# Feeding pigs on a budget?



## slkirky

I have two hogs that I am feeding out for the freezer (although I really dread that day as I am kinda, well, pathetically, attatched to them!) Due to my husband being in a serious accident at work and the incompetance of the workers comp insurance company, funds are very, very tight around here. 

For that reason, I am looking for ways to stretch my feed dollars as far as possible, while not doing anything to harm my livestock in any way. We are using a lot of rice and pasta, etc. to stretch our food budget, are there any budget tips you all can offer for feeding the pigs? Currently they get several gallons of goat milk a day, surplus eggs, and hog finisher. They also get any table scraps we have, except pork cuz I dont want them eating relatives  They get the occasional chicken as well, not always intentionally! Can I boil up rice to give them? I am using that as an additive to the dog food for our 2 dogs, they like it and also I am using some old venison I forgot about. Any tips you all have would be great, I am pretty frustrated here and guess I could just use some encouragement. 

Thanks,
Stephanie

PS These are the first pigs I have fed out... got em as 25 lb weaners, they are at least 70 now, 2 months later.


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## Farmall

My 1939 Morrison book called Feeds and Feeding has nothing on rice for hogs, which means it is not productive. Fnd a feed store that will give a discount on buying ton amounts of feed. My feed store will give what amounts to 1300lbs when you buy a ton, OR if you only want a ton, you only pay fr 1700lbs. This is in bulk, in the back of my pickup. It is shelled corn, which is the cheapest you can feed them. If your not buying your rice in huge amounts you are losing money, and besides that they wont do anything but subsist on it, not gain


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## Farmall

I said 1300lbs. If you buy a ton at my feed store they will either give you 2300lbs, and you pay by the ton, or iof you want a ton only they will charge you for 1700lbs quoted at the difference between buying by the 100lb and by the ton


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## uncle Will in In.

With all the stuff you are already feeding them, I would only feed them some shelled corn.. I wouldn't feed them anything that you could have eaten because corn is cheaper than pasta or rice.. If you live in an area that grows field corn, you should be able to buy it by the sackfull at a feedmill or grain elevater.. It sould cost less than $6.00 per 100 pounds.. The old rule of thumb was a 40 pound pig should be butcher size after eating 10 bushel of corn. (560lb) That was without the goat milk and other scraps your's are getting.. They require salt. Unk


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## Ed Norman

After a wind came thru town, I saw an apple tree at an eye doctor's place had dropped all the apples. I called and they said come and get them. We got about 5 bushels. The pigs love them. We pick up piles of barley in the field when the combines overrun the grain cart. In a few weeks, they will start potato harvest, if they get 7 out of 10 potatoes out of the field and into the trucks, they are lucky. And they will give you all you want left in the fields. I bet the pigs will eat them too, although I haven't tried yet.


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## fin29

Don't know where you're located, but the guys around here buy breads and pastries by the truckload from the bakery thrift store to bait bear. I'm sure that would be fine for pigs, too-well, maybe not the pastries.


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## Sunrise

HI




> several gallons of goat milk a day, surplus eggs


,

They really don't need to have the Hog finisher yet.
with the goats milk and eggs I would get shelled corn it is alot cheaper than finisher and feed the corn also talk to the produce dept at the grocery store about getting their throwaway produce they will usally save iy for you. Some times if you live in or near a small town the will also give you out dated dairy products. I am taking it that you milk your own goats. Do the drop their grain on the floor while eating that can also be fed. Also any older hay can be fed They don't eat alot of hat but they will eat some. Also there are alot of gardens that are done so any garden produce or plants from the Veg garden also. Might also check with the nearest Pizza place for pizza they might be throwing away.
Hope some of these Ideas help as there is nothing better than pork that has been raised by yourself and without chemicals

Joe


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## Tracy in Idaho

Our pigs go to the butcher this week 

We raise ours on nothing but goat milk, eggs, whatever scraps we throw them, and rolled grain. Around here, barley/corn is the cheapest and that's what they get.

If you get a barrel going, put some grain in it, pour milk in and let it sour. The nastier it smells, the better they like it.


Tracy


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## Oxankle

Uncle Will;

Give us a heads up here. 

