# Feeding pigs in the winter



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

For those of you who live where it freezes, how do you handle winter feeding? what do you feed, how much and how do you keep it from freezing?


----------



## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Alfalfa hay free choice in a small hay rack and 16% complete sow feed in a trough. We provide the feed at four percent of body weight per day. Water twice per day.


----------



## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

We feed our's ground corn and milk with a protein supplement and water twice a day. They also have hay for bedding.


----------



## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Free-Choice hay (grass/alfalfa mix) and custom ground grain balanced with either fertrell sow pre-mix or fertrell swine grower vit/min depending on the type of hog and life stage. None of which freezes.


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We have freely available hay, dairy and water. The whey doesn't freeze. The water is sheltered springs so it doesn't freeze. Otherwise one would need to carry water. Every so often we end up with some animals where we have to do that but we try to setup things so we don't have to carry. Shelter from the wind and micro-climates help a lot. In the late summer and fall I save up higher calorie foods like cheese and butter for winter as well as growing as much in the way of veggies like pumpkins, beets and the like as we can. They help with winter feed.


----------



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

We have lots of apples and pumpkins, but they freeze and are difficult to distribute and transport.

linn, how much milk are you feeding a day, and how do you keep it from freezing?


----------



## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

We are only milking one cow. In the spring and summer I usually have at least a couple of gallons of skim milk that I feed. In the winter, production slacks off and I go to once-a-day milking so only feed a little over a gallon. Believe me the milk doesn't have time to freeze. The pigs slurp it right up.


----------



## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

When we feed pigs over the winter we make sure their feeder is full, they have sufficient bedding, and liquid water. They will increase their feed intake to meet their energy needs, for the most part.

Jim


----------



## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

We feed hay and dry grain, either corn or oats. Straw for bedding. Water twice a day.


----------



## Handyman (Sep 11, 2009)

We feed a 16% feed - free choice for the growers and limit fed for the breeding stock. That comes as a mash feed. 

Free choice alfalfa + grass baleage (round bales of green hay wrapped in white plastic, aka marshmallows) are provided starting this time of year. 

We use 1st cutting timothy + orchard grass hay for bedding, which they eat too.

Sometimes pumpkins, apples, and mangels beets. 

Water - free choice, which I carry unless they have a steady water stream in their pasture. On the coldest winter days, I have to break the ice in the troughs and refill. Last winter I had a nice water tub set up with a heater, but they wouldn't use it. They preferred the stream. 

How about you lonelyfarmgirl?


----------



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

fruit and a no-soy grain mix that is fine ground. we get it wet and it soaks. 
we also feed lots of people food, hay and meat.


----------



## enggass (Nov 23, 2011)

Handyman said:


> Free choice alfalfa + grass baleage (round bales of green hay wrapped in white plastic, aka marshmallows) are provided starting this time of year.


I was told by someone that Baleage is not good for Pigs because it ferments and pigs cannot handle it like cows can because their 'plumbing' is different. Can any one confirm or refute this? I have a good Baleage source for winter time and would love to feed it to my Guinea Hogs(next winter)...

Thanks.


----------



## Brooks WV (Jul 24, 2010)

enggass said:


> I was told by someone that Baleage is not good for Pigs because it ferments and pigs cannot handle it like cows can because their 'plumbing' is different. Can any one confirm or refute this? I have a good Baleage source for winter time and would love to feed it to my Guinea Hogs(next winter)...
> 
> Thanks.


Modern feed-lot pigs have digestive tracts that are 50% shorter that the old heritage breeds, so it is true that MODERN pigs cannot digest much of the hay they would eat. They are engineered for grain feeding and fast growth

Heritage breeds like our Old Spots have a long enough digestive tract that they can, through fermentaion, absord the caloric value of the hay and grasses they eat. I have 500# organic alfalfa bales, local grass hay, organic field peas and milk for our wintering pigs. They do a pretty good job of finding the nuts buried in leaves and snow as well. 

I don't know much about AGH's, so I don't know if they're a breed that would do well on hay.


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Brooks WV said:


> Modern feed-lot pigs have digestive tracts that are 50% shorter that the old heritage breeds, so it is true that MODERN pigs cannot digest much of the hay they would eat.


Interesting. I had not heard that. We've been breeding our pigs for pasture-ability for a long time, selecting those that do well on pasture. This suggests that perhaps one of the things that is happening is they're gaining digestive tract length.

The vast majority of our pig diet is pasture in the warm months replaced with hay in the winter supplemented with dairy for lysine. I have wondered if perhaps the dairy, which has yogurt in it that we make in big tanks, might be helping with the fermenting and digestion of the pasture/hay.

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


----------



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

enggass said:


> I was told by someone that Baleage is not good for Pigs because it ferments and pigs cannot handle it like cows can because their 'plumbing' is different. Can any one confirm or refute this?


Fermented is good. We've been feeding 'baleage' a.k.a. 'haylage' for years. We buy it as white plastic wrapped round bales that are 4'x4' roughly and about 800 to 1,000 lbs.

Note that baleage means many different things to different people. It isn't standardized. You can test it and measure things like the water content, protein, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hay#Haylage

What we've done is sampled hay from different farmers to find out who is producing what we want. That is to say what our livestock want. Then we tell them which we want and they produce it to that standard.

I find that very wet hay is not what we want. The good stuff feels dry to the touch but not like straw. It is greener, not yellow or brown. It smells slightly alcoholly from the fermentation and has had time to age, a month or more. Proper hay keeps for a couple of years if necessary although I've only had a few bales around that long - normally they get used up by spring. It is leafy, has clovers and other forages in it. The pigs like the mix. All stemmy is bedding not food.

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


----------



## enggass (Nov 23, 2011)

Is it true that once the baleage bales are opened up they can go bad quickly?


----------



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

depends on the temperature. They will mold if it is warm. Below freezing, well, they stay frozen. What preserves them is the lack of oxygen


----------



## enggass (Nov 23, 2011)

So then I would assume they will store well as long as the are left sealed, correct? Then once open, in the winter, should they last a while in temps below around 35Âº-40Âº(usually in the 20Âºs here in the winter)


----------



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

now, even sealed, they will only last so long. I don't know how long. Never been in that situation. And it depends a lot on how well they were sealed


----------



## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

Do you have a farmer near you who feeds them? They would be a good resource to ask how long they would last in your area. If you only have a couple pigs, a big round bale like that is going to take them quite awhile to eat.


----------



## enggass (Nov 23, 2011)

Mare Owner said:


> If you only have a couple pigs, a big round bale like that is going to take them quite awhile to eat.


Exactly what I was thinking... I'll probably have only 2 during my first winter, then 4 my second winter - after that with breeding and all who knows.


----------

