feeding pigs

[piggy]

Hi every one thanks for the great advice you have all given me.

At the moment we feed our pigs sow and weaner nuts although i get them at cost price as i run a equestrian/pet shop we are still finding it very costly.i have just read the post about feeding soaked sugar beet,this is our first lot of pigs and when i collected them i was told that we should only feed them the nuts or meal as you are not aloud to feed them anything else is that correct?

We have lots of fallen apples,plums from our orchid and pototoe and veg peeling can we give this to them?

Thanks

Karen

[Merlin]

Hi Karen,
            it's true that there are restrictions on what you can feed pigs. It's illegal to feed what used to be known as 'swill' or kitchen waste. But you can feed fresh and cooked veggies , fruit , nuts and bread as well as cereals.Definately no meat or food with meat derivatives ( like gravy for example). Most pigs like a varied diet and many truly freeranged pigs thrive without needing commercial pig food.
hope this helps.
Jim 

[garden cottage]

Hi karen, I will quote to you what defra has sent to us thro the post,make of it what you will.-----It has been illegal to feed catering waste to farmed animals in the uk since 2001, and this ban was adopted by the whole european community in 2003. IF YOU ARE CONVICTED OF FEEDING CATERING WASTE TO FARMED ANIMALS YOU CAN BE FINED OR SENTENCED TO A MAXIMUM OF 2YRS IN PRISON. the law is there to help prevent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease and other animal diseases such as swine fever-catering waste can be a major source of these diseases. catering waste is defined as all waste food,whether raw or cooked, including used cooking oils, which arise in premises such as household kitchens,restaurants,fish chips,pizza,kebab shops, takeaway shops canteens,cafes,veg kitchens.
It also includes food waste from other premises(food factories,distribution warehouses etc.) that contains or has been in contact with animal by-products(such as raw eggs,meat,fish products) and this must not be fed to farmed animals. so in other words you can only feed veg or fruit that hasnt been thro a kitchen.
grim reading indeed..........neil

[rustyme]

it's a shame they didn't apply the LAW to their own establishment ......from where the last case of foot and mouth broke out... I wonder if there was any fine or imprisonment for that ......WHY DO I DOUBT THAT  ?  ,and wasn't it the government that told us it was perfectly ok to put dead sheep and cows into sheep and cow feed ? oh yes then we had BSE !!!!! Most of what THEY put on paper is fit for one thing !!!! wiping a*ses.........Just think back a few years ... who was it that said we should use swill in the first place ??

Rant over .....it is the government that gets up my nose ...not anyone on here !!!! They just do not have a clue what they are doing .....

cheers

Russ

[Higgins11]

so i'm guessing pasturized or unpasturized goats milk would be a no no to feed to pigs huh?

[gavo]

Oh well - can they sentence pigs ?
One of my sows took a fancy to a chicken that wandered into her paddock - not much trace of the chicken now....


Cheers

Gavin

[rustyme]

oh my god .... thats it then .... the chicken had bird flu and  that was passed on to the pig and the pig will now pass it on to humans... thats it we've had it .....Spanish flu all over again....

 

Russ

[Higgins11]

so the group thinks this would not be classified as Swill since it has never been in the "Kitchen"?

[Hilarysmum]

   Give them the fruit, they will taste all the better for it.

[Linda]

Hi Karen

Just to echo everyone else, you aren't allowed to give them anything that can be classified as kitchen waste, or food that has come from catering establishments, been in contact with meat etc, etc.  They are so strict in the Isle of Man that when I asked our local Dept of Agriculture vetinary officer whether I could give my pigs milk, I was told that if I bought milk from the dairy and gave it straight to the pigs that was OK, but if I put it in my fridge and then wanted to give it to the pigs I couldn't - even if the bottle was still unopened!  Ridiculous...

In the end we fed our pigs Smallholder weaner/finisher pencils and supplemented them with veg straight from the garden - they didn't like courgettes no matter what I did with them but loved sweetcorn.  Every time we mowed the lawn we gave them the fresh clippings - they used to run up and down the garden following the lawnmower!  However, their absolute favourite treat was fruit - apples, bananas, plums, strawberries, peaches and really juicy pears.  I make preserves which I sell at Farmers Markets so it was easy to give them the squashy leftovers from the bottom of baskets, but by going to local shops/wholesalers late in the day, it was easy to pick up fruit that was reduced in price or about to be thrown out.  Don't worry about de-stoning the fruit, pigs love crunching them and getting the kernel inside!  Stay away from citrus fruit though... 

[Rosemary]

Ours loved courgettes - the bigger, the better. Which was just as well!

[kaz]

My son used to collect the goats milk from a local dairy and than put the containers in the stream to keep cool, would that count as a fridge.
His pigs loved bananas the riper the better.

[Higgins11]

I found a link to a farm here in NC that feeds their pigs whey from a cheese making operation.

I would think a fringe in the barn (or some other location .......Just not in your kitchen with your food) would be ok