what are people feeding there pigs?

miron28

Songster
11 Years
Sep 8, 2008
557
12
141
lenoir north carolina
I have had pigs for pets for a long time now but I have never raised it to eat them! I am going to start raising them for meat. I have been feeding them nothing but corn and little bit of table scraps what type of feed should I give them to fatten them up? The feed store sold me some pellets they said it would fatten them up. But I haven't notice a difference in weight it has been about two months since they have been on the pellets and they are about 4 moths old now! Any suggestions
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We feed ours a pig food mash from the milling company. We also give fruit, vegetables, acorns,etc. The feed makes sure they get the required amount of protein.
 
They will eat almost anything! Won't eat raw potatoes. We fed them everything left in the garden, apples, scraps, corn stalks, grass with roots, wood. Did I already say anything? They are one of the few animals that can pass metal nails By the way they get fat enough, strive for meat! When they become bottomless; they are ready to butcher.
 
When I raise our pig's for meat, I feed a commercial feed, and suppliment with slop. I make my slop with whatever I can get. let me explain, I can pick up days old bread and pastry from the local rainbow bread distributor in very large quanities for next to nothing ( example ) 1 pick up truck bed full of bread and pastry for $ 8.00 and last about 1 wk. Then i have a arrangement with my local grocery store manager to go through the dumpster for thier throw away's, ( example ) out dated or damaged packages of= cheese, milk, veggies, meat, dairy, freezer burned stuff, ice cream, you get the idea. the drawback is it takes some time to do it, and my friends have seen me legs up in the dumpster and diving deep, so kinda humilating. but I can feed a weanling pig out to about 400 lbs in 8 months for about $ 100.00 each, not bad. so after processing and packaging, it works out to about $ .50 per lb not bad.

AL
 
We have access to some grocery store organic produce when it reaches the end of its shelf also tons of bread. They get all the slop I can make with leftover milk (cow and goat), eggs (from my chickens), most kitchen scraps, everything from cleaning out the fridge or the freezer, etc. Plus they get some pig feed and corn.
 
Mine were 100 percent grain fed, sometimes they would get extras, but hardly ever. The higher the protein percentages the less you will have to feed in the end, they grow faster and they can go to market in 4-5 months. I did feed a couple times bread, but they mostly got fruit from the orchard, pears and apples. In the end after 3 pigs, I brought home 600 lbs of meat.
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This was last year, I have about 150lbs left that I am working on. I am on strike right now, so the extra meat is nice to have. I am pretty self sufficient on the farm. I use my extra eggs with my old man for barter, he lives 50 miles from me in the city.
 
My pigs only get milled grain and fresh food scraps and they are on a concrete slab, not dirt or mud.

Spoiled slop and mud are why many have to worry about worms and parasites, I pay a little more in feed for better quality meat.
 
Corn is too low in protein to be the primary source for their nutrition. You need to make or buy a pig grower/finisher in the 16% protein range if you want them to grow properly.

The second issue is lysine. Pigs needs it in their ration or they really don't grow well. Commercial rations have it at around 6%. Straight corn is 0%. It could literally take you 2X as long to get them to market weight because of this.
 
We feed pelleted feed from the farm store. Plus right now we are pulling up all our tomato plants and tossing them over for them. Also when I mow the kids rake up all the grass clippings and toss them over to the pigs. Seems to work well for us. Our pigs are in a large lot and have cleaned all the greens out of it - so we are thinking of putting up some electric line and let them out in the woods.
 

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