# feeding pigs cows milk



## JennNY

I see that many of you give your pigs cows milk.. could you tell me the reason for this? Is it good for them, increases size; but not fat, makes the meat a different flavor, the meat is more tender, or do you just have extra milk around?

If I had some extra cows milk, I would like to give this a try, but at the time being I don't. I just was curious to its benifits.

Thanks,
Jenn


----------



## HazyDay

when our uncle and aunt raises pigs they feed them what ever milk is from a cow that just claved or they pump some in a bucket and feeds it to them. I think he mixs a powder in it (feed of some sort)


----------



## lyceum

There are a lot of people with goats that will buy feeder pigs just to give extra milk to. The meat is supposed to be really good. We have not had any goas fresh when we have had pigs young enough to start on milk though. So I would assume cow milk would be fine too.

Carisa


----------



## sammyd

Back in the day this is how it was always done.

You had some cows and sold the cream to the creamery.
The skim milk would be fed as part of the pigs ration.

Don't know if it makes better meat or not. It's usually just a case of extra stuff being used instead of wasted.


----------



## Ken Scharabok

From what I have heard raw milk has a definite health benefit for pigs. If nothing else there is certainly vitamins and calcium in it.

At one time on small dairy farms pigs were called 'mortgage lifters'. The milk check funded the operation but the feeder pigs raised on the side, often with either raw or skimmed milk, provided money to fill in in-between milk checks.

I remember on one farm my parents had in WI the milk was sent to a creamery and the skimmed milk return to be used in the hog operation.

Raw milk, not suitable for sale, such as from a cow with madistis (sp?) also went to either the pigs or calves waiting to be picked up by the veal feeders.


----------



## Ronney

The benefits of feeding milk to pigs are so great that I milk cows just for that purpose. Pigs love it and do well on it, it is full of protein, vitamins and calcium as Ken has said, and is supposed to help keep worms at bay. It is very nearly a complete diet in itself.

Ken, the last cream pick-up in NZ was in 1969, 3 years before I went into dairying so I missed out on the pig/dairying thing. However, I have heard older farmers say that they often made more money out of their pigs than they did out of their milk cheques :shrug: 

Cheers,
Ronnie


----------



## Up North

Pigs and cows are complimentary enterprises. Pigs will utilize all milk that cannot be sold(Excess Colostrum and other), as well as utilizing leftover grain, silage, hay chaff swept out of cow feed bunks. Dairy cows left to their own devices tend to become spoiled and wasteful.
Milk fed pork is rich, sweet, and tender. Now we just need to synchronize our hog breeding so that the butcher hogs will be in the last month of feeding from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Then we could utilize all the windfall and cull apples as well and produce an Apple-Milk finished pork.
What do you think Ronnie?...Worth pursuing?...


----------



## highlands

We feed excess milk, whey and cheese trimmings. Basically it comes down to these being excess things and pigs being a good way to turn the excess into high quality food that brings an excellent price in the market.

In the past nine months we've fed about 70,000 gallons of whey to our pigs. That's 70,000 gallons that was kept out of the waste disposal system like septics, land fill, etc. That's 70,000 gallons that produced high quality manure that fertilized the poor quality soil of our mountain pastures.

Our pigs also get pasture, hay, the occasional excess bread, pumpkins in the fall, etc. We don't feed commercial grain rations.

The meat and fat are superb in taste, texture and quality with a sweetness to it. Dairy raised pork is the best.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org


----------



## Ronney

Very definately Up North  You will have the best pork in WI if you can get it organised - and that is always the difficulty of course  

The best pork that we ever raised had been finished on peaches, apricots, plums, apples and, of course, milk. We could have sold those pigs three times over. Kumera is another good finisher. I think you have something similar there but call it sweet potato? Not sure on that.

Cheers,
Ronnie


----------



## JennNY

Thanks alot for your responses! Most helpful!

JennNY


----------



## forester7

I just found this discussion! I was just told by someone raising pigs that feeding milk when finishing a pig can lead to a sour milk taste in the meat. Can anyone comment on that?


----------



## Oregon1986

forester7 said:


> I just found this discussion! I was just told by someone raising pigs that feeding milk when finishing a pig can lead to a sour milk taste in the meat. Can anyone comment on that?


we've never had an issue with the sour milk taste


----------



## gerold

forester7 said:


> I just found this discussion! I was just told by someone raising pigs that feeding milk when finishing a pig can lead to a sour milk taste in the meat. Can anyone comment on that?


My pigs get a lot of milk. It does produce very good tasting meat. The very best pork. I have pasture pigs and cattle. I get a very good price for my pork.


----------



## Gareth Thomas

JennNY said:


> I see that many of you give your pigs cows milk.. could you tell me the reason for this? Is it good for them, increases size; but not fat, makes the meat a different flavor, the meat is more tender, or do you just have extra milk around?
> 
> If I had some extra cows milk, I would like to give this a try, but at the time being I don't. I just was curious to its benifits.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jenn


The best pork I ever tasted came from a friends farm where they fed their pigs a lot of cows milk. Sometimes the milk had been stood around in churns for days and had 4 inches of maggots on top of the sour milk. The pigs loved it. All the milk used was unsold milk that had been returned from the distributor. Nothing was wasted on that farm. Then the EU came along and enforced new rules causing the farm to close down. Now people buy tasteless, hormone fed, artifically reared, fast grown, irradiated cancer causing pork from Tesco's.


----------

