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Raising hogs

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Texasgrown

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So I have a working ranch with cows, chickens, a small orchard (100) trees, honeybees, and a medium sized garden in the spring/fall. My question is about a few feeder red waddle/Berkshire hogs we just picked up. Currently they are in a 125x100 field fenced pen. We ran hot wires inside and out a good little lean too shelter and feed trough. Right now they are rooting the 50 years of acorns that have fallen and not eating much. My question is does anyone have any pointers? Cheap feed options? Anything I should know. They are both barrows as we are still up in the air on doing hogs in the long term.
 

bonehead

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we used to get food from restraunts in the area. they would save it in a garbage can that we would pick up daley and leave another one. we also bought out of date bread and pastries that the manufacturer picked up from stores that wen't unsold when they restockedweekly, half the stuff wasn't ever outdated. we only had them from spring to late fall and got new ones the next spring but we get freezing weather up here and frozen water,food is a pain.
 

Texasgrown

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Yea it's supposed to get into the low thirties tonight and I am hoping they will be fine. Got a little nest area for them made out of a dog cage some blankets and sawdust with a lean too cover. I hit up a bakery and they said no problem. I figured I could get scraps every week or so once they run out of acorns
 

indianjoe

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what is your long term idea with hogs? A hog or two with feed (old bread & slop) still usually need a high protein and mineral supplement such as corn. Even a few hogs can eat quite a bit in a short time. If you are going to raise litters of hogs, you are going to need a good source of feed. Farm raised pork is the best.
 

USHOG

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feed them and eat them. Lots of free food in the city. Old donuts, bread. They will eat anything
 

Texasgrown

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Thanks UShog. Got them eating every acorn under the sun currently won't even take much corn or feed. I will be finding a nice local donut shop or bakery shortly to feed them.
 

Gibson's Farm

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Pigs are the ultimate recycler. They are omnivores capable of turning almost anything into food. Corn is not a high mineral supplement it is a low protein high energy feed stuff. I pasture raise all of my pigs and I sell meat to retail stores. I also grow and make my own hog feed. First off I want to commend you on your pig selection heritage breed pigs are great foragers and will do a lot better than commercial breed hogs for finishing on pasture. Second acorns alone is not an adequate feed for hogs. Like I said earlier hogs are omnivores they require lysine and other compounds that are only found in meat proteins. To keep this short I am going to say this. Yes they can grow on just acorns but it will take a very long time for them to be ready to butcher. The longer it takes the older they will be and the older they are the tougher the meat will be. I have a degree in agg science and it is not hard to make a complete swine ration but it does take a lot of equipment. If you want to feed a pig out as fast as you can as cheap as you can do what bonehead said and try and feed free slop from restaurants. You may also try and get it from local schools. It is hard to say how much human food waste it will take but if it is free give them as much as you can get your hands on and you will be fine. If you want to feed a grain based swine ration it is best that you buy it because pigs eat a lot and if your feed ration is not correct they will eat more per pound of gain than if you just buy feed. If you do buy feed don't buy it from tractor supply or some store, find a coop or feed mill I know they have them in texas. To give you an idea of cost. Figure that if you finish these pigs on a grain diet you will need 800lbs of feed per pig. If you want more info I have a lot of PDF files by agriculture colleges about swine nutrition and I can send them to you.
 

Texasgrown

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Thanks again all. Yea we have purchased a good blend from the mill. It is something like 16% protein I think from soy. It is a formula hog grower ration. They also said I could give them cattle cubes as the protein was the same as long as I supplemented. I also added a few bags of cracked corn and got with a local bakery that promised all the old loaves I could carry away. I will hold them to it when I show up with my pickup looking to fill the bed this weekend. Right now the hog feed is about 300ish a ton. I filled 4 barrels and had them mix in the corn. They have been relative celebrities at the farm as of late and have managed to eat a lot of scraps from all the families. I built a trough of 1.5 inch red oak so I thin it'll hold up for a while. It's amazing how they tend to only eat what they like. They haven't really touched the pig food but will eat it if they find it. Throw an apple or squash in the pen and watch out! Mostly they just honk and dig up acorns then go sleep in the stall. I made for them out of hay and some scrap plywood. I figure I will also be good around May-July as we have 100+ fruit trees that drop a lot of fruit due to wind and bugs. I figure I could turn them loose for a bit and they could get some peaches and pears. It's all hot wired in so by that time I'm sure they should be finishing nicely. Here is a pic of them they are wattle Berkshire crosses. Both have the little wattle things.
 

