Feeding pigs

[Red Tie]

Okay, so I am getting five pigs for 200.00. About 25 lbs. each. Hopefully, that sounds like a good price!

My question is, does anyone have a ball park figure of the cost to feed these guys to slaughter weight? About how much is a bag of pig feed cost these days? I have two other couples who are in on this with me. Each of us wants a half a pig, we will sell the other halves off. This is the first time in about 30 years that I have done pigs. Talk about out of practice.....

Thank you all for any help you can provide!

Jane

 

[boilerjoe_96]

A lot of that depends on the pig. Different breeds have different characteristics. That being said I am no expert.

i am raising my first two pigs this year. They are ready for slaughter..(well 1 more so than the other).

My white pig, is a altered boy, a barrow, he was 10 lbs on 4/13 and is now 280. My red pig, a girl(gilt) is a duroc (I think) and is closer to 220.

I believe I have about 650 lbs(each) or so of feed in them including 100 lbs still in the bag in barn.

Here a bag of feed at the Co-op is 10.25 for 50 lbs. At rural king or Tractor Supply a 50lb bag is more like 13.50.

I also cut hay so i hand pick alfalfa and throw into them almost daily. I have thrown in 6, 5 gallon buckets of apple drops as well. All in all I have not fed table scraps(maybe a few here or there).

I originally planned about 140 or 150 in food, and should come close to that. The only reason I will run over is I didn't call early enough to get on the butchers schedule(see post further down the thread). Be sure you call 2 - 3 months in advance. My slaughter date is now 9/30... Boy should be 320 or so and girl should be 240 - 245 ish...

 

[goldensunriseranch]

Hi, We raised 2 pigs a couple of years ago, and only went through a couple of bags a week since we fed them alot of other things. I'm sure the bags of feed have gone way up by now like all the other feeds. But we supplemented alot with grass clippings we bagged, though we also have several acres to cut so we had ALOT. It was alot of work to bag the grass and dump it since they filled fast but the pigs loved it (you just have to make sure you aren't cutting a ton of weeds and getting alot of dirt and other foreign material in the bags). We also fed lots of fallen fruit, apples/pears/quinces. And all the neighbors started bringing me all their vegetable and fruit scraps, watermelon rinds etc. We butchered them in the fall for a luau and it was amazing pork, the best ever. And when I didn't have any of the above then the pellets went a bit faster and I would give them alfalfa hay also.

 

[thedreamers]

like everyone has been saying it all depends on what you give them and what you suppliment. we have two sows and 1 baby boar. we go though about 100lbs of pellets a week plus grass we bag, veggies we are given, all the left overs the kids and everything nobody eats. we also give them all the left overs from our local pizza store that they save for us. everything helps and the pigs love pizza, just like big kids they are. our big one thats getting ready to goto the butcher is topping over 400lbs. she'll fill the whole freezer up for the winter.

 

[ams3651]

If anyone is familiar with Mrs T Pierogies, my uncle had a friend who worked there and he would bring 25lb boxes of pierogies that didnt make it thru the line because of some defect in size, etc. My uncle fed them to his pigs with everything else. MMMMM, good pig. I know some who feed day old bread and donuts too as a treat. Although not good as a sole diet, good for adding weight. I know, I can hear it now, those who dont approve but after raising pigs for 40 years I guess he knows what hes doing.

 

[Livinzoo]

I've been reading up on pigs and plan to get a few this winter. We are going to pasture raise them. They will also get garden and table scraps, excess milk (I work at a dairy), and any broken eggs. I hope with this regime that the pellets last a long time.

 

[Red Tie]

Thank you all for the information. We picked up the little guys yesterday. Two barrows and a gilt. Ended up with just three as I started to panic at the size of five when they were bigger! We will keep one for us and the other two sell off in halves or wholes. Anyone in Michigan need some pork this winter? Should be ready mid January. Two of piglets are reddish and one is white with black spots visiable on her back. I have some pellets for them but they don't seem very interested in them. Guess they have to adjust to their new surroundings and what not. I will cut up some fallen fruit for them this afternoon. I have alot of pears that are down.

I will keep everyone posted on my new ventures! I took some pics of them yesterday, I'll post them when I get them downloaded.

Thanks again!

Jane

 

[boilerjoe_96]

Just be careful on the non pig food for a while. Commercially grown pigs have 12 differents foods they eat through their life. When mine were 10lbs we had to buy $40 a bag food, we only had to buy one bag(3 pigs) but then the next bag at around 25 lbs was $20 a bag. Their digestive track is not fully mature yet to handle differing kinds of food. Once above 40 or 50 lbs they are better and more developed.

I would call a Co-Op and see what they advise on a 25 lb pig. 20 vs 30 lbs would matter as well as to what type of food to feed them. If they are 25lbs, I would htink 1 bag of food would take them to 40 and then you could feed the regular(cheaper) pig food...