[Dundonald hens]

silly me i thought you would let them on to the cereal crops before they had dried out to much to allow them to digest them

[Tamsaddle]

If you let them dig it up themselves how will you know when they have eaten 300 kg of grass, 100 kg of arrots and 100 kg of carrots etc?

[littlemisspiggy!]

it is a sad fact that the scientists have taken over and the law is costing us all a fortune! its just left us with no choice but to feed nuts..having said that you can use nuts as the main diet and suplement in all the above veg etc...nice for the pigs and a little nicer on the pocket if youve got the room and time to grow it that is!...we feed nuts to our pigs and it costs a fortune,ive had to take on an extra shift at work every other week now just to suplement wages..we have 3 sows,a boar and have 5 raising for meat at the moment and we are spending over £60 a week on nuts alone then theres the goat food,lamb pellets,hay (dont get me started on the price of that!!lol..)oh yes and layers pellets..all in all about £90 + a week on feed

[HappyHippy]

I have even heard of dare I say it "grass reared pigs" that are not as fat as pigs feed with modern comercial feeds but are aparantly far beetr tasting ??

I've not heard of these myself  can you give more info please ?
The closest thing imho, to a grass reared pig would be a Kune Kune, but they still need the back-up of around a pound of hard feeding for the first year to promote good, healthy growth and obviously more when there is no nourishment to be had from the grass. To raise two KK's on grass you'd need an acre minimum to give them enough feeding, the addition of plenty of fruit and veg (which you could obviously grow yourself) and you'd need to be prepared for a longer finishing time (8-10 months) and a higher purchase price than your 'average' weaner.
Karen 
PS. Any pig which is outside WILL taste far better than a commercially reared one - but that's to do with the 'enrichment' they get from the soil (think roots, shoots, worms and bugs  )

[Berkshire Boy]

i think the real issue with feeding is land. If you are going to feed root crops etc you need a lot of land. I have 10 sows and 3 boars and not much land, I grow stubble turnips in the pens while the pigs are in the woods but that is just a supplement to their bought in feed. If I had to grow my own I wouldn't be able to keep the number of pigs I do.
Also how do you monitor the quantities they are eating at least with the grain I know what they are getting and how long they will take to slaughter weight, I don't want to have to wait 12 or 18 months just to save a few bob on grain.

[Hilarysmum]

Proper pig feed ?  they Need to be feed ?
What did they do for the thousands of years without us ? did theygrow there own and take it to the mills ? oh thats right there was no mills.

Well the sanglier here exist mostly on robbing the farmers crops, and whatever they find naturally roaming over a few hundred acres to exist.  Of the 4 or 5 piglets they produce perhaps one will survive to adulthood.  The chasse hunt, kill and eat them.  The carcass is stringy, with little fat. 

Perhaps if you grow your own feed you could share your experiences of the quality and quantity of pork at killing.  It will be interesting to contrast the quality of the meat produced, as well as the cost per kilo.  Although if I were only interested in producing low cost meat, I would be better buying from the supermarket .

[TheCaptain]

I have even heard of dare I say it "grass reared pigs" that are not as fat as pigs feed with modern comercial feeds but are aparantly far beetr tasting ??

I have read that some of the Yanks raise their pigs on pasture, and house them in 'pig-loos' - polytunnels to you and I.

[Sylvia]

I think you will find it most economical to feed "bought" feed and eke it out with fruit, veg, acorns etc. A hungry pig will also go looking for food and as we all know, once a pig decides to travel you'll have the Devil's own job to stop it and there is nothing more calculated to make bad neighbours!!
I had 3 Berkshire sows( but have swopped now to Kune Kune )and despite feeding them expensive feed and crates of fruit  and veg. they reduced two acres to plough in no time (and escaped for the hell of it--they were known throughout the neighbourhood)

[Tudful Tamworths]

You may muse over how previous generations managed to raise their pigs without the luxury of proprietory pig nuts, rolls, etc, but there is no comparison between the kind of carcasses they were getting back all those years ago and the kind of carcasses we, as consumers (or your potential customers) will expect.
Do it your way and let us know how your pigs turn out.

[chickenfeed]

i think some of the input on here is very valuable, most fodder crops are slow growing and 1 acre whilst a nice plot to rear pigs will not be big enough to grow fodder and rear them.

for every 1LB of meal you replace you will need to feed 10lb of cabbage, 8lb of mangolds or swede or 4lb of potatoes (these will need to be cooked to make them more digestable and remove the risk of solanim poisoning, dont use the cooking water for the pigs though)

so a pig on 5lb of meal a day you will need 20lb potatoes or 50lb cabbage 40lb of mangolds or swede. so 2 pigs will almost eat a sack of potatoes a day 40 sacks to the ton thats alot of potatoes you will need to grow.

i visited a farm with pigs the other week they had 2 pigs (fattners) in a 4 acre paddock (sectioned off into small sections)that had been turned into one big dust bath not a sign of grass and no chance of reseeding in this dry spell.

i like your way of wanting to raise your pigs in the reallity i dont think it can work given the growth rate of the crops will be way too slow to feed the pigs.

[Dundonald hens]

Well I have to say that I am truely shocked at how negative some people on here can be " bah humbug this is how you do it and may god strike you down if you want to change it " folks and im sure you will know who you are lighten up !!!!
Also  i am not only intrested in cheap meat I want cheap sustanable meat that I know has had a good life a vision that I am truely shocked that you do not all share.
As for caring about anaimlas I have had horses since I was wee and worked with them all my adult life and the 2 at present come out of the hard winters that we have had ove the past few years and great condition with a lovely coat and a good layer a fat to keep them warm as a matter of fact in better conditon than some horse kept in stables and fed all this procesed horse feed and yip you guesed it they live out with a feild shelter and some halage when the grounds frozen.
Wel its getting dark I better go and give he lambs there egg cup of milk ,the horses there 2 blades of grass and tie the chickens to stakes for  the foxes to eat !!!

[gavo]

Dundonald

Just go and do it your way and see how it goes. The rest of us will do it ours;if you feel that you can do it then go ahead i hope you prove the nay sayers wrong (for the sake of the pigs ),but if you don't then you'll have some miserable pigs.

[Dundonald hens]

Gavo I am planning my rotational planting right now !! and dont worry about the pigs they will be very well looked after

[gavo]

I'm sure they will be please just keep an eye on condition and supplement their home grown feed when/ if warranted.

[Hilarysmum]

I don't think we are at all negative.  Many of us have kept pigs for years, and have seen many different regimes work or fail.  You asked for our input we gave it.  Horses have evolved to live on grass, pigs are omnivores.  I have seen so many people who want to p roduce cheap meat, and I cant think of one case where the pig was a decent size at slaughtering.  I would be really pleased if you found a method which worked, and publish it here, I will print it out and take it around to those here who would like to follow your plan.