Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?  (Read 9172 times)

david c

  • Joined Jun 2013
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #15 on: March 13, 2017, 02:30:55 am »
Do you have a link for the feeding silage study please?

Cheers

David


hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #17 on: March 13, 2017, 02:50:46 pm »
Haven't read any of the reports but I would imagine that if rearing pigs on silage was viable we'd all be doing it already, given the relatively cheap and plentiful nature of the stuff. Can't see it working personally.

farmers wife

  • Joined Jul 2009
  • SE Wales
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #18 on: March 14, 2017, 03:24:56 pm »
there are farmers who wont change or refuse to beleive the evidence.  Likewise farmers refuse to beleive in organic farming or mob grazing.


The results in the trail were favourable.  Again pigs like to root and used to eat mainly nuts etc.  So adding a percentage of sileage to the feed could cut costs drastically. There are pig farmers who feed enormous amounts of potatoes but the evidence says you shouldnt do this due to the lack of protein.


The study was done on outdoor pigs not intense indoor reared. I am sure there will be farmers doing this but not shouting about it.


We no longer make sileage due to the studies done on the gut damage, gas and amounts of muck animals produce on it - it is extremely acidic. Also the amounts of plastic produced is ridiculous and another cost in disposing when on a low input farm.

greenbeast

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #19 on: March 14, 2017, 03:56:58 pm »

We no longer make sileage due to the studies done on the gut damage, gas and amounts of muck animals produce on it - it is extremely acidic. Also the amounts of plastic produced is ridiculous and another cost in disposing when on a low input farm.

was starting to think this might be good for us, until this ...

big soft moose

  • Joined Oct 2016
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #20 on: March 14, 2017, 09:14:01 pm »
How did people achieve the 16% protein  in the days before commercial pelleted pig feed was the way forward ?

farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #21 on: March 14, 2017, 09:15:20 pm »
How did people achieve the 16% protein  in the days before commercial pelleted pig feed was the way forward ?

I've noticed that many on here seem to forget that all manner of stock were raised perfectly well pre 1980.

greenbeast

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #22 on: March 14, 2017, 09:26:12 pm »
well yes but now we know scientifically what is optimum and can achieve it with a prepared food.

farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #23 on: March 14, 2017, 09:37:58 pm »
well yes but now we know scientifically what is optimum and can achieve it with a prepared food.

Do we? I wonder.

Seven Acres

  • Joined Aug 2016
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #24 on: March 15, 2017, 11:44:02 am »
Thank you for all your replies.

I wasn't looking to 'mill' my own feed, I was looking to buy bags of crushed oats, barley, peas etc. and just mix my own to save cost.

The bags of breeding sow nuts at the local merchant, A Nichols (Cow Mills) is £7.34 per 20kg bag. From our understanding we should feed her 450g of food each day for each month of age, up to a maximum of 2.75kg per day, therefore a 20kg bag lasts her approx. 7 days, making her quite an expensive keep (she's as expensive as my horses)

We do get boxes of fresh veg for her and have been feeding that at a ration of 1:4, therefore 4kg of veg to 1 kg nuts as we were told.

Please do let me know if we are overfeeding her or doing anything wrong, don't want to hurt our piggy :)

kja

  • Joined Oct 2012
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #25 on: March 15, 2017, 12:55:50 pm »
How did people achieve the 16% protein  in the days before commercial pelleted pig feed was the way forward ?

Fish meal, meat meal, bone meal, peas, beans etc etc

 
we can still learn if we are willing to listen.

kja

  • Joined Oct 2012
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #26 on: March 15, 2017, 01:03:24 pm »
Thank you for all your replies.

I wasn't looking to 'mill' my own feed, I was looking to buy bags of crushed oats, barley, peas etc. and just mix my own to save cost.

The bags of breeding sow nuts at the local merchant, A Nichols (Cow Mills) is £7.34 per 20kg bag. From our understanding we should feed her 450g of food each day for each month of age, up to a maximum of 2.75kg per day, therefore a 20kg bag lasts her approx. 7 days, making her quite an expensive keep (she's as expensive as my horses)

We do get boxes of fresh veg for her and have been feeding that at a ration of 1:4, therefore 4kg of veg to 1 kg nuts as we were told.

Please do let me know if we are overfeeding her or doing anything wrong, don't want to hurt our piggy :)

Depends what fruit and veg your feeding they all come with different feed values for example cabbages are 10lb of cabbage is equal to 1lb of of pig nuts, 8 lb of swede or mangolds is equal to 1 lb of pig nuts potatoes have the best conversion but are best fed cooked. Where a bouts in the country are you ?
we can still learn if we are willing to listen.

harmony

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #27 on: March 15, 2017, 01:13:36 pm »
How did people achieve the 16% protein  in the days before commercial pelleted pig feed was the way forward ?

I've noticed that many on here seem to forget that all manner of stock were raised perfectly well pre 1980.


They were fatter and took longer to finish. They were fed swill which would have had some meat content.


My pigs will eat silage sometimes but then they drink and bring it back up.




Seven Acres

  • Joined Aug 2016
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #28 on: March 15, 2017, 01:58:37 pm »
Hi Kja,

I wasn't aware of that, is there a table which would provide me with the information so I could refer to it? We are also finding it difficult to condition score her, everyone says you should be able to press firmly and feel their backbone and hips, but even though we have halved her food, I still can't do that, though I don't believe she is overweight, she has a waistline and is very active (she's a Berkshire cross GOS if that makes a difference)

We are in Somerset, between Bristol and Bath, an area called Keynsham.

farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Does anyone mix their own pig feed?
« Reply #29 on: March 15, 2017, 02:16:05 pm »
I think yet again we're in danger of generalising, and of preaching short-term experience as fact.

The best answer to these sort of things is "do the detailed research, and then experiment". You'll get lots of people telling you that you'll never do any good with it, but just look as the situation with beef cattle feeding at the moment:

After 60 years of trying to analyse and define everything that a cow needs to convert food to muscle, and trying to devise handling and housing systems to cut down on labour costs, people have finally realised that self-service silage and kale is the best and easiest way to keep cattle though the winter. Outdoors too! I've suggested this to local beef hobby farmers, and I get moans about field poaching and what-not.... well... that's because you're overstocked!

I dont question the pressures modern commercial farmers are under from the supermarkets (and it is the supermarkets, not the consumers), but smallholders are not in that game - nor should they be.

If you want to develop a system for your pigs to feed natural, local, produce, then I applaude you. It won't be easy, but you should certainly try, and let us know the results! I will be doing the same sort of thing when our pigs arrive, and am quite content to have years of trial and error getting the fat/meat/health balance correct.

The general retort to this sort of stuff (so I've found) is "oh, but what about animal welfare!!!"... *sigh*, you would hope that all smallholders have animal welfare at the forefront, but that doesn't mean we need to pretend to be commercial farmers, and copy their systems.

 

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