Pig food

[GrassFarmerGalloway]

First post.

What do you feed your pigs? Grain? Scraps? Acorns? Free range? Let's hear it!

 

[laughingllama75]

We feed poulin (grower) and veg. scraps from the house/garden. We also feed yogurt, from the local yogurt plant. we don't feed bread or bakery stuff, and no meat scraps.

*edited to add, we pasture 6 (piglets to market weight) on 2 acres of oak woods. they get to exercise as they wish, and we keep them in 3 strand electric fence.

 

[trishok8]

We feed flora Muzurie (sp) and then she eats the chicken food, and the whatever goat food hits the floor she eats and they she eats whatever she can dig up in the yard, roots, bulbs, so I don't feed her scraps as a result.

 

[potbellymom]

we feed mostly produce and pelleted food on occasion. I do know of another rescue who had a pig die from ingesting to many acorns which proved to be toxic. Ours do eat the occasional one before they are raked up but I wouldnt make it a main part of their diet, just in case.

 

[ChickenPotPie]

My sons are raising their first market pig. They feed Nutrena Ringmaster only. Nothing else. I tried giving it some strawberries once add it was not interested at all. The teen leader of the project then told me to not feed it anything else but the prescribed feed.

This sounds very different from what you all are doing. Has anyone raised swine this way? How do the results compare between the two method - all bagged feed vs. scrap/free range/pasture?

 

[Livinzoo]

I feed my pigs a variety. They are on pasture plus get pig food, scraps, and lots of expired milk products. They prefer their milk to a little chuncky. Silly pigs. We have about 2 months till processing time, gotta get their appointment.

 

[laughingllama75]

My sons are raising their first market pig. They feed Nutrena Ringmaster only. Nothing else. I tried giving it some strawberries once add it was not interested at all. The teen leader of the project then told me to not feed it anything else but the prescribed feed.

This sounds very different from what you all are doing. Has anyone raised swine this way? How do the results compare between the two method - all bagged feed vs. scrap/free range/pasture?

I certainly don't think it will hurt just feeding what you are.....you may have been advised to feed that way, so all the kids feed their hogs the same and no one has an unfair advantage as to what their hog looks like come show/market time.

*wow. that was quite the run on sentence. Sorry.
:/

 

[soctippy]

the pig food you see at a feed store is a complete feed. it provides all the nutrients a pig needs to grow and put on muscle. treats are just fine, i encourage my 4-H kids to treat them it makes it a lot easier to get them into the trailer for fair. also they will eat just about anything, and in general are smart enough not to eat anything toxic.

 

[ChickenPotPie]

Ah, okay. Yeah, I think the kids want the pigs to be fed just one thing so there is no question as to what they've been eating (in case one gets sick) and so that they will put on the most weight by fair time.

I think I'll let me kids know that they can bring treats for their pig to give him, though. I like the idea of making sure the pig has a reason to do what you ask of him.

Also, one of the kids told my boys that they gave them donuts to put more weight on them last year so....

We'll try some kind of treat. Oreos, maybe.

 

[jlbpooh]

Our pigs just went to slaughter a couple of weeks ago. We fed them All-Stock, lots of bread, household scraps other than meat, lots of leftover eggs, and the leftovers from a local gardener's garden. We also would get day-old twinkies as treats. The meat we have eaten so far has been the juiciest, most tender, and flavorful meat I have ever eaten.