Pig & Chicken Food Grown On The Farm-Questions.

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Hello! I know this question has been asked in various ways, but I'd like to ask again...

If it is possible, I would like to grow, harvest and feed our chickens & pigs from our own land. Now, the question is, what would I grow? We do not have a tractor yet, nor the implements. So, all would be done by hand. Given this, is it feasible? If so, what would be good to plant? How much?

We have only 2 little piggies right now and around 30 hens. We are adding about 50 more laying hens and 50 Cornish Roasters. Also, some Turkeys. The Cornish Roasters will be in moveable pens. And likewise for the pigs, if that will work better. Turkeys and Guineas free range and laying hens are kept in a small pasture area (1/2 acre, maybe a little less) during the garden growing season, otherwise they are free to roam. Any reccomendations?

Also, in preparation for the day we can add cattle, what suggestions do you have in regards to preparing the pasture? Would like to graze and alternate grazing areas, with only about 10 acres available for cows, we would not have many. But, would like to make the most of the area we do have available. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

And, oh yea, not much money to work with......

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), February 28, 2001

Answers

Pigs and chickens both will love any of your garden trimmings. If you can get access to a source of milk you have an excellent feed. Maybe if there is a dairy near you they would let you have their mastitis milk(if they catch it instead of putting in the tank). I always have more milk than I can use from my cow. This I usually let clabber. I have a plastic bucket that I use just for this reason...I put rennet into it and now I just don't rinse it out and all the milk I put into it clabbers pretty quickly. Pigs will appreciate any surplus eggs you want to give them too. Sometimes you can buy stale bread from bakery stores very cheaply...of course that isn't raised on the farm. You can grow a great deal of food in a small area. I usually grow way more food than I can can or we can eat so that goes to the chickens or other critters that will eat it. One thing I do is dry excess produce and store it in metal trash cans...in the winter I throw it in a pot and simmer it overnight....stew for the chickens or pigs. Of course there is always the old standby of corn. It's not hard to grow, harvest or store.

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), February 28, 2001.

Hi Wendy: I agree totally with Amanda & have just a few ideas in addition. I grew mangel beets (available at Jungs seeds, etc - see thread on where do I buy mangel beet seeds) last year for the first time. My pigs and chickens loved the tops; but didn't eat the beets that well. This year, I will try feeding them at a smaller size. They get huge and are a normal livestock feed in Europe - easy to do, cause planted just like garden beets. Alfalfa is an almost perfect feed for pigs and chickens love it too. So, you could plant any of that you could manage. I think in most areas, it comes back by itself about 7 years before it needs to be reseeded. On it or on grains, my dad used to get someone to disc a small patch for him (before we got a tractor). Then he would broadcast the seed by hand and then just rake the soil with a garden rake so that the seed was covered up. There is a book that is mentioned around here quite a bit - Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery - it has a section on unusual stock feeds like honey locust pods. Don't know where you are at; but those grow wild in Oklahoma and many other places, I'm sure. Now, there is another book I'll recommend that may shock you. I think the name is Stalking the Healthy Herbs - but is by Euell (sp?) Gibbons. In that book is some fascinating info about free great food for livestock. Look for the info in particular about dried stinging nettle (higher in protein than soybean meal). Hope this helps. Cynthia

-- Cynthia Speer (farmsteader@gvtel.com), February 28, 2001.

See if your local library can obtain a loaner copy of Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith. In particular, for pigs, he recommended mulberrys and acorn oaks. Said one mature mulberry would feed one pig for its fruiting season.

It was once a standard practice to turn pigs loose in the woods in the fall to feast on acorns and chestnuts. They would then be gathered up and fed on grain for a bit to sweeten the meat. In some areas of New England pigs were fattened on fish heads and guts and were also switched to grain before slaughter. This was back when a 230-pound market hog of today would have been considered still a baby. Some pig breeds went up to 1,000 pounds before slaughter. Hasn't been all that long in Britian rural pubs brewed their own ales and lagers. Pigs were kept out back to utilize the spent malt.

Another book I recommend is Pigs: from Cave to Corn Belt by Charles W. Towne and Edward N. Wentworth. They also did one on sheep called Shepherd's Empire, but it isn't nearly as interesting - at least to me.

For the most bangs for the bucks, it would be hard to beat corn.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 01, 2001.


An easy thing to do is find an area you can grow large amounts of squash and melons in. Lots of zucinni, you know how that grows, and all the other squashes and cantalope and winter squashes for late in the season feeding. I mulch my large area deep after the plants are up and then just let it go.

An area with good sun all morning and some shade in the late afternoon works good. Pick a place that has good drainage, if they get soggy, they will die. You can get a big roll of hay cheap and mulch deep to keep the melons off the ground and from rotting.

If you keep it harvested, it produces hundreds of pounds a season. Also in mine, the mulch is kept deep and the seeds from rotton ones will come back up the next spring. I bury allot of seeds in there from the ones we eat. If you planted enough winter squash, it would supplement allot thru the winter. My cantalopes spread 20 feet.

We fed our hog tons of pears, and she loved grass clippings too.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), March 01, 2001.


You can feed your pigs most of your leftovers - even meat products - and they LOVE milk, so if you have extra, by all means!!!! Be careful about grease, though. Everybody will take your leftover veggies...

Would it be possible to put a low fence round your garden instead of round your chickens??? This would go a long way in reducing any feed consumption. Also, you could let the little biddies run around in your garden a few at a time. There's no reason to keep them out altogether. They love weeds, etc.

If you have a spot, maybe a half acre or so, plant alfalfa. It can be used to feed ALL of your livestock, insulate the garden in late fall, fertilize the garden when turned the next spring, is a perennial, and is high in fiber, protein, does not require fertilizer, improves the soil and on and on and on. BTW - alfalfa is a legume.... not a grass.... About the only thing it won't do is windows!! (jk)

Clover might also be good, but this can be invasive, so if you plant it, use 'scrub' land. It is next to alfalfa in feed value (both being above soybeans in protein and fiber).

Next, I would consider the grains. I don't know much about growing those, but it seems that oats would be alright, and corn should be easy if you have enough space. Both will need a little processing before they could be fed to the animals, though.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), March 01, 2001.



Thanks to all who answered! Good info I plan to use. Between this and the other threads on similar subjects, I think I am set!

I have a good start. We planted some Mulberry Trees when we first moved in. Also have access to our own alfalfa and clover. Am going to do a combination of things -- Thanks everyone!

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), March 02, 2001.


Wendy:

I get the impression you aren't talking about a whole lot of pigs. You may be better off to securely confine them and green chop the alfalfa and clover to feed to them there. Far less fence and pasture damage worries. A bagging lawnmower would be a nice forage chopper.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 03, 2001.


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