After feeding the ten bushels of corn, what should this 40 pound pig weigh at butcher time? What would you expect if the pig was on pasture while being fed the ten bushels of corn? 

What would be the cash input?
Pigs, $20 each $20.00
Corn & $6/100 33.60
Salt 2.00
wormer?
other?


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## Matt NY

I wish I had some milk for my pigs. I get bread and cakes free from the local distributor. I feed them that first before I give them their daily load of squash, cukes, tomatoes, etc. Boil the potatoes first if you feed them that, also cut them up as thet can choke on them. I chop a couple corn stalks for them each day, some times they clean up the stalks and all. My pigs prefer their beans cooked too. I won't feed them any store bought feed again.

YMMV


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## uncle Will in In.

The old ten bushel to feed a pig out was for hogs about 220 pounds.. Top price hogs back then weighed under 230.. The hogs they raised were not as long and lean as most of the hogs raised today.. The 260 pound pigs they prefer now would have had too large a percent of fat back then.. Even though every one cooked with lard, they could only use so much.. Another reason to butcher smaller was feed conversion.. The larger a pig gets, the more feed it takes to make a pound of gain.. You can get more gain per bushel on younger hogs.. Leaving pigs run on pasture was common.. Ringing them was an absolute must if you didn't want the pasture turned upside down.. I seen a test where the pigs were feed on different types of pasture with different levels of protein in their grain ration.. The cheapest gain was with pigs on alfalfa pasture and ground corn with a little salt added.. They weren't as even in size when fed that way, but the total average gain cost the least.. Most people put their hogs in smaller lots when they got over about 170, because they thought they were running off too much fat in large fields.. I never seen a test to prove that one way or the other. The main source of boughten protien 60 years ago was "tankage".. This was cooked animals from the rendering plants that went around and picked up your dead animals when you called them.. They would even pay you a small amount for them.. A minimal amount of it was used mostly because it cost money which very few had.. Soybeans weren't raised as a grain crop then.. A few people planted them for a quick hay crop.. 
When feeding hogs on a small scale like having a couple to butcher, feeding them anything you can find without laying out much money is fine.. Just don't feed them any meat scraps such as resturant or meat market garbage unless it is well cooked.. It is illegal to sell hogs for slaughter that have been feed raw garbage.. Their meat will be red and the packing houses can tell they had raw meat.. 
Unk


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## uncle Will in In.

The old ten bushel to feed a pig out was for hogs about 220 pounds.. Top price hogs back then weighed under 230.. The hogs they raised were not as long and lean as most of the hogs raised today.. The 260 pound pigs they prefer now would have had too large a percent of fat back then.. Even though every one cooked with lard, they could only use so much.. Another reason to butcher smaller was feed conversion.. The larger a pig gets, the more feed it takes to make a pound of gain.. You can get more gain per bushel on younger hogs.. Leaving pigs run on pasture was common.. Ringing them was an absolute must if you didn't want the pasture turned upside down.. I seen a test where the pigs were feed on different types of pasture with different levels of protein in their grain ration.. The cheapest gain was with pigs on alfalfa pasture and ground corn with a little salt added.. They weren't as even in size when fed that way, but the total average gain cost the least.. Most people put their hogs in smaller lots when they got over about 170, because they thought they were running off too much fat in large fields.. I never seen a test to prove that one way or the other. The main source of boughten protien 60 years ago was "tankage".. This was cooked animals from the rendering plants that went around and picked up your dead animals when you called them.. They would even pay you a small amount for them.. A minimal amount of it was used mostly because it cost money which very few had.. Soybeans weren't raised as a grain crop then.. A few people planted them for a quick hay crop.. 
When feeding hogs on a small scale like having a couple to butcher, feeding them anything you can find without laying out much money is fine.. Just don't feed them any meat scraps such as resturant or meat market garbage unless it is well cooked.. It is illegal to sell hogs for slaughter that have been feed raw garbage.. Their meat will be red and the packing houses can tell they had raw meat.. 
Unk


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## slkirky

Thank you ALL so much! I am going to substitute cracked corn for the finisher for the time being, that will save me a few bucks right away. Unc, you talked about raw meat turing pigs meat red, will raw chicken do that, or only raw beef? I ask because my pigs do get some raw chicken. 

Thanks again!
Stephanie


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## uncle Will in In.

