# How much school milk can a pig handle?



## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

My daughter's school has about 100 kids. They pour their school milk into a bucket after eating each day, then pour it down the drain. They said I could bring two buckets to trade out, and have the milk for my pig. She is about 6 1/2 weeks old right now, and gets about 2 cups of milk am and pm to tame her down...works like a dream. Can I work her up to free choice milk? I don't want to make her sick but I'd love to have the free food for her. Any advice would be appreciated.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

I would give her all she could eat, along with free choice grain ration.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Maybe I spoke too fast. Is she a feeder or a breeder? My initial advice was for a feeder.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

I milk cows to help feed my pigs and none of them get all they can consume unless I want very fat pigs - which I don't. OK, raw cows milk is going to probably be much higher in cream than the homoginised stuff they give at schools but even then, you will end up with either a sick pig or a fat one.

I have never tried storing homoginised milk but why not give it a go and see how well it will keep. I keep my raw milk in 40 gallon drums and it is still fit for pig use 6 months later. It doesn't look too good or even smell too good (but far from turning the stomach) and the pigs thrive on it. In fact, I often feel that the older it is, the less I have to feed them and the better they do.

Also, if this milk is going to be a regular thing for you, why not look at getting another couple of weaners and selling them as pork. I'm sure you will have takers for them, and an extra bit of pin money.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

I'm confused. Is this waste milk from the kid's milk containers? Or is it excess that hasn't been served yet? I just got this thought about bacteria transmission from the kids to your pigs.


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## FarmerRob (May 25, 2009)

HeritagePigs is right--you NEVER want to feed post consumer waste to pigs. Most any illness or disease humans can get they can give to pigs. 

If this the milk left in the container that the kids were drinking out of you do NOT want it. If these are out of date milk cartons then they would be OK. 

Post consumer waste is called swill. In Georgia, and probably most other states, you cannot sell for consumption or import to the state, any pig raised on swill due to the health risks.

If you can get their throwaway food it would be ok to feed it to worms if you are doing vermicomposting but NEVER to pigs or any other livestock.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Most states permit feeding re-cooked restaurant food waste to hogs.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

The post-consumer vs pre-consumer waste is important. I would go with the pre-consumer wastes but beware that from a restaurant or school the two may get mixed very easily. With that in mind you may want to treat it all as post-consumer and cook it as required. With pork for sale this becomes a legal issue.

I base the pig's diet on pasture/hay and then add the dairy which provides lysine and calories. With primarily whey or skim milk for the dairy component of their diet we find that we get about 3/4" to 1" of back fat which is perfect for our market. This gives excellent marbling.

With more fat content in the milk you get fatter pigs and may want to start restricting the milk intake to control the calories. Someone who buys piglets from us, thus the same genetics as ours, gets about 3" of back fat free feeding Jersey milk and pasture. Jersey milk is high in fat so he gets a lot more fat on the pigs.

Genetics, age at slaughter, exercise and other diet components can affect the fat and growth as well. Milk makes for wonderfully sweet tasting pork, the flavor is in the fat to a large degree.

Chickens also like milk and it can make a good supplement for them especially in the winter. As mentioned, compost is another option - lots of carbon to soak up the nitrogen and time to deal with evaporation of the fluid.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

WOW...thanks sooo much! I NEVER even thought about the whole transmission thing (right now I've got a girl with major impetigo on her lip....I'm nauseous at the thought of my pig with impetigo!). HOWEVER, I've also got a nice crab cooker/outside/propane burner thing. Could I heat the milk to say 165 degrees? Would that do it? The milk is definitely just the leftover stuff the kids don't finish, but I HATE the thought of wasting it. BTW, someone mentioned poultry. Can my 8 turkeys have milk?


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## tatanka (Aug 3, 2004)

Our chickens, turkeys and pigs all get raw goats milk. The chickens and trukeys love it when it clabbers. We have raised many pigs on nothing but raw milk and eggs. They get a taste for the milk and then the only feed you can get them to eat is soaked in the milk. In our experience it grows them without much fat on them.


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## bruceki (Nov 16, 2009)

Feeding milk to pigs is fine. Cook it to 160 degrees to kill the transmissible things, and then feed all you want. Milk will also make other less-palatable things more interesting to the pigs. Spent grain from brewing, for instance, makes an excellent co-feed for dairy.


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## Firefly (Dec 7, 2005)

I know things have changed since my kid was in school, but I can't imagine the lunchroom workers emptying a hundred little cartons into buckets every day. Are you sure this isn't either unused cartons or the remains of a bulk container where the kids put a cup under a spigot?


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

Nope, the kids have to dump their milk before tossing the containers. The milk then gets dumped down the drain. There are only 100 kids in the whole school and not everyone drinks milk. Today Miss Piggy had leftover lamb's milk (homemade milk replacer) and donuts for breakfast. We get a free food drop from the local market 1 day a week, and its like Christmas each week. This time two big bags o' bakery product. Needless to say she was in hog heaven. Unfortunately she was a little loose tonight, so if I just back off, should she be ok?


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

I also feed pigs out on our leftover milk from our Jersey cows, I give them all they want without wasting it. It has been my experiance we have very little back fat on our hogs at butchering time. It is very good feed for them, I like Ronney, store my milk in barrels and feed as we get to it. As I have stated on different threads before, raw milk never spoils, it just changes form. I don`t think there is anything better than milk fed hogs. Thanks Marc.


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