 months old, I kept them 4 months and already posted their weights on this thread. So that should help you figure weight/slaughter for yours.

I fed mine twice a day too, enough that they had a little left on the next feeding. September would probably be good, no need to wait until October on November unless you want bigger pigs.