The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: chrismahon on October 06, 2014, 11:38:43 am
-
To you experienced pig keepers this may sound a really stupid question. Chicken's digestive systems aren't that efficient. To that extent a large amount of their poo is undigested grain. I was wondering if it is feasible to feed dried chicken poo to pigs, or are there big heath issues, or they won't eat it, or regulations absolutely forbid it.
A friend of mine has visited the pig toilets of Goa on his travels around India. The pigs basically eat human excrement and thrive on it, because of the amount of undigested food within. Would it work with chickens? Ours produce a large amount of poo, which we have to gather up several times a day to limit flies. It would be easy to dry it in the sun here.
-
Pretty sure chicken poo is high in ammonia which can't be good. Plus it's sure to be a great source of salmonella and other nasties. Having said that our dog eats a fair amount of goose poo and she's never come to any harm but she's not going into the human food chain.
-
pretty sure its common practice in the states but banned every where else. concerns re salomonella, botulism as hughesy says plus concerns that the undigested meal in chicken litter contains all sorts of other animals not intended for pig food . even if its technically doable, not for me thanks YUCKKKKKK !!
-
Good point there is stuff in chicken feed that shouldn't be fed to pigs and some of it is bound to go through into their droppings. It's a pretty foul idea anyway! (sorry couldn't resist it ;D )
-
Thanks for your replies. Yes it does sound rather revolting and I can understand the health risks. All our chickens have been screened for salmonella (part of the export process) and I'm pretty confident botulism isn't present because we've eaten a fair few cockerels bred. But there is a lot of ammonia and on reflection I'm not sure a pig would eat it anyway. So we'll stick to the traditional method and feed them chicken poo indirectly -compost for two years, grow veg in it and feed that to the pigs we eventually get.
Our neighbour's dog eats any chicken poo he finds. So he's off the menu.
-
Wasn't the outbreak of SARS traced back to the Chinese method of siting pigsties under poultry cages so the pigs could do just that?
-
I can understand that it's very very tempting (and so cheap :P) but no, no and once again no. Way to risky (not to mention disgusting). I know dogs love to bite on horse's poo or other munching creature's but we don't eat dogs and also it doesn't change the fact that it's simply and purely disgusting. And NOT healthy.
-
Having read this thread I'm glad I have the opportunity to produce my own meat!! If any of the general public read this suggestion I wonder if it will be assumed we are already doing this in this country and a few less eating pork. :dunce:
-
Unfortunately Devonlad is right, Americans have been feeding poultry poo (and chicken carcasses) to cattle for decades.
http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2009/11/03/poultry-litter-as-cattle-feed-believe-it/ (http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2009/11/03/poultry-litter-as-cattle-feed-believe-it/)
Here is one from the other point of view talking about how delicious and nutritious it is.
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/evans/ag515-2.html (http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/evans/ag515-2.html)
-
Unfortunately Devonlad is right, Americans have been feeding poultry poo (and chicken carcasses) to cattle for decades.
http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2009/11/03/poultry-litter-as-cattle-feed-believe-it/ (http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2009/11/03/poultry-litter-as-cattle-feed-believe-it/)
Here is one from the other point of view talking about how delicious and nutritious it is.
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/evans/ag515-2.html (http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/evans/ag515-2.html)
Although that is talking about feeding poultry litter to beef cattle it does actually mention how it is treated first to make it safe, basically high temperature composting, its not feeding raw poultry manure to cattle.
"When processed by an acceptable method, poultry litter is an economical and safe source of protein, minerals, and energy for beef cattle."
-
Pretty sure that if Joe Public thought his sunday dinner had been fed chicken sh1t beef would be off the menu. That's the members of the public that actually know that meat comes from animals I mean.
-
It has only just occurred to me that all the old stone built farms over here have 'poulailler', that's chicken housing, built over the pig pens. Apart from improving predator security, which would be minimal, the only other reason can think of is so that the chicken poo can be swept down for the pigs to eat. Now these are farms built from 1800's, so perhaps the French have been feeding chicken poo to their pigs for two centuries?
-
As someone who has earned a living from animal nutrition for around 40 years, here I are my brief thoughts:
All animals require protein. Protein is just nitrogen in varying guises and can come from a variety of sources such as green material (grass, etc), plant materials (cereals, soya, peas, beans, etc), man made materials such as Urea which is 297% protein and £400 tonne compared to 25% protein in peas or beans which are worth around £100 tonne.
So you can already begin to see that man made proteins like Urea are miles cheaper per % Protein that more natural sources. It's not quite as simple as that but you get my drift.
Poultry manure is typically 20% Nitrogen so that's about 125% Crude Protein and , as a waste product, is free or very low cost so you can see the financial appeal.
In commercial agriculture it was promoted heavily for use in beef rations around 25 years ago. As another poster mentioned, it needs to be treated (basically a form of composting) before it can be fed. My experience is that farmers who trialled it never came back for seconds. One problem was a high level of food waste in ad-lib systems so most of the cost savings ended up being shovelled out of the feed passage and onto the compost heap. The other problem was market resistance. The idea of eating beef fed on poultry s...t was a hard sell.
As a result, the fad came and went in less than 3 years.
Is it still legal ? I honestly don't know.
Does it fit into smallholder ideals and ethics ? I can't see how it can
Interesting talking point nonetheless