# how to feed hay to hogs



## paddler (May 13, 2010)

ive got some round bales and i want to feed them to my adult breeding pigs. what is the best way of making the hay available? should i roll the round bale in to the pen and give them free access to all of it, and just replace it when its gone? or should i feed it to them a couple armloads at a time? i would prefer to give it to them all at once because its less work and they could bed in it.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Have your breeding pigs been eating hay right along or is this a new idea? I have seen the guts of a pig and the guts of animals that can digest hay. Worlds of differences. Pigs will eat hay. If hungry enough, I believe thay may eat sawdust, too. Pigs are breeding machines. They can crank out a couple good sized litters a year. Obviously, they are also mammals. They have to produce a lot of very rich milk. They lack the dijestive systems of goats, sheep or cows. Horses have small stomachs like a pig, but have a huge deiodium (sp?) right after the stomach. 
Pigs won't go after the hay like they would a high protein source. I suspect they will nest in it, flip it around, graze a little and lay in the rest. 
If you are swapping a sows diet from grain to hay, I would expect you'll lose more pigs than you'll save on feed. IMHO.
Hay is in short supply in many areas. Perhaps you could sell the bales and buy pig feed?


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Paddler,

We feed pasture and hay as the basic foundation of our pig's diet. We've been doing this for close to a decade and have about 400 pigs. 

They eat around 200 to 300 round bales of hay a winter. We mostly feed it by simply putting out the whole round bales. The pigs eat about 400 lbs of hay per winter per pig plus sows use about a full bale for farrowing. See:

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

We complement the hay with dairy, primarily whey. See:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/pigs

for more about our pigs and their diet.

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in Vermont


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## GoodNHappyFarm (Apr 26, 2012)

I'm no expert - and I don't have lots of pigs - my round bales go to my cattle, but my pigs occasionally on their own grab some and eat it or alfalfa and they love to graze in the pasure or eat the branches of trees that I've clipped - but I wasn't able to make that their staple diet, but I also never took away the grain to try to make it so. I've found everything to be trial and error and you find out what works for you and what doesn't - I've read what many people do, and it's not a 1 size fits all.


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## ben70b (Jan 15, 2013)

ive only raised a few groups of feeder pigs so i dont know a whole lot but i would think if you put a large round bale in they would tear it up and stomp it into the mud, i would think they would ruin some of it. i think i would mix it somehow if it were me. add it to feed when grinding if you have a grinder or give feed and a few armloads of hay at a time. the fella i get my pigs from puts out 2 feeders, one is ground corn and whatever minerals and such and the other is protien. he claims a pig will eat what he needs, like chickens do. also i dont think its good to change animal's diets fast, i think it would stress em out and you would get less little pigs. i would convert their feed gradually but this is my opinion and probably not the most educated one. keep us posted on how it works so i can learn from it too.


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

Throw the whole bale in there they will destroy it they eat some and make a nest with the rest

Idk about making it the only thing they eat but that's all I bed them with is hay and they destroy it its all fine like it when through a blender easy to clean them


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## prairie ogre (Oct 21, 2012)

I have done some experiments with hay and pigs. It seems pigs only like to eat substantial amounts of certain kinds of hay, mainly ones w grain in them or alfalfa. I have fed wheat hay(with heads in the hay) and failed milo hay to hogs and they love it. I am sure is the grain that attracts them to it, they sort thru and eat it first.

They didnt seem to care much for grass or triticale hay. They chewed on it a bit and trampled it into the ground. Same with wheat straw, as youd expect w such a low quality feed value.

Alfalfa is the big winner, pigs will eat it til they are full. They seem to like it even better if its recycled from under the rabbit hutches and is full of rabbit crap, but I digress.......

Id love to see plans for an effective pig hay feeder.

The best way ive found thus far is to stuff the hog huts full of hay, the pigs bed on it and eat it. For some reason hogs dont seem to crap in the houses, because they sleep their id guess. I throw armloads into the pen then use a rake to rake it into the huts.

Alfalfa small bales here are $10 apiece for 70-80 lbers, hog feed 16% is 14.65 per 50 lb. Alfalfa has a comparable protein content to the ground feed, but lacks lysine if I remember correctly.

My next experiment will be to attempt to properly finish a pen of hogs on 1/3 alfalfa, 1/3 pig feed, and 1/3 soaked grain I scoop off the ground at the elevator (free grain, woohoo) when they haul off their piles of grain (I get the leftovers) in preparation for next harvest.

All that being said, id fork it to them then put it into their house. Hay is pricey these days, heck everything is, so managing it so they dont waste most of it seems prudent.


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## TamBerk (Aug 17, 2010)

When I put round bales out for my hogs, I place them on the ground in the same way when they come out of the baler, I guess that would be considered on "edge". This prevents the bale from getting wet inside of it and the hogs have a harder time of destroying it as quickly. Then I peel off the top of it and let it fall to the ground and the hogs do the rest, they eventually undermine it and the bale falls over. Round bales provide a good "wind block" for them.


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## Copperhead (Sep 12, 2011)

I second the idea of putting the round bale in their hut. We have 5 right now, in a quarter acre garden with a truck topper with plywood sides for a shelter. I tear hay off a 5' round bale for the goats. When I get an 18"-24" core, I put it on the wheel barrow and wheel it into the pigs shelter. In two days, it's no longer a round core, just a pile of fluff. In about a month, it's all gone down to dirt and mud. We do supplement with corn, feed bread, table scraps, and alfalfa pellets, but the hay is the bulk of their diet.


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## ONG2 (Sep 22, 2010)

We have a leanto that we place big round bales on end for the "boys" either AGH or American Black Belly. Oh and the goats. They waste some but it is bedding. This spring I plan to sprinkle some corn on top the bedding so that they will turn it for me they I'll make compost.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

If I want the animals to take the bale down fast for building up bedding pack I put it in dinner plate orientation. If I want them to use it more slowly I put it in tootsie roll orientation (like it comes out of the baler). If I want them to go very slowly with the hay I wrap a piece of wide hole stock panel around it to make an instant feeder.

See:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2009/04/06/hay-bale-orientation/

To start bedding packs I would suggest doing it on a slope and starting with wood chips or mulch hay or straw. Then layer on the better hay on top. By spring our pigs eat down the packs to almost nothing. The little that remains gets pushed into a compost pile and made into soil amendment for gardens, orchards and fields. There is no such thing as waste.


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

I read once that when you buy hay you are buying the fertility of some one elses land and bringing it to your own.

And our Blue Butt feeder pigs use to munch down on coastal hay, they loved it.


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