# Do *you* feed your hogs table scraps?



## littlemother (Dec 29, 2012)

I have always heard that for time beyond reckoning families have raised a hog for meat for the family by feeding the hog all the family food wastes and having the pig in turn reciprocate by providing meat for the family. Since we got our pigs we are finding it is not recommended that you feed table scraps. (Meaning, scraping plates after mealtimes and feeding this to the pigs) 

I get why it is not recommended, but do *you* do it?? Is it like not recommending someone drink raw milk because of the risk of illnesses? Or not recommending eating soft cheeses or undercooked egg yolks etc.? Does anyone know the "statistics" on the illness that is to be prevented by heating the scraps or not feeding them? Is it rare? Is it highly unlikely that the pigs we are raising would get it?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. At present we scrape the plates and divvy up between the dogs and cats and the chickens while we make our decision on whether to feed it to the pigs or not. Is it the same thing with other animals and not recommended? Is it just not the same since you don't generally eat your cats and dogs? 

We are just trying to come up with a system to ulitilize what we have most economically and trying to decide who gets what from the kitchen. Thank you for any thoughts you have!


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Yes, all scraps from the garden, kitchen, and plates go to either the chix or the pigs. Legally, as I am told, you can't sell swine fed table scraps to a USDA butcher. SOme on this forum will tell you you are risking passing diseases from human to pig. But I spent all my summers on a pig farm and we fed scraps with no known problems and the gov't didn't care back then. I have 2 pigs now for home use, and they get scraps. I don't waste perfectly good resources. 

I have way too many wild swine coming up out of the swamp and they eat anything, no matter how rotten, moldy, and diseased. I WISH they would catch some disease from what ever junk they are finding. We've shot almost pigs 20 last year and see no sign of killing them off. They are tearing up my horse pasture, makes it look like a war zone.


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## Muleman (Nov 8, 2013)

In order for your pigs to catch a disease from you, then you would have to have a disease. Do you have a disease?? If you do, then what does it matter if your pig passes it back to you? You already have it! If you do not, then there is nothing to pass on. Now if you start gathering scraps from say restaurants, old folks homes, or friends, this is something all together different. If you are raising these to sell I may also think a bit different. If you are just raising them for yourself and feeding the scraps you and your family produce, I personally would not worry about it.


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## Farmerjonathan (Mar 11, 2013)

I shudder to think what our pond banks would look like with wild hogs. 

Yes we feed our hogs scraps. Scraps from the table, from the garden, what we don't feed is raw meat, like deer scraps when we are butchering deer or any other raw meat from a butchering. I think it is ridiculous when we were feeding pigs out at the school farm that it was illegal to take the scraps from the cafeteria to feed them.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

In some countries, scraps are all pigs get and oftentimes, quite festering scraps at that. I fed mine scraps when there were any.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

It is my opinion that this theory is something propagated by those hacks from the activist group Unwise Scientists Destroying Agriculture, or USDA for short. Like the dangers of raw milk and the all in all out poultry keeping, never mind the fact a man might want to keep an 11 year old hen because he likes her. This stuff is mainly to cover the rears of big ag, whose crammed in factory animals have no immune system. If your pigs catch a sniffle from a germ that you picked up at work and then passed off in your leftover gravy, the germs that they shed while their actual immune systems keep them healthy could travel to a commercial hog farm and kill jillions of hogs. This is bad, because then the corporate farmers, many of which have never seen a hog, would not be able to mass produce their product cheaply and dominate the market. 

Secondly, if you sold your scrap fed hogs on the market, and it ended up in the food chain, and was sold to people whose immune systems have never even been turned on, and who may not actually own a meat thermometer, the results could be devastating.

I don't feed table scraps to pigs, but if I did, I would check for men with white coats first, and only feed to those intended for my own consumption.


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## littlemother (Dec 29, 2012)

Thank you very much! We intend to eat the meat ourselves so we will happily scrape plates for them! 

How do you divvy it up between chx and pigs? Who gets what? Or is it more by amounts, giving some to chx and the rest to pigs?

