[Neil and Jan]

Dear All,

We're about to take delivery of our first three sausage factories that happen to be Tamworths. They are also charged with the task of removing nettle and other weed roots from our meadow that is certified organic. They can't stay too long as the meadow needs to be levelled and reseeded to grass for a festival at the beginning of August.

I have followed a few threads about organic feed that have ranged from the fanatical to the downright scathing. Since our Tamworths will have a diet supplemented by other organic produce from my garden it seems a shame to feed them God-knows-what in standard pellets. Allan and Page are fairly local but expensive. Has anyone tried Marriages or Hipeak? Hipeak is certainly cheaper than A & P at about £10.80 for 25Kg delivered (yeah, yeah, an awful lot more than non-organic). Marriages have a website that makes it very difficult to be a customer.

Do any of you have any experience of using A & P, Marriage's or Hipeak with old breeds such as Tamworth?

[shetlandpaul]

i assume they are for home use. never used that firm but thats quite a good price for organic feed. i guess you know that to sell the meat as organic you need to be registered have sourced you sausage makers from an organic herd and also have got approval that your land is clear of chemicals this can take years. if your next door neighbour sprays then you may not get it cleared. it also costs quite a lot.

[Rosemary]

We feed A&P Smallholder Range Rare Breed pellets. They aren't organic but are GM free, no antibiotics etc. We pay about £8 for a 20kg bag, maybe a wee bit more.

What I've never asked is where they source the grain and stuff - I was told that organic feeds are often from imported grain. I use organic pellets and corn for the hens, but since we can't sell our eggs as organic (can't be bothered with the paperwork or the cost and our customers don't care), and the import question, I'm wondering if we should stop using organic and change to GM free.

Decisions, decisions.

[shetlandpaul]

i think people would expect gm free feed if feeding premium feeds. i really can't see how organic feed can be gm.

[Rosemary]

As I understand it, organic must be GM free but GM free feed isn't organic. There seems to be three levels - organic (the most expensive), GM / antibiotic free such as Farmgate, A&P Smallholder Range, Marriages (I think) (at middle cost), then the cheapest which will have GM ingredients, possibly antibiotic growth promoters etc.

In a perfect world, I woudl like to use UK grown, cheap, organic feed. But I gain nothing in sales because I can't sell my pork or eggs as organic and if the grain and soya comes from abroad, then maybe I'd be better with UK sourced GM free. I won't go below GM free standard.

I have the same dilemma about organic Dutch bacon and British bacon of dubious animal welfare standards.

[Neil and Jan]

Ooer! Thank you all for your postings that have got me worrying about all sorts of things: air/sea miles, global warming, food economics and sustainability, whether I should go vegetarian, etc. Rest assured, the little darlings are for much-loved personal consumption and sharing with friends. Although the meadow is Kosher, they are not from an organic herd.
I'm glad I don't have to make a living out of farming, however easy Mitchell and Webb make it look (www.wikio.co.uk/video/1638709). Apologies to those of you who do for the inanity of my questions.
As it happens, I too use A & P Smallholder's Range for the chickens (again for a two-family cooperative) but would love to live in Rosemary's perfect world.

PS What is their favourite drink to help them relax for slaughter? Cider? Beer? And how much?? As a doc and, obviously, a drinker I am only familiar with human dosing arrangements. Indeed, questions...questions

[Hilarysmum]

Over here its almost impossible to source organic feed.  We settle for non GM - which is difficult as the soya in most feed (here)comes from US and is gm. 

Ours love cider and Hilary is partial to a pint of guiness when its available.

There is a funny article about pigs on the booze here

http://www.lacef.fr/postbox-contents/contents.html

[kp]

I too wanted to go down the organic feed route and bought A & P organic pellets, the two boys looked at me as if I was trying to poison them, I had to mix a few at a time in with other feed to eventually use them up, I settled on A & P rare breed weaner finisher pellets, I did get in touch with them to find out where the soya came from  (rain forrests are being cut down to grow soy )  they told me it comes from a sustainable source in the US and is non hexane extracted and GM free.

I hope this helps you to make a decision
Karen

[shetlandpaul]

i thought all us soya was classed as gm now because of contamination. could the soya be switch with something like field peas/beans.

[BadgerFace]

I also thought all soya was classed as GM now due to cross contamination.

BOCM farmgate feeds are soya & GM free, also a good price. I pay £248 per tonne (£4.96 per 20kg sack) delivered direct from BOCM.