[raindogs]

I get weaners in Spring and fatten them till Autumn.  A local organic greengrocer has offered me as much discarded fruit and veg as I like. With an ever-keen eye to reduce feed costs, can I use this to replace some (costly) nuts? If so, what proportion would be okay in order to maintain protein levels? Or will it be more like a side salad with an unreduced feed? Thanks for your help, everyone. Philip

[hughesy]

It's been said that you need to feed 4 times the weight to be equivalent to pig nuts, eg 4kg veg == 1kg nuts. We feed ours a lot of waste fruit and veg from our friendly wholesaler never more than half their ration though.

[HappyHippy]

Ditto Hughesy - 4:1 ratio and always at least half the 'meal' should be from hard feed (just to ensure they grow well and are getting the vitamins, minerals etc from the hard feed)
HTH
Karen

[County Dangler]

Sorry to crash the thread but i also have a related question. I'm also in the lucky position of having access to as much free fruit and veg as i want i am intending on feeding mine a half of there ration of sow rolls (working on the 1lb a day for each month) and double that amount of fruit and veg in with it. Would it be best thought to make each feeding a mixture of each or do 1 feed of each per day?

[Marches Farmer]

Mix it up - keep the protein trickling in.

[Bodger]

in a similar vane, I get a lot of bread waste from a local bakery. I don't feed any to the pigs that I'm fattening but feed it to Pru the sow and the visiting boar. I feed them sow pellets in the morning and just bread in the afternoon.

[hughesy]

If I've got a lot of veg to get through I feed just veg in the morning and just pellets in the evening. If I've only got a small amount I combine the two at each feed. This is purely for my convenience nothing to do with the pigs though I haven't heard them complain.

[County Dangler]

Ditto Hughesy - 4:1 ratio and always at least half the 'meal' should be from hard feed (just to ensure they grow well and are getting the vitamins, minerals etc from the hard feed)
HTH
Karen

Thanks for the help. Could you clarify that though please?If the ratio is 4:1 how can half of the meal be hard feed? My basic maths skills tell me it can't be both. Cheers.

[bloomer]

assume 6 months old so 6lb of hard feed a day (adjust for your breed)


50/50


is 3lb of hard feed and 12lbs of fruit and veg...

[HappyHippy]

Thanks Bloomer, you beat me to it 

Yeah, what he says  (I don't always explain myself very well  )

4 'parts' fruit and veg equals 1 'part' pig nuts and never drop more than half of the pig nuts from the daily ration for growing pigs.

[bloomer]

i pay attention when i ask questions about piggies....


and i'm really good at sums... 

[County Dangler]

Thanks guys. Quite clear when I read it back. Roll on the end of Feb when I pick them up.