We've had our three pigs for almost two weeks and I've never seen anything grow so fast. I started them out( 8 weeks old) on starter pellets and feed them three times a day and have them on pig grower now soaked in goat milk. I'm giving them about 2 gallon og goat milk a day split in the three feeding. Their digestion seems to be good with no signs of them getting the scours. My husband thinks I'm feeding them to much but all their feed is cleaned up when I feed them again. Do I have to worry about my pigs getting to fat to fast. If this is a dumb question, please be gentle.

-- sherry in Arkansas (chickadee259@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002

Answers

Well, we have only raised pigs about 4 different times. One of the things we heard was that if a pig gets too much feed, then it passes through undigested. We feed our pigs LOTS of milk. They don't seem to scour. Pigs will grow fast. It is amazing. We alway feed ours the finishing ration because it is the only one in our area not medicated. We are raising them to be healthy. How much feed are you giving them each feeding? Many people we know have their hogs on free choice food. We don't do that.

-- Mike & Marci (TheBlubaughs@amazinggrazefarm.com), January 23, 2002.

Sherry, yes pigs do grow fast, highest conversion rate next to chickens if memory serves me. I feel you can get them too fat. The grower you are giving them should be enough. Drop the milk (or cut the grower ration back). We made the mistake one year of feeding ad lib and the animals were fatty. There is a book out by Dirk Van Loon that is very informative regarding the raising of pigs, try to get a copy. I will see if I can get more info for you when I get home. tom

-- tom (wysfarm@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.

Sherry, Your pigs are growing right now. It sounds to me like you are feeding them right.The goats milk and grower ration are both high protien feed. They need it to grow. When they get to the 100# weight, they will slow down in growth and start putting on fat. Even at that time , if they can get excersise they won't be too fat. Try to butcher them at 240# to 260#. Some people will say this is too large a weight...but not for big chops and nice sized hams.I like your use of the gauge that as long as they clean up their feed they are just right. Keep in mind that as they grow you will have to increase the amount fed.Do this by increasing the feed until they leave a little then back off. It is not a science really, relax and have fun. Goats milk or cows milk is an almost comlpete feed and VERY good for hogs.

-- Ralph in N.E.Ohio (Roadapple@suite224.net), January 23, 2002.

Hi Sherry, not a dumb question at all. Yes they can get too fat too fast. They do grow fast, but that growth should mostly consist of muscle and bone, you don't want them putting on fat at a young age. (And modern hogs won't put on much fat even when they are at their "harvesting" weight.)

You MAY be adding too much fat to the ration with the goat's milk. I don't know what goat's milk contains in terms of fat and protein. But you want to keep the ration as close to ideal as possible. You could use the feed tag from the grower ration as a guide. If the milk is a little high in fat and low in protein, you may want to use the starter pellets instead of the grower. Just do the best you can in balancing the cost and the contents of the ration. If you don't like how these turn out, you can always do something different next time!

Michelle

-- Michelle (kellycalves@soon.com), January 23, 2002.

Sherry, It does sound like your doing great. We don't feed any medicated grower due to the contents!! Our feed mill will leave out the medication. We feed just ground corn free choice when their larger due to the fact they get 3-5 gallons of milk aday. So far no problems and their never fat. I've heard pigs will not over eat, but I think milk is the exception, they rather have that then anything!!! But scours would be the tell, tell sign....keep doing what your doing.

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), January 23, 2002.

Hi; Here is a link to a chart that I have used many times and feel that it is very accurate. Hog feed chart Regards

-- ourfarm (ourfarm@noaddr.com), January 23, 2002.

Sherry-

At about 60 days your pigs metabolizm will change. Switch to a finisher ration (it will be cheeper). By 130 to 140 your pigs will be butcher weight (250# + or -). Watch their front shoulderblades. As long as you can see them moving when the pigs move they aren't too fat. Pigs are like people, the older they get the less protein and fat they need in their diet.

Dave

-- Dave Bluhm (davebluhm@adamswells.com), January 23, 2002.

We slop our hogs. They really dig into it and then the water ratio drops, which works for us cause the feed is down at the pigs and the water has to be carried there. We give them enough so that there is nothing there the next time we feed. In honesty, my hubby has this worked out pretty well. Good luck and enjoy!

-- julie britt (jbritt@ceva.net), January 24, 2002.

Hey, ourfarm -- that's a useful chart! Can someone explain what exactly "feed conversion" means?

-- snoozy (bunny@northsound.net), January 24, 2002.

We have been raising hogs on goat's milk for years and it is quite wonderful. All a matter of taste I guess. Because I like to make soap etc from the lard, I could care less if they get a bit too fat too fast. Our pork is always wonderful and nothing gets wasted.

Feed conversion is nice to know, but for us and our little homestead hogs I am most interested in good meat at the lowest cost. In all our years of doing it we have never lost a hog. We feed a mixture of whatever we have and surplus baked goods and goats milk mostly. Sounds like you are doing great to me.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

fyi snoozy-

Feed conversion is how many pounds of feed it takes to put on a pound of pork.

dave

-- dave (davebluhm@adamswells.com), January 24, 2002.

Years ago we raised a couple of pigs on cow's milk (lots of milk!). Other than kitchen scraps and some pelleted feed, that was all they ate. They never scoured and grew well, but the meat was just marbled with fat...way too much for our taste! Raised a couple different batches of pigs like that, but finally sold the cows and got dairy goats instead. Our pigs now still have free-choice milk, kitchen scraps, old bakery bread and some grain. But the meat is excellent, no more fat marbling! Maybe the cows milk wasn't "used" as efficiently as the goats milk...I don't know. Of course it's still good for them, but it probably should be somewhat restricted.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), January 24, 2002.

There are no dumb questions.

Interesting answers you got to your question most partly correct. I have tried to address your question and some of the exceptions I found in the answers you recieved.

Like us the pig will select the most palatable feed first so of course they will drink the milk before eating the grain. If you are looking for the optimum rate of growth do not feed milk. If it does not matter if it takes 30 days more to slaughter weight feed milk. We butcher at 4.75 months of age at 235 to 265 lbs. 17% protein grain free choice. By the way we never feed finisher. Current genetics are ultra lean and you can feed the grower for longer periods and not get fat pigs. If you were to only feed grain and the weather is mild you would feed about 650 pounds of grain to each pig until slaughter weight.

Pigs do not over eat. They eat until they are full and then go lay down. Ultimate couch potatoes. Free feeding allows the less aggressive pigs in the group to eat. The more aggressive pigs will eat get full and then the less aggressive will get to eat all he or she wants.

Pigs are much easier to work around if they do not think of you as strictly someone that brings them food when they are hungry. I can mingle among the feeder pigs and butcher size hogs and not get mauled. I go to work in the boar and sow pens and I have to feed to work in there, and I better be done before they are done because they come looking for me for more. Not to say they are mean just they think of me as the feed provider.

Marbling in pigs is strictly genetic. Intramuscular fat is called marbling. Good example is if you look at a beef rib steak the white flecks within the meat is marbling, not the seam fat (fat between sections of the meat) or the outside fat. The breed of pig that marbles the most in the US is the Berkshire. Good luck

-- Nicole Murray (nmurray@olympus.net), January 25, 2002.