I don't know if chicken will cause the red meat problem.. As long as it was not a regular part of their diet, I would doubt if it would cause a problem.. Some things have more digestable food value after they are cooked.. Potatoes and dried beans are a couple that comes to mind.. Taking the meat scrapes away about 6 weeks prior to slaughter clears up the carcus.. (I think???} Unk


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## BChipmunk

Thanks, Uncle Will. Nice to have experience to draw on. I've not messed with a pig in almost 65 years and I want to put a couple on the ground next spring. 

I knew the bit about the tankage--I've gone thru several tankage mills in the course of business. Never did fancy the thought of eating meat from animals fed tankage, but all the producers did it then. 

Just as an aside, when I first moved on this place the "used cow truck" would pick up dead cattle or horses
free. Now they want $25 to come out for a dead one. 
Ox


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## Judy018

Do you have any food auction houses in your neck of the woods? We have a Wed night one here, and at the end of the night, all the unsold boxes of produce are chucked out. Our pigs have been getting LOTS of feed from that. Some folks got 41...yes, 41...boxes of romaine lettuce for $1.00 last week! There was at least 40 heads of lettuce in each box. not bad for a dollar....especially a Canadian one! LOL

Judy


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## slkirky

Judy that sounds WONDERFUL! Any ideas on how to go about finding one in my area? I know where the livestock auctions and swaps are, they took me awhile to find, but once you find one the rest are easy  I would love to be able to buy raw foods like that for my beasties! 

Stephanie
*Rejoicing because the workmans comp check FINALLY arrived!!!


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## Judy018

I don't know where your area is, as it doesn't show, but you could just look under Auctions in the yellow pages and call around to see if they have anything like that. This food auction does all kinds of auctions including auto, but Wed is for household and grocery items. Another great source is a resteraunt, if you know the owner or manager. The cooks/staff could put all the food scraps into a bag-lined garbage can and you just collect at the end of each day. If you have lots of pigs, a buffet style place would be another option for leftovers. They're usually pretty good...especially if you would part with a roast or 2 in return after butchering. The worst they could say is no, so it's always worth a try IMHO. Best of luck finding one close to you.

Judy


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## Idahofarmergal

Other ideas for free pig food:
Produce stands throw out cases and cases of overripe fruit, and will gladly give it to you.
Restaurants: If you know the owner or frequent the establishment, you might be able to talk them into filling buckets with table scraps. Maybe promise them a little of the finished product. Restaurants throw out an unbeleivable amount of food every day. I raised the best pork ever when I worked at a restaurant. I brought home 2 to 5 five gallon buckets a day. It had loads of variety and I fed nothing else. Those were some happy pigs.
Lots of stuff out of the garden that you don't want to eat can be cooked up for pigs. Keep a bucket handy when you are out there and throw in stuff like broccoli, cabbage, & kohlrabi plants after you harvest the good stuff. The pigs like the tough outer leaves and stems just fine if you cook them up. Funky potatoes and carrots, overgrown squash and cucumbers are relished when cooked. I also throw in lots of weeds while weeding, but you have to know your weeds to do this. Clover, lambsquarters, pigweed (amaranth), chickweed, etc. are good and very nutritious. Greens (bitter lettuce, buggy kale, etc.) might be eaten by your pigs without cooking. Mine adore bok choy! Just don't feed anything in the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) except potatoes. Do not feed potato plants.


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## stumpyacres

First - we butcher our own - like a deer - but a little more work. Second - go to the local grocery store and ask produce to save the veggie scraps for you. They throw alot away! Julie


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## Kathy

I grew a whole bunch of winter squash for the pigs and was wondering how to feed it to them. The rinds are really hard so do I need to cut them off first? Do I then chop up and cook until soft?


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## Matt NY

Just throw the squash to them, they will figure out the rest. The first time I gave mine a pumpkin they rolled it around a lot and got pretty frustrated.


