[Mary B]

I'm part of a community pig venture, where we share costs and looking after 2 sows and how ever many piglets there are in any one year!.  This year (the second year) we've had 18 piglets, which are now coming up to 6 months old.

We've just separated the young boars from the gilts, partly because they were getting more than their fair share of feed, and also because we want the boars to go for slaughter in the next month, so we can finish them off.

Question is, if we up the gilts feed now (we are hoping that they'll be ready for slaughter late October) will they put down fat rather than lean?  As well as being shoved out of the way of the feed, I think we were feeding less than the recommended 1lb/pig/month of age - by about 1lb per pig/day.

Help please! - and thanks.

Mary

[gavo]

Much depends on the breed of pig you are keeping . GOS or saddleback can have a tendency to put on more back fat than a Tam or OSB,they also grow more rapidly and are therefore ready for slaughter earlier. With our Tams and OSBs we slaughter at 11 months male and female. Generally as a rule of thumb it's better to feed extra in the early months then ease off for the last 6-8 weeks this generally gets the pigs to lose some fat whilst not reducing muscle mass.

[Hilarysmum]

I would second Gavin, but would add that in my OWN experience, it is better to keep smaller numbers together as they get more chance of the feed and it is easier for the pig keeper to compare relative weights and sizes.  (Not ciriticising)