The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: 90driver on May 07, 2013, 05:41:50 pm

Title: feeding on grass.
Post by: 90driver on May 07, 2013, 05:41:50 pm

My pigs are loving their new enclosure and spend their waking hours munching at the grass. How does everyone else adjust the feeding accordingly ?

Title: Re: feeding on grass.
Post by: Sudanpan on May 07, 2013, 06:18:42 pm

Ours have a good old munch at the grass in their paddock but I don't tend to make any allowance for it by reducing their hard feed. I go with the rule of thumb of 1lb food per month of age each day, but once they are over 4 months old I tend to give a max of 4.5 lbs food a day (or at least I try!)
We send our pigs to slaughter at between 6 and 7 months, and the last two lots were a good fat to met ratio. The first year we obviously overfed (was feeding about 6lbs each a day at the end) and there was quite a thick layer of fat.....  :innocent:

Title: Re: feeding on grass.
Post by: Berkshire Boy on May 07, 2013, 08:32:54 pm

Just class the grass as a treat don't adjust their feed.

Title: Re: feeding on grass.
Post by: Bodger on May 08, 2013, 11:23:58 am

IMO, you can drop the hard feed a little bit to compensate for what they're getting from the grass and thats especially at this time of the year. They're not ruminants but they can get quite a bit out of good grass.
We throw our pigs in fresh cut grass from the mower box and as you say, they love it.
The traditional breeds of pigs can tend to run to fat and access to grass can be a way of combatting this.

Title: Re: feeding on grass.
Post by: 90driver on May 08, 2013, 05:08:33 pm

Thanks for the collective wisdom.