The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: carole on March 22, 2008, 03:51:32 pm

Title: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: carole on March 22, 2008, 03:51:32 pm

Hi all pig keepers,
Looking for some advice please regarding Sorghum. Have been given some as a trial for my pigs and have looked up endless pages of info on the net, all clearly state that it is a excellent source of animal food, but I am unsure of the quantity to give, do I mix with water or other food stuffs.
As for nutritional values: per tablespoon Sorghum contains:
200mg potassium
300mg protein
30mg calcium
20mg Magnesium

Please help as I also read it is used in beer making and I really can not cope with drunken Mangalitzas, Tamworths etc

Cheers
Carole

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: rustyme on March 23, 2008, 01:09:07 pm

Hello Carole,
             I can't help much on the feeding , apart from it is a grain and I would suspect you would use it in similar quantities to barley or oats . I would try that for a bit and then just add or subtract as need be. As to drunk pigs...lol... I don't drink or make my own beer, but when they make beer they use malted barley , which is barley germinated to a certain point , that is then mashed 'fermented' ( I think I am about right on this?) and then taken through the rest of the process to reach the final product 'Beer' . So as long as you don't germinate and roast, ( malt ) the grain ,and then mash it ( ferment ) you should be ok . Hope that helps ..

cheers

Russ

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: rustyme on March 23, 2008, 04:18:02 pm

Carole,
      just found this site :
http://www.grains.org/page.ww?section=Barley%2C+Corn+%26+Sorghum&name=Sorghum
 It is a handy site in general as it gives plenty of info on other grains as well as sorghum ! The link above says that it has a feed value roughly the same as corn ( maize/sweetcorn I would assume?) so you can easily work out from that how much to feed pigs , cows whatever....

cheers

Russ

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: rustyme on March 23, 2008, 04:27:41 pm

http://www.grains.org/galleries/default-file/Sorghum%20Handbook.pdf
 
the link above is on the grains.org page , but I put it on here incase you missed it ... this link takes you to a pdf handbook on sorghum and it's uses , very handy little pdf I thought.
 
Russ

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: pigsatlesrues on March 23, 2008, 11:18:04 pm

They are interesting sites - have never used these foods but always willing to try something new!

Kate

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: carole on March 24, 2008, 04:08:12 pm

Thank you very much, will keep you updated on my progress with this food

Cheers
Carole

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: carole on March 25, 2008, 07:27:10 pm

Well they really love it, have mixed with water as it does look like it needs to be, and well, this morning was a different story to normal, went to feed and no one jumped over fencing the squeeling was to a bearable level and they have been so contented today.
So think this will be on the menu for a while, also have some mixed tomorrow with the cooked veg and stale bread.

Carole

Title: Re: Pig feed again!!!!
Post by: rustyme on April 07, 2008, 02:07:47 am

http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-1727:1
 
another handy book on sorghum.....

http://digital.library.unt.edu/search/?q=growing+wheat&t=fulltext

lots of really handy booklets on this link .... I can't stop reading them ...lol