The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: David @ Hector Blooms on July 15, 2013, 05:39:48 pm
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I feed the pigs twice a day and noticed the largest one (she's always been a big girl, lol), has started nudging and squealing when the other 2 try to share the food. Although ground feeding is by, most opinions, wasteful, I prefer this due to initially, a lack of finances but the main reason is that they would do this naturally? We all know they like foraging and digging (boy, they don't half dig, so much so, they have found several pieces of coal!) Anyways, back on point, how can I prevent or curb her food bullying but not alter ground feeding?
They've still got about 15 weeks to go and would prefer them all to be a similar weight, was going to send the larger girl first but I'm rearing to baconers
As per usual, any advice would be much appreciated
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Hi :wave:
I like to ground feed too and what I do is scatter it over as large an area as possible - this stops fights and makes it last a wee bit longer too and especially with all this lovely dry weather nothing gets wasted ;D
ppd
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I ground feed also as I have 3 pigs I normally scatter it in a long line so by the time one start nudging the other or squeeling most of the food has gone by then
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when we had a "fatty" but had others that needed feeding on, we simply moved one through a gate at feeding time. then we could control the amount they got, and then supervised the feeding. it was easy for us as we had fields next to each other, and ours were so tame/bucket focussed we didnt worry about them running away. or we put the fatty in a stable/trailer during feeding.
we also fed on the ground but got onto sow rolls as soon as we could as it saved wastage due to the size of them.
you can scatter the feed over a wide distance if you throw it with a scoop.
we also used to slip the slimmer pig etc portions when fatty wasnt looking. we had large woodlands so this was possible, would be tricky in a little paddock.
ref coal - you may be sitting on a fortune :excited: ;)
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Hi :wave:
I like to ground feed too and what I do is scatter it over as large an area as possible - this stops fights and makes it last a wee bit longer too and especially with all this lovely dry weather nothing gets wasted ;D
ppd
gets my vote - spread far and wide - pigs exhibit natural behaviour ie have to forage, and stops dominance
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Another technique I use is to put little piles of nuts on the ground separated by 2 or 3 metres to the next pile. This means that the bully either has to spend loads of time running between each pile, which they do to start with, or get on with eating one pile at a time. Also this way the pigs don't bump into each other as they do when the nuts are scattered generally, and it is when two or more are after the same particular nut, despite several thousand others being available, that the less greedy pigs tend to get pushed about.
By the way, there is never one single solitary nut left after any of our meals, so no wastage at all. Tamsaddle
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I think the wastage from ground feeding rather depends on the state of the ground. last summer it was so wet that we had to trough feed as it soon got completely mashed underfoot otherwise and we feared attracting rats. we just use more troughs so that fatties cant hog all the space. this year the ground is like a road and ground feeding wouldnt be an issue- except we havent got any pigs this year
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Tamsaddle's method of putting the feed down in piles is what I do if there's any squabbling. There's always a bit of pecking order narkiness when we put two of the sows back together after one's been with the boar or been weaned and that methof works fine. For a group of greedy growers I scatter it in a long line so there's plenty of room for the all to get at it. Certainly no waste when the ground is as dry as it is now.
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I decided that feeding them with a line of feed is better for my pigs, tried doing pile feeds but the big one kept sneaking to eat the other feed piles besides her own, a gentle nudge in the direction of her own feed was needed a few times but got the message in the end. Either way, Little squabbling went on :)
Thanks all :fc: