Author Topic: Pigs on diets before slaughter (Read 14271 times)

MAK · « **Reply #30 on:** July 05, 2012, 07:53:06 pm »

I would love to care for our pigs on the Sugar Mountain diet but short of harvesting the pasture and doing a "weigh in" before I give it to them I have no idea how to check the proportions as Karen described. I may be getting it wrong but it seems to me that the more roots, egg and dairy I give them in the morning then the less pasture they seem to consume. So I have taken to feeding a little less first thing - let them graze etc then judge if they need a feed in the evening based on the ammount of time I have seen them outside. They stay in if it is too hot or if there is snow but even if they are out grazing most of the day it is anyones guess what % of their daily diet they have eaten . I check the spine regularly and was happy with the fat proportion last year but I must say it has all been a little guess-estimate.
Anyone have any suggestions how best to let them free range but go for the Sugar Mountain diet as well ?
(oh we had no boar taint on the 1 year old Culn Noir I butchered last year).

HappyHippy · « **Reply #31 on:** July 05, 2012, 09:26:30 pm »

I'm not experienced in hay making/pasture calculations (I think Sally in t'north will be though

) but I reckon it's something like 2 ton of hay per acre per cut (ish !) so that might give you something to be going on with.

It's not 'just' grass at Sugar Mountain though, they have alfalfa, clover and other stuff too - I'll have a trawl through my emails and see if I can find the one that details it all and I'll post it here.

On the taint issue - I can smell it (but I am super sensitive nasally

) I have only ever smelt it in shop bought pork though and it doesn't seem to have any effect on Bruce or the kids ability to eat it - maybe Walter's one of the lucky ones who can't detect it or perhaps it's something to do with the diet........ now, there's a thought

Karen

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #32 on:** July 05, 2012, 10:26:53 pm »

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Karen

but I don't know how to work out tonnages of forage as grazing. I do have a really good book tells you how to...

It won't be the same as working out tonnages of forage as hay/haylage/silage - it won't grow the same when it's being grazed, the pigs will spoil some and rootle other...

However, coming at it from the other end, Walter has some figures he's worked out :

Quote

the pigs drink about 3.5 gallons of whey per hundred weight of pig per day and eat about 0.8 lbs of hay per hundred weight of pig per day

Now at 20kgs per small square bale (50 bales to the tonne) that's one small bale lasting about one pig about 8 weeks - so the hay is not signifcant, I'd say. Mind, that's when they're on summer pasture - they get more hay in winter when they can't graze, he says. His 44 adults plus however many growers eat approx 50 tonnes of hay between them over winter. 40 sows - should be an average of at least 400 growers over the winter? If so, I calculate that each grower probably eats around 100kgs (5 small square bales) of hay over winter when not at grass?

Walter talks about 6 months to finish a pig on his system, slightly longer over winter.

So to rear a pig to 100kgs (two hundredweight), assuming a straight line growth over 6 months and therefore an average weight of one hundredweight, it will drink 180 (days) x 3.5 US gallons of whey, which is around 2400 litres. Plus the 5 bales of hay or pasture equivalent.

You need so much whey because it's nearly all water. Walter expresses it as 7% of the diet being whey (and other dairy), which you need because otherwise the pigs will lack lysine - I assume he means 7% as dry matter!

If you have a local creamery and can get those sort of quantities of whey for little or no money, you're home and dry. Otherwise, you're buying soya to get that lysine into them.

princesspiggy · « **Reply #33 on:** July 05, 2012, 11:21:03 pm »

Quote from: SallyintNorth on July 04, 2012, 01:48:32 pm

It was violet originally brought it to our attention. Haven't seen her for a while - anyone know if she's okay?

yes im sure shes fine

Ina · « **Reply #34 on:** July 08, 2012, 03:29:24 pm »

Does anybody here feed potatoes and other root crops to their pigs? I remember (long time ago, when I was young! - or younger, anyway...) farmers I knew used to feed mainly barley, potatoes, other root crops (neeps mostly), and excess milk or whey from their own farm, and it seemed to work. Don't know about quantities, though. (These pigs were kept indoors.)

Sorry - just realised the next thread is on potatoes. Duh.

princesspiggy · « **Reply #35 on:** July 14, 2012, 04:25:54 pm »

Quote from: HappyHippy on July 05, 2012, 09:26:30 pm

On the taint issue - I can smell it (but I am super sensitive nasally ) I have only ever smelt it in shop bought pork though

i was reading the "outdoor pigs" manual (1996) from defra yesterday. they stated that most supermarket pork is killed at 30-40kg liveweight and that young age is the reason we dont need to castrate routinely in uk.
would u get boar taint so young?

oaklandspigs · « **Reply #36 on:** July 14, 2012, 05:32:27 pm »

Castration in the Uk commercial herds 9both indoor and outdoor) is a thing of the past, but they slaughter at an early age to ensure no problem.

mwncigirl · « **Reply #37 on:** July 17, 2012, 10:59:53 pm »

I am now really confused! Great thread, but just wondering, (and I think this may have been covered in another thread....) but we have been feeding our pigs on finishers and they look like they have been laying on the fat. Would you use finishers or just keep to growers to minimise fat? Novice here, can you tell?!

Beewyched · « **Reply #38 on:** July 17, 2012, 11:27:44 pm »

Not sure of your breed mwncigirl, but ...
If your pigs are getting overweight try & allow them more room to run about & go for a lower protein level feed (& maybe less of it) - but there will be others on here that can give you more accurate amounts depending on your pigs' breed.

mwncigirl · « **Reply #39 on:** July 17, 2012, 11:43:01 pm »

we have GOS x British lop/OSB 4 month old piggies

Fowgill Farm · « **Reply #40 on:** July 18, 2012, 09:29:46 am »

Leave them on 16% sow/weaner nuts, otherwise the GOS part of them will load on the fat. Grower is usually 19%+ and loads it on. On the 16% they'l do fine and be ready as porkers at 22 - 24wks old.
HTH
mandy