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Jitterbugdude

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If you "turn them loose" how do you plan to get them back in to their pen? A cattle prod would be very helpful. Also keep in mind that by supplementing with extra corn you are reducing the protein content of their diet and raising their carbohydrate content. Typically, livestock and poultry are raised on a certain % protein until they are full grown, then the carbohydrate content is raised which will fatten them up for market.
 

BigBonner

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Fruit stands will have wasted fruit and vegetables to give away , That is a great way to save money .
Dish water and table scraps is what my mother feed our hogs along with whole ear corn . I used crushed corn ( Grain only ) , About 2 pounds per day gain .
A electric two wire fence will hold hogs . But if the electric goes out , they can smell it and know they can touch the fence .
 

DonH

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I got 5 Large Black heritage breed feeders five weeks ago. I am still working on food sources but did score a big one. We have a cheesemaker in town who agreed to give me as much whey as I need. I just drop off and pick up the buckets. I've also been trying to get in touch with someone at the local microbrewery to see if I can get spent brewer's grain. By the time I got the pigs the squirrels ate all the acorns.
 

istanbulin

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Doesn't acorn add a unusual smell and taste to the meat ? I remember eating a steak of a wild cattle whose diet was said to be mainly acorns, the taste was really unfamiliar to me.
 

Texasgrown

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Haha thanks all for the heads up guys. Pigs are doing well and I am familiar with finishing cattle for slaughter and read quite a bit about hogs. The protein sources for grower vs finisher are different and I spoke with a local bulk feed provider near my farm that has filled me in on what I need to do. Right now the hogs have eaten their weight in old veg I scored from the grocery store. They literally gave me a barrel full. I have never seen a creature eat that much. My orchard is fenced and hotwired inside and out low and high to keep the cattle and other critters out as is the pig pen. We also have solar chargers to add to the electric charger for the fence. Thanks for the heads up about the fence though. And good idea about the brewery there are lots of those here in Dallas. We actually fenced our orchard because the wild hogs were getting in and mangling the dogs when the fruit dropped. We feed a lot of it to the cows too they love old peaches without the pit and pears.
 

Gibson's Farm

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I got 5 Large Black heritage breed feeders five weeks ago. I am still working on food sources but did score a big one. We have a cheesemaker in town who agreed to give me as much whey as I need. I just drop off and pick up the buckets. I've also been trying to get in touch with someone at the local microbrewery to see if I can get spent brewer's grain. By the time I got the pigs the squirrels ate all the acorns.

Be careful feeding brewers grains. I use them but if you feed over 25% of their feed as distillers grains their fat will become soft and it will affect the quality of bacon.
 

DonH

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Be careful feeding brewers grains. I use them but if you feed over 25% of their feed as distillers grains their fat will become soft and it will affect the quality of bacon.
I called twice and haven't heard back from the brewery but I got a local restaurant 5 miles from my house that will give me as much food waste as the pigs can handle. With that and the whey they are putting on weight fast.
 

Gibson's Farm

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I called twice and haven't heard back from the brewery but I got a local restaurant 5 miles from my house that will give me as much food waste as the pigs can handle. With that and the whey they are putting on weight fast.

I get mine from the feed mill. It is called dry distillers grains or DDG. I just ground feed today.

My feed ration
3300lbs corn
1000lbs DDG
500lbs soybean meal
100lbs of non-medicated vitamin supplement

This makes a 16% balanced ration. Do not feed straight DDG to pigs it is 33% protein and could kill them if they eat to much, same goes for soybean meal at 48% protein. Corn is 9%.
 
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