Thank you!


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

No i do not feed table scraps to my pigs.


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

table scraps, spoiled leftovers that get missed in the fridge, stuff out of the freezer, it all goes to the chickens and/or hogs. Nothing gets wasted in the trash here.


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

littlemother said:


> Thank you very much! We intend to eat the meat ourselves so we will happily scrape plates for them!
> 
> *How do you divvy it up between chx and pigs? Who gets what?* Or is it more by amounts, giving some to chx and the rest to pigs?
> 
> Thank you!


When we clean up the kitchen, it all goes out the back door. Larger amounts go in a bucket and to the hog pen.


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## Raymond James (Apr 15, 2013)

I feed table scraps/left overs and anything like potato peels, apple cores to the pigs. If you would not eat it your self because it is rotten or might make you sick do not feed it to your hogs. 

Feed leftovers/ plate waste right away if not refrigerate at 41 or below. Feed all refrigerated within 7 days. 

Old time they put everything in a bucket and did not refrigerate and did not necessarily feed it right away. 

Never let a hog have access to human manure. Never eat raw or undercooked pork.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

littlemother said:


> do *you* do it??


No, because we sell the meat (so it is illegal) and we have breeding herds (so it is a biosecurity risk for our farm to have other people's scraps). If we were only raising for our own consumption I probably would. The concern is transmitting disease back and forth between people and pigs.



littlemother said:


> We are just trying to come up with a system to ulitilize what we have most economically and trying to decide who gets what from the kitchen. Thank you for any thoughts you have!


Dogs have top priority here after us for scraps. Chickens can get the scraps. Otherwise to compost. Nothing is wasted.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

not to much gets passed the dogs and chickens,here either; the pig does get a lot of milk leftovers skim and buttermilk I time getting a pig with the cow freshening and any extra extra or old eggs . I no more worry about feeding the from my table as I would a human they grow fat n shiny with these , garden ,and canning trimmings seems the viriaty and treats keep them in good apitite and mood . no I don't sell any eat it at home


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

I've read that in Europe it's not allowed to feed human food/left overs to hogs. I don't know why though.

Mine get everything and anything we won't/can't eat or finish.


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

I would not feed pork to the pigs. veggies and the like yes. there is not much wasted here as there are dogs and chickens. I don't feed chicken to chickens.

I try very hard to not waste anything as my food budget is tight and I work very hard to not waste my husband and my money. left overs are a good thing when reinvented. holidays can be another thing when everyone brings something and we are brimming over with food and no one will take doggie bags home, otherwise it is "make you eat it " leftover soups etc.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

littlemother said:


> Thank you very much! We intend to eat the meat ourselves so we will happily scrape plates for them!
> 
> How do you divvy it up between chx and pigs? Who gets what? Or is it more by amounts, giving some to chx and the rest to pigs?
> 
> Thank you!


They both get anything and everything that could go on a human plate. A few things like garlic, onions, citrus, and potato peals do not get eaten by the chix, but it doesn't hurt them if you throw it in the pen. In theory, green potato peals can hurt the chix, but in the amounts a normal family will produce for a dozen chix, you'll be fine. Variety from the kitchen is good. 

There is a vid I put in the poultry section about chix who are fed nothing but what they get out of a massive compost pile. Pigs can eat out of a compost pile as well but your worms are going to take a serious beating.

Joel Salatin feeds his pigs fermented corn that he sows in the cow pens throughout the winter. In the spring, the pigs get a turn at rooting up the cow pens, going after the corn, and it unpacks the bedding while feeding the pigs.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

arnie said:


> not to much gets passed the dogs and chickens,here either; the pig does get a lot of milk leftovers skim and buttermilk I time getting a pig with the cow freshening and any extra extra or old eggs . I no more worry about feeding the from my table as I would a human they grow fat n shiny with these , garden ,and canning trimmings seems the viriaty and treats keep them in good apitite and mood . no I don't sell any eat it at home


Canning trimmings reminds me, a use for the pickle juice after the pickles are gone, a little in the livestock waterers is good for them, they like the taste, and it is a mild disinfectant in the waterer.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

So is it illegal for me to feed my scraps to a worm farm and then the worms to the pigs?


