[Hilarysmum]

During this very cold weather I'm doubling up on feed (which is v. expensive) and feeding warm mash wondered what everyone else was feeding to combat the cold.

 

[doganjo]

I'm doubling up for my chickens by giving them warm porridge, less expensive than layers pellets, and also extra veg - out of date stuff from shops.  Don't know about pigs though.

[Hilarysmum]

My chickens and ducks are keen warm spaghetti sans sauce.   Cant afford that for the pigs though.  Did give porridge a passing thought, then the amount for 15 pigs made the thought pass very quickly onwards.  Jack and the beanstalk giant quantities.

[doganjo]

Thanks for spaghetti tip - never thought of that - presumably other pasta would do as I have loads of that rather than spaghetti?

[gavo]

Hello All,

For our Tams & OSB's we generally go from 6lbs to 8lbs of 50% maize flakes & 50% pig grower pellets. They all get hairier to combat the cold themselves and bring in extra rushes for bedding. I think we feel the cold more than they do though.

Cheers

Gavin

[Hilarysmum]

Gavin brilliant idea flaked maize must source some.  Thanks for that.

Dog and Jo, any pasta will do.  Spaghetti is only 90 c. kilo which is why I buy that. 

[doganjo]

It's DOGANJO

Have moved this to new topic started by Russ

[Hilarysmum]

Doganjo apologies 

[doganjo]

No apology needed, just though you all might like to know the explanation of my 'monica'.

[Rosemary]

I'd love some explanations for some of the less obvious "monicas". I know Hilarysmum but what about some of the others...

A colleague of mine has the email address easyme@... I thought "easy me" was a strange email address but turns out her name is Elizabeth Anne Syme. Just depends where you put the emphasis!

[rustyme]

Hello Rosemary,
                I put my answer to this in 'Coffee Lounge' under 'Monicas Explained' ,as I thought it may get lots of answers and hijack the cold feeding topic. Hope thats ok .

cheers

Russ

[Rosemary]

Perfect - digression is just a symptom of my wooly mind. Think it must be the cold.

[Miriam]

Hi all,
Our neighbours give us all their vegetable kitchen waste (no meat, and no parsnips - apparently parsnips can give pigs mouth's blisters) which we boil up for the pigs and feed it to them warm - they love it!  They also love out of date fruit and salad stuff which we don't boil.

We also get our neighbours out of date bread, crackers that sort of thing and feed it to the chickens. 

There are surprising large amounts of kitchen waste from a couple of households.

It's free, our neighbours are delighted that they're 'recycling' their food waste and not just chucking in the bin and the animals are delighted. 

So everybody's happy.
hope this helps 

[herdsman]

Miriam, I dont want to be a kill joy but please be careful what you feed to your pigs. Since the F&M outbreak in 2001 a complete ban on kitchen waste was imposed. You can peel your veg in the garden but once it enters the kitchen it is not allowed in your pig (or chicken come to that).
It does seem a dredful waste though.

[Hilarysmum]

It always seems totally ridiculous that they go to these lengths to stop f&m and then the outbreak comes from bad hygiene in a government run establishment.  Dont do as I do do as I say comes to mind.  And think of all the landfill that could be avoided if people were able to feed pigs the kitchen waste (without meat).  Yet again EU are considering allowing meat products to be used in animal feeds.  The day they do my pigs go organic.