We bought two feeder pigs this fall. We have been feeding them about a half gallon of milk, soaked oats and wheat (4lbs dry total), plus greens, bread, carrots, an occasional egg, etc. It fills a 5 gallon bucket and fed 1/2 morning and 1/2 at night.

This isn't enough anymore. I want to only feed them organic food. The oats and wheat are organic plus I have a source of organic chicken (not layer) and dairy blend (for lactating and developing cows and goats).

Any thoughts on if I can feed the dairy or chicken food to the pigs? Or should I just up the amounts of the wheat and oats. They are on 1/4 acre of pasture (now mud).

Thanks, Amy

-- Amy Richards (Amysgarden2@earthlin.net), December 02, 2001

Answers

You are fine as long as your feed doesn't contain cotton seed meal. It probably doesn't, but the pigs won't be able to handle it if it does.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), December 02, 2001.

Anything you can feed to cows an chickens,Pigs will thrive on.

-- David R . In Tn. (srimmer@earthlink.net), December 02, 2001.

Sorry- I put a typo in the email address.

amysgarden2@earthlink.net is correct

-- Amy Richards (amysgarden2@earthlink.net), December 02, 2001.

I'll feed layer pellets to my pigs in a pinch, with no problems...they'll eat anything! But, my chickens wont eat pig pellets...go figure!! During the last month or so of growing my pigs, I feed them quite a bit of my dairy grain (16% and no animal by-products). When I sell my pork, customers rave about it. Don't know if it's the layer pellets or the dairy grain that makes it taste so good!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), December 03, 2001.

We raised a litter of 10 piglets from a sow I got at a farm auction who was "100% assuredly not pregnant", thank goodness I waited a couple months before butchering her. I gave the piglets an iron shot and clipped their fangs out with wirecutters. When she got tired of nursing them all, we removed them to a pen where they ate a mixture of leftover milk, beaten up raw eggs, karo syrup and calf manna, mixed with cooked oatmeal, cooked rice or potatoes, cooked cereal,or bread.

As feeders, I fed my pigs boiled rolled barley,( this can be soaked with equally good results), broken bag dogfood I purchased for $2 for 50 lb bags at the feedstore, a pigfood mix of cracked corn/cracked dry peas/rolled barley that I soaked for digestibility, leftover milk I got whenever the cooler broke at school, and a great variety of banged up produce kindly provided from the grocery manager. They grew well, enjoyed robust health, and butchered out amazingly lean and well fleshed carcasses. With a little effort and ingenuity you can procure low cost or free quality food for pigs, making them very economical for the small farmer to raise for the family table.

-- Susanne Killion (frugalredhead@mauryriver.net), December 06, 2001.