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## Muleman (Nov 8, 2013)

I cannot see where that would be illegal, as you are not feeding your pigs scraps you are feeding them worms? Is it illegal to feed worms to pigs in new York?? Our state has an agriculture commission, as I assume all states do? You can go there and find most of the information concerning livestock, as it pertains to your state. This will be actual law, not opinion on what is actually legal, as some laws vary from state to state.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

highlands said:


> No, because we sell the meat (so it is illegal) and we have breeding herds (so it is a biosecurity risk for our farm to have other people's scraps). If we were only raising for our own consumption I probably would. The concern is transmitting disease back and forth between people and pigs.
> 
> 
> 
> Dogs have top priority here after us for scraps. Chickens can get the scraps. Otherwise to compost. Nothing is wasted.


Feeding of raw table scraps is a public health concern and should not occur in pigs intended for sale. If you want to feed table scraps to pigs you will butcher for you own consumption, go for it.


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## palm farmer (Jan 3, 2014)

hogs n chickens get what my 3 boys don't eat, all meat goes to the dogs though


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

I looked into this in my state. From my understanding of the law on-farm scraps can be fed to pigs as well as vegetable waste from restaurants and stores along with bakery products. Post-consumer goods (table scrapings) cannot.

Due to that I only feed them on certain kinds of scraps. Vegetables from the stock pot? yes. Chicken bones thats been simmered for hours? yup. Pork? nope. Food off my plate? nope....wait, theres never any food left over on my plate anyway! ahaha. expiring milk or whey from cheese making? yup. Made on farm, baby.


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## LivingstoneFarm (Jul 28, 2013)

The only scraps we feed our hogs are directly from the veggie garden. As a general rule we don't feed meat to our meat; this includes livestock feed that uses blood/bone meal, etc...


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Pigs and chickens are scavengers. Their natural foods include meat. Meat, like dairy and eggs, is a high calorie, high protein food and a way for the homesteader to reduce or eliminate purchased grain.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

I've been wondering about that. You could have "grass fed" pork if you fed them grass fed beef, but that is a lot of grass per pound of pork. Hopefully feed conversion ratio is better with meat than grain?


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

I doubt there is a cheap, efficient way to raise meat to for the purpose of feeding pigs and chix. Meat-feed that makes sense to my uneducated mind: fresh roadkill, turning them loose on a compost pile for a short time to eat worms but don't let them eat it all (benefits of this include fresh poo in the compost and free compost turning labor - I've seen that done by big operations), surplus eggs, butcher and kitchen scraps. 

One aspect of a permaculture system can use chickens mobbed on a small area to wipe out everything green and apply free fertilizer. Little or no commercial feed is used. Google "Geoff Lawton Permaculture" and look at his vid on this topic. Seems to me something I should try on my farm and it would result in extra chickens, hopefully self replicating, and a surplus of almost free eggs. Boiling the eggs in a solar cooker and you boost the protein for free. Chopped unpealed eggs can be fed back to chix or pigs. A couple dozen eggs a day to each pig would be a 2000 calorie, 150 gr of protein boost to their diet. If I have done my math correctly, and I'm not sure if I have, that is the equivalent calories of 10 lbs of corn and protein equivalent of 18 lbs of corn.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

Don't the chickens need protien to make the eggs? They are also omnivores? How do you encourage enough insect growth to support the chickens without grain?


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

dlskidmore said:


> Don't the chickens need protien to make the eggs? They are also omnivores? How do you encourage enough insect growth to support the chickens without grain?


Chickens are omnivores. I've fed them drowned mice. Some folks rig up a black soldier fly system with a roadkill and let the chix eat the BSF maggots. I will probably try that one day. SOme folks breed meal worms. I've done that for my DW's pet Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (she is a weird science teacher) but it seems like too much labor to do on a scale to offset much feed. Lots of folks on HT feed back boiled surplus eggs to their chix as a calcium and protein supplement. 