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## Jan in CO

If you live near a city where there is a milk distributor, they will usually let you have the store returns, which are often still unexpired. We pick up whole milk, whipping cream, often ice cream mix, yogurt mix, chocolate milk, etc. One of the bakery thrift stores here will let you have the returned bakery products, so our pigs get those, as well as any fruit peelings, etc. I do mix in excess eggs and they love it. Haven't fed these two any meat products. I've been wondering if it would be possible to feed the mash left from micro breweries? There are several in the city near me, and I'm sure they toss the grain mash after brewing. Jan in CO


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## Joanie

The squash and pumpkins are great this time of year. The pigs love them. They will figure out how to get into them, they smell to good to resist. Ask any local farmers if you can walk through their corn fields after they harvest. There is usually a lot of corn left on the ground. Soybeans also but they are hard to pick up. We also feed fresh cut clover and alfalfa. Often it can be found along the roads and fencerows. 
Good luck, I hope things get better for you.


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## Guest

I bought my first pig to "fatten" out the middle of June. I went to the local coop and bought cracked corn and soy bean meal. Also, I picked up a bag of vitamins. The mix of cracked corn and soy is about 3 to 1. You need the soy beans for amino acids, and corn for just "growin' ". You do want some meat of those hogs, and not all fat, I'm assuming. Well, that's from the soy beans. Well, my friend came by, and he trots weekly to the used bread store, and started bringing me tons of bread, twinkies, etc. etc. So, the corn/soy program slowly dwindled. In addition to the 15-20 loaves of bread products daily, I was feeding Porkey all scraps from my canning and garden. I did try to feed him his dried soy beans (44% protein) daily. Porkey gained a fat 2.7 lbs a day. Got up to 360 before I could get him to the butcher (his schedule was full, butcher's that is). I did get almost 200 lbs of finished product, kept the fat (60 lbs) and skin. The cracked corn varies in price. About 3.00 a 50 lb. The soy meal is more pricey. There is such a thing as a negative calories, like with people. That's the alfalfa, etc. Where it takes more calories to process than what gets returned. Well, next year I'm going to get myself 3 smaller pigs, do the same thing. My butcher bill was 140$, for your info.


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## awhobert7

find a local vegatable wholesaler/retailer, ask to pick up their scraps. You provide the garbage cans. Try to catch the milkman to get the out of date stuff. There is a small store that he drops old milk and cheese off for me to pick every week. Find a day old bread store, they sell out of date bread cheap for feed. We've been doing these for over five years.


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## kycn

Any thoughts on distillers grain? What is it's food value? Right now I am feeding a "mulit-stock" 10% feed from Southern states along with food scraps, pasture etc. The feed is $10 for 50lb bag. I learned of two places, one I have to buy a large supply, 1 ton for $100 (8 barrels) or another place is $30 for one barrel. Any thoughts? Thanks


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## highlands

I have read about the distillers mash, which is made of corn, being a problem with producing 'soft fat' which is apparent not so good for bacon and such.

We get a little beer brewers mash, the spent barley. This is very high in protein, fiber and minerals. Smells delicious - I love barley soup. It is very low in calories since the brewing process drains them off to make the alcohol through cooking and then fermenting. Too much of this might be a problem but we don't get enough for it to be a major part of our pig's diet. It is more of a treat. I tend to favor it to the smaller pigs who benefit well from the high protein. The pigs do like it as do the poultry. 

We don't see any soft fat problem so it may be that the spent barley doesn't have the same problem as the corn based distiller's mash. Or perhaps one needs to feed a lot more to get the problem.

See:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:sugarmtnfarm.com+barley


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## highlands

slkirky said:


> I really dread that day as I am kinda, well, pathetically, attatched to them!


Fortunately they get uglier as they get older and pigs taste reaaalllly good. Just keep thinking of bacon, hams and chops... 

Quite seriously though, love raising them but always remind yourself that they are dinner.



> For that reason, I am looking for ways to stretch my feed dollars as far as possible, while not doing anything to harm my livestock in any way.


In warm weather the pasture is the simplest thing that is low budget and produces delicious pork.



> Currently they get several gallons of goat milk a day, surplus eggs


Both excellent supplements to the pasture that complement the feed values well. We raise a lot of pigs and almost all of their diet is pasture and whey plus a little veggies and such. The pasture is the bulk of it. The whey is not quite as good as a 10:1 watering down of whole milk. A gallon of whole milk goes a long ways. We don't feed any hog finisher / commercial feed etc.



> Can I boil up rice to give them?


