The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: sashadog on October 21, 2012, 05:33:24 pm

Title: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: sashadog on October 21, 2012, 05:33:24 pm

Just an intro to introduce myself and say hello,,,Ive recently acquired 2 Pigs for fattening and then geting butchered,,,All i know about them is what the guy i bought them from has told me about feeding them etc,,,I just want some clarification that i am doing it correctly really,,

They were 10 weeks old when i got them 2 weeks ago,,they seem very content and happy,and seem to have grown in the 2 weeks,,I dont know what bread they are,but they are a whiteish pinky colour with a good bit of black markings on them,,,I am in Ireland by the way,,From looking at the different breads on this site they seem more like the British Saddleback variety,,

 I am feeding them 2 ibs of rolled oats and barley mixed with a little scoop of soyafeed added in with it,,twice a day,,,and they also get a good bit of scraps from the house,,,,is this enough/too much ?,,and when should i up the feed if this is enough at present,,,They are outside on grass and seem happy out digging up the grass and getting roots etc,,They have a proper shed to go into with a straw bed,,

Thats all the questions i have at the minute,,and would love some advise and input from yous folks,,thanks,

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: sashadog on October 21, 2012, 05:43:20 pm

THIS IS THEM FOLKS

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: Mrs Snoodles on October 21, 2012, 05:54:31 pm

hi there,
The general rule is one pound of food per month of age per day. So 2 and a half pounds per day per pig should be enough right now, especially if they are on grass (which gives them roughly an extra 10 percent).
Hope this helps :)

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: sashadog on October 21, 2012, 06:15:05 pm

Thanks for that,,i just makeing sure,,when would i increase there food,,,as i dont want to either underfeed or overfeed them (wouldnt want too much fat on the meet)

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: deepinthewoods on October 21, 2012, 07:13:57 pm

hi from cornwall! :thumbsup:
 come and say hi in the 'introduce yourself 'section and tell us all a bit more about yourself, enjoy the forum! :tree:

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: sabrina on October 23, 2012, 09:40:32 am

Hi and welcome, sure you will enjoy having your pigs but food from the kitchen is a no no. Read up on rules, they are very strict. :wave:

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: SallyintNorth on October 23, 2012, 09:54:33 am

I'll reprint the answer I gave under your identical Introduce Yourself post here.

Quote from: SallyintNorth on October 21, 2012, 10:45:05 pm

Hi sashadog.

The usual rule-of-thumb for free range pigs is 1lb hard feed per pig per month of age up to 4 or 6 months (depending on the model you are following.)

So at 12 weeks, 3lbs per pig per day. 

Scraps and fruit/veg, if fed, replaces hard feed at a rate of about 4:1.  So if you're feeding 2lbs grain, you'd need 4lbs veg on top of that to replace the other 1lb grain.

They'll grow, alright!   :D  The thinking is you can almost feed ad lib up to 4 months, and fairly high protein, but at about 4 months, cut the protein back to less than 20%.

Most of us with the non-commercial / rare breeds cap the hard feed at 4lbs per day.  They are very prone to getting overfat, so continuing to increase by 1lb/week up to 6lbs will result in excess backfat.

I don't know the rules in Ireland, but in England, Scotland and Wales we are not allowed to feed scraps from the house.  Waste from the veg plot is fine.

Title: Re: HELLO,,HELLO,HELLO,FROM IRELAND
Post by: HappyHippy on October 23, 2012, 11:00:17 am

Hello from me  :wave:

Ditto everything Sally says, especially the bit about NO kitchen scraps  :thumbsup:
They look like good pigs, look forward to hearing how you get on.
Karen