I've seen studies which show that if chix are on deep bedding, they will eat the mold, fungus, and bacteria that grows in the bedding and are able to offset up to 30% of their total feed needs. Go to a thread called "feeding chickens compost" in the poultry section and you'll see a guy who feeds nothing to his vast flock. They live in a massive compost pile, reproduce, and thrive by finding what ever there is to be found in decaying compost. 

For who gets what...our horses get first pick at carrots, parsnips, apple cores, cantaloupe and watermelon including the rinds. I know one woman in Palatka, FL who feeds all grocery store culls and cast offs to her critters. her goats are crazy for pineapple peels, fruit of any kind, anything that is green like lettuces, cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, etc.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

dlskidmore said:


> Don't the chickens need protien to make the eggs? They are also omnivores? How do you encourage enough insect growth to support the chickens without grain?


Yes, and chickens can sustain themselves on pasture in the warm months without any need for bought grain or commercial feed. We don't feed our chickens commercial feed because their job is to forage and eat the insects. They are our organic pest control.

In the winter we feed meat to our chickens, pastured pork from our weekly slaughter. That and some lights keep the chickens laying through the dark months.


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## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

Our scraps goes to the chickens and the pig


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## M88A1 (May 21, 2012)

They get it all but pork. Frig left overs, meal scraps, freezer scraps, garden scraps.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

just brought home a weened red pig ; went to the auction to unload some roosters and they came through the ring the price went up to 1/2 of what I would have to pay normaly sooo my hand went up .and a 30 pound duroc is now on my payroll with no pig feed and the cow not freashend yet its gonna have to tough it out for a day or two on chicken scratch and leftovers also cleaned out the fridge of some things that were getting some age on them like yougert and eggnog .I think it thinks its at a gormeit resterant it loves sweet potato pie


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

There is a difference between scraps and table waste. 

The concern with feeding "garbage" is the spread of zoonotic disease from humans to pigs. This could occur with feeding of uncooked plate scrapings to pigs. 

Jim


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Generally one differentiates:

*Pre-consumer wastes*: those that have not been on plates yet. Generally this is from production such as field gleanings, bread baking, dairy, whey, etc. It's been nowhere near people's mouths an is okay.

*Post-consumer wastes*: plate scrapings - the big no-no because you can transmit disease from people to pigs and back. Also you can get broken glass, cutlery, metal ties, etc. Everything from a restaurant should considered post-consumer wastes because the staff are not good about distinguishing the two. This is garbage, swill, etc. If you're going to feed this then boil it. It may be illegal to feed where you live even boiled so check your state and local laws.


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## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

highlands said:


> *Post-consumer wastes*: plate scrapings - the big no-no because you can transmit disease from people to pigs and back. Also you can get broken glass, cutlery, metal ties, etc. Everything from a restaurant should considered post-consumer wastes because the staff are not good about distinguishing the two. This is garbage, swill, etc. If you're going to feed this then boil it. It may be illegal to feed where you live even boiled so check your state and local laws.


I saw a "Dirty Jobs" episode of a commercial hog farmer who boiled that in a big homemade boiler to feed to his pigs. It was probably the most disgusting episode of Dirty Jobs I have ever watched. :yuck:


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## Keithk2 (Oct 28, 2010)

I was watching a documentary on how a number of restaurants and hotels in Las Vegas are having their kitchen waste hauled away by a guy who runs it all through a conveyor to remove paper, plastic or glass and a magnetic separator to trap any wire or metal. The remaining mix is cooked and ground up into a slurry which, in turn, is fed to his pigs. He sells his pigs to a butchering plant which in turn sells the cuts to the restaurants and hotels. The cooking in the process is to prevent any illness buggies from getting to the pigs and they've never had a problem.


