[martinfly]

Hi I keep 6 weaners for growing on and slaughter around 6 months. 
We started off feeding Dukes and Botley Sow Pellets as they were recommended by the supplier.  We have currently swapped to Allan & Page rare breed sow pencils as these do not contain any GM ingredients.  Both of these are around the £9 mark although the Allan & Page bag is only 20kg as opposed to Dukes and Botley 25kg.  We have sourced Countrywise Sow Pellets in our local suppliers which are 20kg bags and around £5.50 - NO GM or Anitibiotics.  Does anybody know why the difference in price?  Inferior ingredients perhaps.  Does anybody out there use Countrywise or had good/bad reports about?  Any views would be gratefully received.

[sanman]

Why aren't you feeding growers?

[Hilarysmum]

We used Country wise when we had horses, never a problem.

[martinfly]

Thanks for your question regarding growers pellets over sow pellets. I was discussing this with my husband this morning.  We were advised by the breeder that she feeds all of her weaners/growers on sow nuts.  I presume that growers nuts have a different % of protein than the sow nuts.  Our sow nuts have 16% protein or is there another element that is relevent?  Being new to this game we have just followed advise from breeder.  Do you feed grower and if so which ones and how much are they?

[sanman]

We weaner pellets to begin with and then move them on to growers.  These are our first pigs so we aren't experts.  We use the feed from our local feed merchant and its their own brand.

Just looked at a major feed supplier and the analysis is:

Sow                Oil 4.5% Protein 15% Fibre 11%
Grower             Oil 6.3% Protein 19% Fibre 4.8%
Weaner/Finisher Oil 6.3% Protein 17% Fibre 8.0

The higher protein ration for weaner/grower makes sense as at their age they will need it to make muscle/meat.

[martinfly]

Thanks Sanman

We have sent 2 Tamworths to Slaughter on the Sow Nuts and at 6 months they were 80kg for the board and 70kg for gilt.  We had good feedback on the meat too.  I think the reason the breeder said to use Sow Nuts as opposed to grower was to eradicate the chance of us feeding them feed with growth enhancers in.  I will carry on my research however and look into finding a grower feed that does not contain any growth enhancers and has non gm additives.

[Rosemary]

Allan and Page Rare and Traditional Breed Weaner / Finisher pellets are GM free

[Wildman]

BOCN Paul's farmgate range are non GM. We feed all our stock on this and sell it to other people with farm animals Pigs Cattle etc.

[Wildman]

Sorry it is BOCM Pauls

[oaklandspigs]

Easiest way to understand this would be to equate your pigs to humans.  Now if you're trying to get an Olympic sprinter for the 2012 Olympics from a 16 year old, you will have a professional nutritionalist who will devise the perfect diet, based on a varying training regime, with all the foods carefully measured and fed at exactly the right time to create the perfect 2012 athlete.

Similarly if you are running a 200 sow unit, and taking you weaners through to finishing, you will want to ensure that they are fed exactly the right amount at the right time, to both save money (not waste food) and ensure they get exactly the right type of feed at the right time so they grow the fastest.  A week saved on each finished pig would save a £200K building, and £50K per year running costs.

Now a piglet will start by growing nervous system, then bone, then muscle then fat.  So if you are trying to sprint finish your pigs in the fastest time to save money, you will feed weaner, grower and finisher to get exactly the right diet at the right time.

If you are simply raising a few pigs, then treat them like you should your under 8 children.  I would guess that most of you don’t weigh your children’s food beyond the first born first year (first baby made of glass, second baby make of rubber as the saying goes), you get it roughly right, and judge from the results.

All pig foods will contain enough of the right nutrients to get a pig fully to maturity and then maintain it.

You will be choosing between lifestyle/belief choices of GM/non-GM - organic/non-organic and between quality of ingredients - Waitrose vs Aldi – no one thinks you will die from eating Aldi!

If you want to go down weaner/grower/finisher then I would not criticise, but it is not essential.

We feed all our pigs of whatever age on sow food.

[martinfly]

Thanks Oaklands Pigs.  We had been advised to feed on sow pellets from start to finis but was beginning to question this!  I will carry on down this route as it is a lot easier - especially as we have pigs of varying ages mixed together.  I also like your comparison of the quality of ingredients being like Aldi vs Waitrose.  Your post has really helped

[little blue]

Well said oaklands! What I feed mine isn't what everyone would say they should have, but it isn't a case of doing "what it says on the tin" its about what amounts, what else they have, where they are housed, amount of exercise etc etc etc and what you the pig-keeper are happy with

[sanman]

Well said oaklands! What I feed mine isn't what everyone would say they should have, but it isn't a case of doing "what it says on the tin" its about what amounts, what else they have, where they are housed, amount of exercise etc etc etc and what you the pig-keeper are happy with

I'm sure this is right.  As first time pig keepers we kept rigidly to what was advised in the "Traditional Pig Keeping" book.  That way we have a baseline for the future, if the pigs dress out too fat/not enough fat we can adjust the food for the next lot.

But we all ways say commonsense in all things, trouble is its not that common