[Seven Acres]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I was just wondering if anyone mixes their own pig feed or what they feed their pigs.

Ours have lots of fresh veg and also roam on a few acres of pasture, which they are digging up nicely. Though we are finding it expensive to carry on feeding them bagged concentrates and are looking to make our own. Can piggies eat straights such as Oats, Barely, Corn etc? How should it be fed?

We are keeping our piggies to breed, so its a long term commitment rather than feeding them short term for meat.

Thank you in advance.

[roddycm]

Following! 

[harmony]

I don't know anyone who mixes their own ration but maybe someone on here does. I think it is probably a lot of work for a couple of pigs and you will need to add minerals and vitamins and balance your ration. I think you will need to research pig nutrition.


Whole grains will go straight through pigs so you need to buy rolled/crushed or have the facility to do this yourself. Once rolled/crushed the shelf life lessens. Wheat is a large proportion of bagged food. Barley will put down fat so you wouldn't want to feed to much to growers or breeding stock.


Young pigs convert food at the best rate and I don't think it matters whether you want finished pigs or breeding stock the important thing is to give them the best start. Neither wants to be fat. Equally, if you want to have healthy piglets and plenty of milk you need to feed a well balanced ration.

[greenbeast]

where are you getting your feed?

I pay about £6.25-6.50/25kg, off the top of my head, direct from a mill 10 minutes away
But we do buy 2 ton a month.

[Gregoz]

I do not believe anyone on here knows anything about mixing your own pig food
Certainly if the usual suspects had so much as an inclin they would have retorted in some way by now
Very interested in this myself and have priced pellet machines but yet to do the straits

[farmershort]

Not sure where gregorz is going with announcing that, but each to their own...

So, we'll be doing exactly this this year. With 3 vague principles:

1) if veg doesn't enter the house... so goes straight from field to pig, then it's legal food, as far as I understand it.

2) roots are a good staple, and can usually be bought by the tonne from a local supplier

3) barley meal used to be a staple pig food for people who didn't use swill. Barley meal is basically a course ground barley flour, which is mixed with water and fed to the pigs. This would be the bulk of food, supplemented by items 1) and 2) to add variety and trace elements.

Lots and lots of care needed to ensure they don't run to fat.... but once you've got the measurements right, it's easy.

I've consulted pretty widely on this  (Not on the internet so much).

The trouble with places like this is that you don't get many 80 year old farmers on here... that period of animals husbandry before imported soy and engineered feed has a lot to tell us about how to keep animals.

[Marches Farmer]

Growing pigs of native breeds need around 16% protein for healthy growth at the right time. Pigs aren't fully grown for over a year.  "The Production and Marketing of Pigs" by H R Davidson, gives an exhaustive breakdown of the values and amounts of feed for the various stages of production.  I buy bagged feed by the tonne, add (not substitute) surplus vegetables from the garden and orchard fruit from my neighbours (bartered for sausages) and add in soaked wheat or barley for the last four weeks of finishing, to give a layer of fat for good crackling.

[Gregoz]

Where I am going with that #farmershort is that I do not think anyone on here mixes their own pig feed i.e. Buys the raw ingredients, mixes it, puts it through a pellet machine and produces their own pig feed- simple!
After reading your response, I still think this the case

[kja]

Where I am going with that #farmershort is that I do not think anyone on here mixes their own pig feed i.e. Buys the raw ingredients, mixes it, puts it through a pellet machine and produces their own pig feed- simple!
After reading your response, I still think this the case

Years ago we used to mill and mix our own feed a mix of barley, wheat, peas, beans and minerals (you need a mixing licence to do this in the UK) as pig numbers grew and life got busy we took to option to feed brought in pellet feed, milling feed is time consuming yes it saves money but in the long run our time is more valuable than the savings.

[greenbeast]

Where I am going with that #farmershort is that I do not think anyone on here mixes their own pig feed i.e. Buys the raw ingredients, mixes it, puts it through a pellet machine and produces their own pig feed- simple!
After reading your response, I still think this the case

The problem with this is that hobbyists don't have the money to invest in an experiment like this, and those doing it seriously probably don't have the time, we're out there trying to make a living selling meat.

We're going to be doing more supplement/surplanting of pelleted food with waste veg/grains/bakery goods this year but can't say we'll be getting in to milling

[Gregoz]

It would be great to know what the comparison is on say a tonne. I know the pellet machines are around 5-6 k

[Gregoz]

So I take it that producing your own was quite time consuming KJA?

[greenbeast]

It would be great to know what the comparison is on say a tonne. I know the pellet machines are around 5-6 k

are you planing pre-milled ingredients? if not how much for a mill to do that part of the job?
how much are you looking to produce?
i think it has a shelf life of about 3 months once milled. i would use 6 ton  in that time at the current rate

[kja]

So I take it that producing your own was quite time consuming KJA?

Yes and time is something we are not rich in so we decided to just buy in giving us the time we much need.

Another thing is we were still buying in creep and grower for the younger stock so buying in for the breeding stock seemed the easy solution.

[farmers wife]

Ive priced this up to buy in grain you need to buy bulk ie buying 20kg bags isnt cost effective the only saving is 1 tonne bags.  Problem one you'll be spending hundreds and hundreds you have to have somewhere to store and mix (rat free) - here goes your time efficiency.


You can feed pigs sileage there is an organic study very favourable results.


If you can get hold of veg thats a bonus however you need to ensure you get the right % of grain to veg.


If you are looking at cutting costs on feeds I think its impossible pig farmers are already struggling and their buying costs are a lot lower than ours.


Keeping pigs outside is a straw saving. I buy organic feed from hi-peak delivered somewhere around £500pt.  Ive fed ours on chicken layer for a while as pig food ran out with good results.