One can. I would definitely cook it or at the very least soak it or it will just pass right through them. I know someone who feeds a lot of rice to pigs and cattle. He also feeds other stuff. Just rice would be a bit limited in its food values but as part of the ration it would work.

In a tight situation one might consider slaughtering one of the pigs at a younger age. This puts food on your table, the offal can all feed the dogs and chickens cutting those feed bills and then one only has one pig to feed. Since one now got meat on the table one can grow that pig a little bigger to make up for the early slaughter.

(I realize this post is old but I replied to the new question and then thought others might run into this sort of thing as well with the economy and all.)


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## Allen W

kycn said:


> Any thoughts on distillers grain? What is it's food value? Right now I am feeding a "mulit-stock" 10% feed from Southern states along with food scraps, pasture etc. The feed is $10 for 50lb bag. I learned of two places, one I have to buy a large supply, 1 ton for $100 (8 barrels) or another place is $30 for one barrel. Any thoughts? Thanks


10% feed doesn't have any advantage over staight grain.


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## Fire-Man

The Original Post--Is 10 Years Old---Them Hogs have been eaten A LOOOOONG time ago.


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## BobbyB

Fire-Man said:


> The Original Post--Is 10 Years Old---Them Hogs have been eaten A LOOOOONG time ago.



Yeah it is. But if had been me, Id have gone straight to the freezer with them when tough times set in and not worried about feeding on a budget. Add a little pork to that rice and pasta


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## ErikaMay

may be 10 years old, but still relevant to me! I got 7 wieners I need to figure out how to feed cheap. They get pasture, grower feed, and scraps right now. I've been toying with a fodder system which momma pig loves but I'm not sure if its worth it. I'm basically just adding water weight to the barley. not much else.

could I possibly get away with just corn, sprouted barley, pasture and mineral supplements for the piggies?


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## northeastcallin

Local brewery near you? Get their used grain. We get ours once a week for free. I just toss it in the cooler


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## SueMc

I know this plan probably isn't feeding on a budget but having a cow for home and pigs plus chickens with LOTS of eggs, I feel like we're all in a win-win situation. My newly delivered sow gets milk and eggs mixed in with her grain mix every day and that's worth more to me than the $2/doz I'd get for selling the eggs.
I wish we had the brewery option but don't. 
I'm still mad that all the bread outlet stores have closed around here. That was a lot of food for nearly nothing.

I like when some of these old threads are resurrected. It's often new info for some of us.


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## BeelerTheSealer

Does anybody know if soybean splits have enough protein to be worth feeding, and if pigs will eat them?


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## ONG2

Our hogs love fish. All parts that we don't eat they get. If you need a reason to go fishing here it is. LOL


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## Lazy J

BeelerTheSealer said:


> Does anybody know if soybean splits have enough protein to be worth feeding, and if pigs will eat them?


The will need to be heat treated to deactivate the Trypsin inhibitor found in soybeans. Also make sure they are clean and not soybean screeings.


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## cnsper

You can also contact local food pantries, soup kitchens, restaurants and such and attempt to get their scraps that they are throwing out to feed the porkers. We used to get the scraps from the grocery store but they don't seem to do that any more as they give it to shelters and such.


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## highlands

Good ideas, cnsper, but skip the restaurants, kitchens and cafeterias as you do not want post consumer food wastes because of disease issue as well as broken glass and cutlery.


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## ErikaMay

cnsper said:


> You can also contact local food pantries, soup kitchens, restaurants and such and attempt to get their scraps that they are throwing out to feed the porkers. We used to get the scraps from the grocery store but they don't seem to do that any more as they give it to shelters and such.


Alas, almost every store I talk to here covets their garbage and wont share! One place even claimed they "sent back" their produce that didn't sell. BS. Others give their unsold to the food bank. Sadly my town has no bakery...sad for so many reasons! It was great when I was working at a restaurant and could pick out the good stuff for my pigs...untouched sushi, old rice, chicken stock, veggie trims, pumpkin seeds...I know they miss those days! I even worked for a brewery and they wouldn't spare me spent grain because someone already claimed it! :'(


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## SueMc

We have an orchard nearby where they make cider in the Fall. I'm going to ask them if I can have/buy some of the apple leftovers from cider making.
I suppose I'll have to be careful and feed it before it becomes too fermented.


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