I have 4 Berkshire X pigs coming in mid April, they will be 6 weeks old at that time. I plan on feeding them commercial starter for the first while, but would like to switch to something more economical later. A farmer friend of mine has offered to mill grain for me,and he has quite a bit of different stuff. What should I be getting? Is there anything to avoid? Someone told me too much oats might not be good, but he wasn't sure. Nobody has corn or soybeans here so that's not an option. They will have a few acres of pasture to roam once they are a bit bigger, and will get garden scraps too, but trying to put together a "main course" for them.

Best and fastest ones that I ever raised were fed shelled corn in one feeder and hog supplement in another feeder. All that they wanted along with good clean water. I had trouble finding the supplement at first as none of the feed stores knew what I was talking about, then I asked at a local feed mill and they had it bagged and ready to go. They were way behind on it, and cleaned it up fast. I told my Dad that I couldn't afford the stuff if they were going to eat it that fast. He replied that they would back off when they got enough, and He was right, as He so often was. miles

Thanks Miles,good info. Local feed store does have the supplement so now I just need the right grain.

A friend used to answer all the free kitten ads...

A friend and neighbor that worked for me told me that his Dad moved to Arkansas in the early fifties from Minnesota, I think. I knew the man well but never heard of this. This was about the time that tractors was taking over the farming from Horses and mules, so horse prices was very low. This all happened before He came to Arkansas but he would buy Horses cheap and skin them, sell the hides for about the price that He gave for them to begin with, and feed the horse meat to hogs. miles

Well, a couple years ago we had a guy over in BC feeding his hogs dead hookers, so....

Think I'll just stick to ground grains and whatever else I can find

xxclaro,

I lived in Vanderhoof BC 30+ years ago. A friend there had 600+ hogs that he was raising. They were free ranging in pastures of alfalfa laced with oats till the last 2 months.

He would then place them in a feed lot pen, and feed them all the old bread from the local bakery and Overwaitea store. All of the fruits and veggies too. Same with the local dairy the expired dairy from the Overwaitea store. All went to the hogs.

The local slaughter house would place all of their waste into a trailer for him, and he would feed that also.

The last 2 weeks before they were sent off for sale, he pumped them full of any grain he could get from local farmers/ranchers. Wet, spoiled, old, did not matter.

Once fat, off they went to market.

I'm sure that things are more regulated now, but, that's what happened back in the day.

We have grown out pigs for slaughter. They eat most anything. We fed pig feed from Tractor Supply, but we also fed anything scrap. Extra eggs we couldn't eat, shell and all. We were milking goats and any extra milk went to them. Our boy was working at a restaurant and leftover bread or salads he brought home. Lot of people buy day old bread cheap for them. Anything from a garden.

Keeping them watered can be challenging, cause they want to root under anything and turn it over. I found a watering cup that had a valve and you hook it up to a hose. I mounted the watering cup to a fence post, and they had water all the time.

Might want to check on that one. I seem to recall that Arkansas has law about restaurant scraps have to be cooked. I think TB was the concern. After the mad cow scare there may be regulations about any meat product. Not sure of all this, just a warning to be careful. miles

You can buy watering nipples for hogs, to keep water waste down. miles

Famous French case from long ago involved Steak Tartar made from horse meat killing a huge group of people. They had been feeding the horses waste from a pig slaughterhouse. Trichinella...

Hogs are omnivores, just like chickens. They need meat proteins along with grains.

One year we decided to cut down on commercial hog feed and supplement with wheat shorts, oats, meat scraps etc. While our feed bill was cheaper, our finished hogs had a softer body composition with more fat and less lean meat(muscle mass). For the first and only time, our hogs weren't sold as #1s.

Might be a consideration since you will be eating them.

What was brought home was untouched bread that was served, and salad fixings that didn't get used. Nothing was half eaten so to speak. No law here abut that.

I considered the nipple waterer, thought the cup would work better fo me since there isn't much pressure out where the pigs were. This watering cup worked almost by gravity feed.

Thanks for your concern.

I'm a bit confused by this post. Does commercial hog grower have meat protein in it? If pigs are omnivores why did they do worse when fed meat scraps as well as grains? Was it just a lack of enough protein or did they not get enough of the other nutrients?
I can get the hog supplement here and will feed it alongside the grain and whatever else they get, hopefully that helps them out. I plan to butcher before they get too big and fat anyway, probably a bit over 200lb, so hopefully they will still be good quality. They will also have several acres to roam on, and from what I've been able to learn in my research, these Berkshires do fairly well on pasture. We will see, I suppose. Whatever I learn this year I can take forward and improve on next year. Appreciate all the advice guys.

