Author Topic: pig feeding aid (Read 1795 times)

tommiddleton · « **on:** September 08, 2014, 10:37:17 am »

I have been keeping pigs for the last 5 years as a family activity and as I have to leave early to go to school and return late in the evening. I plan to design for my a level project a system to speed up the pig feeding process. I am sure many other people have this problem and it would be great if I could have a few opinions of what you feel would be a good idea to include in the design.
any response would be immensely helpful,
Tom

Fowgill Farm · « **Reply #1 on:** September 08, 2014, 08:33:19 pm »

Probably gonna upset ya but depending how many pigs you have it should only take you half hour forty mins to doo your pigs you cant leave animal husbandry to a machine pigs need checking twice a day & if you cant get up a bit earlier then imo dont have them there are already quite a lot of auto feders on the market more suuted to the commercial guys but generally us smallholders prefer doing it ourselves
Mandy

Clansman · « **Reply #2 on:** September 08, 2014, 08:46:27 pm »

I'm guessing you just skim read Tom's post and jumped to a conclusion Mandy.

If you read it properly you will see he makes no mention of using a machine to replace animal husbandry.

He's not looking to make some Wallace and Grommit contraption that rears pigs without any human input.

His project is to "design a system to speed up the feeding process." This would help him and the other members of the family who i guess also feed the pigs.

That could well be as simple as an automatic weighing system and /or an auger or belt system that drops the feed into the pigs feeder rather than doing it manually.

We have 22 pigs at the moment but I can't think of anything that would speed the process up for us other than maybe weighing it out.

We have a measuring scoop and its so many scoops to a bucket depending on which pen it is, then empty the bucket into the feeder, it probably takes me 5 mins for a feed although some of the buckets are heavy and anyone smaller doing it sometimes needs two or three trips per pen, maybe something that moved the feed mechanically to the feeder would help us. possibly a pulley system or similar

shygirl · « **Reply #3 on:** September 08, 2014, 09:29:45 pm »

something that stops you getting covered in mud, stinking of pigs and less time consuming would be helpful. when my pigs were free-ranging in different fields it was quite time consuming, especially if some needed more feed than others. something like feed chutes into the field so you can feed them without having to wade through mud in the winter.
we leave/return for school/work in the pitch black mid-winter so unless they are living inside most things are done in the dark.

Fowgill Farm · « **Reply #4 on:** September 09, 2014, 11:26:42 am »

Quote from: Clansman on September 08, 2014, 08:46:27 pm

I'm guessing you just skim read Tom's post and jumped to a conclusion Mandy.

If you read it properly you will see he makes no mention of using a machine to replace animal husbandry.

He's not looking to make some Wallace and Grommit contraption that rears pigs without any human input.

His project is to "design a system to speed up the feeding process." This would help him and the other members of the family who i guess also feed the pigs.

That could well be as simple as an automatic weighing system and /or an auger or belt system that drops the feed into the pigs feeder rather than doing it manually.

Maybe Clansman but even with such a system, you still have to fill it up and then theres break downs, the only thing that i find speeds up feeding time is being prepared. IE making the morning feeds up the night before and making the night feeds up straight after the morning ones so you're always ahead, i also fill water troughs at night feed time then they only need a top up in the morning as pigs don't tend to mess their water about so much in the night so this saves time in the morning too. I currently have 19 pigs and can be all done in half an hour with forward prep, its not rocket science just being super organised.
Mandy

mowhaugh · « **Reply #5 on:** September 09, 2014, 05:20:37 pm »

I don't think he was saying he minds getting up early, more that as he has to do an A level project, he would like to use his own personal experience as a stimulus for this, which seems emminently sensible to me. He is going to have to do the project regardless, so why not about something interesting and personal?

No actual ideas as with only 7 pigs it is a very quick job, but looking forward to hearing ideas.