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## TRAILRIDER (Apr 16, 2007)

DEKE01, chopped hard cooked eggs in the shell? I hadn't thought of that. I have a lot of extra eggs. May try giving them some a little bit at a time. 
I am a newbie here, but my piggies are getting anything I would feed to a human toddler. No greasy fatty foods, or high in sugar or salt, no onions or garlic or spicy foods. But they get all kinds of left over raw or cooked veggies and fruit and breads or grains or cooked potatoes. My pigs will go in our own freezer though.
I'm glad this idea was brought up, I hadn't thought of spreading disease to my pigs if we had a cold. But that does make sense. I wouldn't share my food with you if I had a cold would I?


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## Tierra Hermosa (Mar 12, 2013)

highlands said:


> In the winter we feed meat to our chickens, pastured pork from our weekly slaughter. That and some lights keep the chickens laying through the dark months.


Is the pastured pork you feed the chickens all the butcher/slaughter/processing scraps including skin and organs? Do you do anything to it before giving it to the chickens (i.e. Boiling, cutting up into smallish pieces etc.)? We do not have chickens yet (but we are raising lots of pork) and I am fascinated at the idea of using the butchered hog scraps as a food source for our future chickens!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We cook (boil usually, roast sometimes) to make it easier for the chickens to eat the fat, skin, meat, etc. There's a pot on the stove anyways. Otherwise they won't eat some things as well and this makes them get more food value from what the chickens get. Chickens will eat the meat raw but more slowly.

Things like trotters that haven't sold go to the dogs as they are better at eating those sorts of things than chickens are. We also eat the trotters. Unfortunately low on the hog things don't sell out every week so we can end up with it accumulating. I work hard not to have a lot of freezer inventory. We'll accumulate them for a little while, keep a small inventory, but not let it get out of hand. Most of our inventory is in the fields and on the hoof. Chickens, dogs and we all need to eat so this puts to good use the things like lard, kidney, skin, knuckles, heart, liver, etc that are not big sellers.


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## ben70b (Jan 15, 2013)

Nope.


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## Muleman (Nov 8, 2013)

Mine get a lot of left over food. Food in the fridge that we just do not eat. I say a lot, but in actuality probably less than 5% of there food. We did clean out a freezer for my mom during the winter and we had a pickup load of food. Luckily it was cold out and we simply stored it frozen, boiled up a few pots every day and mixed it with grain to make a slop for them. We feed them several weeks on that. I see nothing wrong with that, as long as it is for your own use, or as in my case young gilts I intend to keep. I have no intention of feeding my market pigs any kind of waste food.
The truth is food from restaurants etc. would provide the same nutrition, but as pointed out by other posters, there is chance of disease transmission, along with what I consider the worst risk, which would be broken glass or other foreign materials mixed in. Keep in mind also, some restaurants etc. may would use some type of cleaners that could possibly end up in it. For me just too many possibilities I have no control over, so I would not use it. I do know a man who would feed scrap food from a local nursing home. He would get lots of it and had a big pot to boil it outside, before he fed it. I just do not think many of these "Alternative" food sources will be of much help in your marketing campaign for pork, if you are honest with your customers. I am also not sure how much is really saved in $$$$ if you figure in your gas driving around collecting up the stuff, the time to cook it etc. along with the gas used for cooking. Probably less savings than one thinks???


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## TinFoil (Feb 18, 2014)

Yes, and my AGH boar *LOVES* coffee grinds and any leftover wine that may have gone stale... I think Merlot is his favorite lol. BTW, we are raising for our own consumption.


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

Interesting. 

I have become far too concerned with how I separate my scraps for the chickens, pigs and compost pile. I've got a bucket for coffee/tea grinds and egg shells that will go in the garden. Bones from cooked meat to the chickens and everything else to the pigs. When I clean out the fridge it all goes to the pigs. ALL the leftover goat milk (straight from the bucket or sour out of the fridge) - to the pigs. I can remember my ma-maw having a bucket on the counter where she took all the scraps from cooking dinner and then scraped the plates and carried it out to her hogs. I've got a regular at work who told me her mother used to take the dirty dish water and give it to the hogs. 