They will do fine on grain and supplement. Ranging will help as hogs eat a lot more grass than most realize. You will need to cook your meat to a higher Temp than Hogs raised on concrete as there are some "bugs" in the soil. Most people are taught to do that anyway. miles

Shorts, corn, and supplement. Shorts were cheap and bought corn spillage at the grain bin. Supplement wasnt cheap, but when mixing the feed we used 50% shorts, 25% corn, and 25% supplement. This kept the cost down and the hogs/pigs did fine. Having a pasture will only make it better.

Had a friend that got old bakery products by the truckload for next to nothing and fed this to his pigs. Had to supplement the baked goods, but they grew off fine, too.

You can feed lots of things, but I would finish on corn. miles

I used to raise a lot of hogs when I was farming full time 30 years ago. Sows were run on a clover-mix pasture and fed a 14 or 15% protein ration of corn and soybean supplement. When I was finishing pigs out, I usually fed a 16% ration of corn and soybean meal. I have substituted wheat for corn, an it works very well. For putting weight on a hog in the shortest amount of time, nothing beats corn and bean meal.

Never fed pigs any kind of meat. But I can't recall anything they wouldn't eat!

Yes, commercial feed contains animal proteins.

The hogs I mentioned above were healthy and vigorous. What we are talking about here is yield. They had less lean meat and a higher fat content. We just didn't hit the proper ratios needed for best quality meat.

Here is an example of a hog supplement so you can see the ingredients.

PURPOSE STATEMENT
- A Complete Swine Supplement Containing Added
Amino Acids And Fat For Superior Gain
s When Fed To Hogs With Improved
Lean Type Genetics.
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
Crude Protein (Min).......................................................40.00%
Lysine (Min).................................................................2.10%
Crude Fat (Min).............................................................7.00%
Crude Fiber (Max)..........................................................3.00%
Calcium (Min)...............................................................3.30%
Calcium (Max)...............................................................3.70%
Phosphorus (Min)...........................................................1.70%
Salt (Min).....................................................................1.70%
Salt (Max)....................................................................2.10%
Zinc (Min)..................................................................600ppm
INGREDIENTS
Dehulled Soybean Meal, Pork Meat &
Bone Meal, Animal Fat, Dicalcium
Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, L-
Lysine, DL Methi
onine, Roughage
Product, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate,
Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, D-Calcium
Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Riboflavin
Supplement, Manadionr Dimethylpyri
midinol Bisulfate, Biotin, Niacin
Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, zinc Oxide, Ethylanadiamine
Dihydriodide, Ferrous Sulfate, Sodium
Selenite, Mineral Oil, Vitamin D3
Supplement, Selenium Yeast, Sodium Su
lfate, Kaolin, Cellulose, Hydrogenated
Vegetable Oil, Dextrin, Starch, C
ondensed Fermented Corn Extractive,
Dehydrated A Oryzae Fermentation Ex
tract and Vitamin B12 Supplement
MIXING DIRECTIONS
Swine
Body Weight 50 to 125
125 to Mkt
50 to 125 125 to Mkt
Ground Corn
1650
1700
1600
1675
BB Hi-Gain
350
300
400
325
40 Supplement
CALCULATED ANALYSIS
Protein
14.30%
13.50%
15.20%
13.90%
Lysine
0.72%
0.65%
0.79%
0.69%
Fat
4.30%
4.20%
4.40%
4.20%
Calcium
0.65%
0.57%
0.74% 0.61%
Phosphorus
0.55%
0.51%
0.59%
0.53%
Salt
0.38%
0.34%
0.43%
0.36%

I feed Huey the Hog cracked corn but he also gets a little bit of the horse's 11% sweet as a topping/treat! Some folks around here have recommended soaking the corn but he loves the crunch!

After the mad cow scare, I don't know what is available, but you used to be able to buy what was called meat scraps, that was ground up meat from rendering plants, as an additive for feed. That was way back in the 60's. miles

A friend of mine raises them in Cottonwood county MN. We dress our pheasants, ducks, cottontails, huns, etc right at the fence, and those hogs fight for every single morsel of anything we threw in there. I would not want to be working and fall ill or pass out in a hog pen!

Holly dog crap batman, hogs will eat everything. Stopped by a local micro brew Thursday and have hooked up with 400 lbs of wet distillers grain every week