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STARTING WITH PIGS

An extract from the book by Andy Case
published by Broad Leys Publishing Ltd

Feeding Pigs

"A starved pig is a great deal worse than none at all." (William Cobbett - Cottage Economy - 1821)

Pigs in their natural state eat a little and often. This is not practical, so unless you use ad-lib feeders, feed them twice a day, morning and afternoon. You’ll find that you will have to stick to the same time every day. If you are late the pigs will certainly let you know by squealing until you show up with their food. They have an innate and accurate sense of time. The amounts required at different stages are indicated below:

Photo: The author's wife with one of their Kunekune pigs, taken by Katie Thear

For little breeds such as the New Zealand Kunekune, one needs to reduce the amounts, as shown. The little Kunekune pigs can cope with a very high fibre diet and are true grazing pigs, being able to maintain condition on good quality pasture alone. Of course pregnant and lactating sows should always be fed at a higher rate as their nutritional needs are greater. It is not generally realised that all pigs will graze, given the opportunity, some more than others.

Compound feeds

Compound feeds are the most convenient to use. They are formulated as complete rations and contain all the necessary nutrients, including minerals and vitamins. They are available in different formulations according to the age and type of pig, and can be bought as pellets, cubes, nuts, rolls, or as meal. Examples are shown on page 42. Note that the ‘ash’ refened to is the mineral element of the feed.

Caution must be practised when feeding milk, It can cause diarrhoea because of the fat content. If it is kept in drums and allowed to go sour this overcomes this problem in pigs. The lactobacilli souring organisms act as natural probiotics, as is the case with yoghurt.

Examples of compound feeds

(Information by courtesy of W & H. Marriage & Sons Ltd).

If you don’t want to use commercial feed rations, be careful that the supplementary feeds are of sufficient quality for the pigs. The protein foodstuffs are shown below:

Percentage of protein in common foodstuffs

• Sow nuts 16% - 17%
• Pasture about 3%
• Bread up to 8% and high in carbohydrates
• Potatoes 0.5% and high in starch.
• Milk 3.5%

The feeding of fodder beet in the winter period is very beneficial. It is high in energy, but with little or no protein, must only be fed as a supplement. ft replaces the energy that pigs would have got from the grass and is therefore particularly useful when you have had to take the sows off the paddocks, when it is too wet. Feed one good sized beet per sow, fed whole scattered in the straw.

Weaning

I am a great believer in keeping this simple. I wean all my pigs including the little Kunekunes at eight weeks of age, which is the traditional weaning time. Some pig-keepers wean earlier for economic reasons. By the age of three weeks the piglets will be picking up their mother’s supplementary food off the ground. There is no need for expensive creep pellets if weaning is at this late age.

If feeding proprietary nuts scatter them on the dry ground, not in the mud. Do not feed ‘cobs’ to the sow for they will be too big for the piglets to eat. By eight weeks of age they will be competing with their mother at feeding time,
eating a considerable amount as their mother’s milk dries up. A sound reason for weaning at eight weeks is the fact that a pig’s fertility cycle is three weeks, and she comes into season (hogging) from 4-7 days afterwards. She is following her natural rhythm of the three week cycle. If a gilt with her first litter has great demands on her, as with a large litter of say 11 or 12 piglets, she may ‘milk off her back’ and become excessively thin. It is important in this instance, to wean the piglets from her at five weeks. She will then come hogging on the sixth week. You may want to miss the first hogging and feed her up for three weeks to improve her condition and then put her to the boar. It may be prudent to feed the piglets, because of their young age with a higher protein feed such as one of the grower feeds.

To wean piglets it is best to put the sow and piglets where you intend to keep the weaners, to begin with. The next step, after one or two days, is to take the sow far enough away and secure, so that she cannot hear the piglets and they cannot hear her. Do not wean gradually, do it directly and abruptly. Believe me the sow and the piglets will not suffer.

Feeding the weaners

Feed them twice a day and not too much, too soon, or they will scour. Dietary scours can quickly turn to bacterial scours and must be treated before you start losing your weanlings. It is important to give the weaners access to clean water at all times. Remember that water pots or drinking bowls should be low enough for the piglets to reach.

Adult sows can drink well over 9 litres (2 gallons) a day and more in very hot weather and when in milk. A very good tub is made from an empty 205 litre (45 gallon) plastic drum. Cut off the end at 23cm (9in) deep with a hand saw. Now go around to your local tyre merchant and beg a couple of old lorry tyres. Simply drop the tubs into these. The internal diameter of the tyre needs to be about 60cm (24in).The tyre prevents the pigs from tipping the water tub over, something all pigs delight in doing.

You will need to place a concrete block into the tub of a sow with a litter to prevent the piglets from drowning. Little pigs like the Kunekune need shallower water tubs, bowls or troughs. I cannot stress too much how important it is to check that your pigs have water at all times, especially during hot weather. Pigs can die or become very sick of salt poisoning if deprived of water.

Feeding the finishing pig

It is important, first of all, to know the amount of space required to accommodate various sizes of pigs. Too few pigs in a pen is a waste of space and in winter, when it is cold, they will lie very close together for warmth. A full pen will be warmer for them as they generate a considerable amount of heat. They will also make better use of their food and come to pork weight quicker than they would using half their food just to keep warm. This last point is one very good reason for finishing pigs indoors, but with access to an outside exercise run, rather than running them outside, where they may make very inefficient use of their feed.

An 18kg (40 lb) weaner needs approximately 1858 sq.cm (2sq.ft) of lying space and a 75kg (165 lb) baconer needs 5574 sq.cm (6 sq.ft). It is important that at all stages, pigs have enough trough space so that they can all feed at the same time. 36cm (l4in) is the magical figure, enough for pigs right up to bacon weight.

I am not a believer in ad-lib feeding at any stage of the growing period. I much prefer to feed my pigs twice a day. Nor am I enthused by the feeding of wet meal.

Feeding the meal dry gives the smaller pigs in the group a greater chance to eat their share, because the big ones cannot gulp it down, as they can with wet feeding. The old adage of giving them as much feed as they can clear up in twenty minutes is still, in my opinion, a very good one. If they scrabble and fall on their food and it’s all gone in a few minutes, give them more. If they still have meal left after half an hour, clear up the uneaten food and cut back on the ration.

Start the weaners off on half sow nuts and half meal. I use one mix right through to finishing, and gradually phase out the nuts until the weaners are having 1-2 kgs (2.2 - 4.4 lb) of meal a day. Do not feed too much, too soon, for this may very well make them scour. If this happens cut the food back quickly and subsequently increase it more slowly.

Home mixed feed

The cheapest food is one that you mix yourself. You do not require expensive machinery to manufacture your own feed. All it requires is a clean shovel and a flat, clean area of floor. Buy the ‘straights’ from your merchant. Straights include barley meal, coarse ground wheat, fish meal and soya meal. A good standard mix would be:

• 10 parts coarse wheatmeal 1 part soya meal
• 8 parts barley meal 1 part fish meal
• plus minerals

As the pigs get older, three quarters to pork weight, one should drop the fish meal and double the soya meal. Towards the end of the finishing, drop the soya meal back to one part and increase the barley meal by one part. Learn to feed by eye, that is one of the skills of a good stockman.

Household scraps should be avoided on health grounds. Since the major out-break of Foot and Mouth disease in Britain in 2001, the feeding of swill is banned.

© 2004. Katie Thear.

From STARTING WITH PIGS, published by Broad Leys Publishing Ltd

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