It's very interesting now that I have to think twice before scrapping a few bites of unfinished scrambled eggs covered in ketchup my 4 year old left on her breakfast plate into the pig bowl. What kind of diseases should I be checking my family for? If they have something that can go from their fork to the bucket to the hog and make the hog sick - I reckon we need to get to the ER ASAP. And maybe even stop swapping kisses goodnight. Maybe even sleep in separate tents outside!


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

PrettyPaisley said:


> Interesting.
> 
> I have become far too concerned with how I separate my scraps for the chickens, pigs and compost pile. I've got a bucket for coffee/tea grinds and egg shells that will go in the garden. Bones from cooked meat to the chickens and everything else to the pigs. When I clean out the fridge it all goes to the pigs. ALL the leftover goat milk (straight from the bucket or sour out of the fridge) - to the pigs. I can remember my ma-maw having a bucket on the counter where she took all the scraps from cooking dinner and then scraped the plates and carried it out to her hogs. I've got a regular at work who told me her mother used to take the dirty dish water and give it to the hogs.
> 
> It's very interesting now that I have to think twice before scrapping a few bites of unfinished scrambled eggs covered in ketchup my 4 year old left on her breakfast plate into the pig bowl. What kind of diseases should I be checking my family for? If they have something that can go from their fork to the bucket to the hog and make the hog sick - I reckon we need to get to the ER ASAP. And maybe even stop swapping kisses goodnight. Maybe even sleep in separate tents outside!


Big Ag is in control of your pigs now so don't worry about it. LOL.

When i was growing up on the farm all that stuff went into the pig bucket also. Yes the dish water to. . Butchered our own. Best pork in the world on our kitchen table.  

Now all my pigs get is pasture with no chemicals in the soil and ground corn mix from the Ag approved feed mill. :+). Best pork in the world. 

Best,
Gerold.


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

LivingstoneFarm said:


> The only scraps we feed our hogs are directly from the veggie garden. As a general rule we don't feed meat to our meat; this includes livestock feed that uses blood/bone meal, etc...


Pigs are omnivores!


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

When I send the cows to the processor I get back the bones (cut in chucks) and put out a 5 gallon bucket every week to the pigs. They love it!
Everything! we don't eat goes to the pigs. They are eating food that was good enough for me and family. WHY would I not feed it to the livestock!!!!! It's funny when someone tells you that 'you' can eat it but don't dare feed it to your pig! ---!!!

Just use your common sence!


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

WadeFisher said:


> Pigs are omnivores!


Okay, I can't get the site to quote the quote.

So many people go on about not feeding meat or meat products to pigs. I just can't get over this. They are omnivores.

What if i told you I would only let you eat pasta! Would you be healthy? This also leads back to the discusion of pasture and hay. Omnivores by nature need a very complex and varried diet to be healthy. No science here just common sense. 

Now I grew up feeding the pigs 'scraps' and commercial feed. But I went one step further this year and put them on pasture. And I know we had the BEST pigs ever. Weight gain, health, happy pig and happy pig farmer.

I would feel as if I was being mentaly cruel to my piggies by not bringing my 'special treats' ( stuff from the fridge ) to them each day. And as I said, when it leaves my fridge, edible by me, and is given to my pigs it is not really SCRAP. It is SURPLUS!:grit:


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

*One more note. * 
Laws are *not* made in_ our best intrests_. No matter what you want to think. Most laws are initiated and pushed by a body that has thier own interests in mind. USA has one of the most currupt systems of laws, we just legalized curruption. Even those that govern out food production. To the point that the BIG corporations or interest groups get mostly what they want. Usually to the ill effect on small producers. This happens BY DESIGN! I live in this system. I sometimes am actually a part of it to my own shame. Lobbiests (spelling?) and special interst rule the game with $$$$$. And I belong to associations that hire these GUNS to get what we want from the government.


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

I probably came off a little sassy in my last post but I really am interested in knowing if there is something we as humans harbor that can be passed on to the hogs if I feed them table scraps. I don't want to be cavalier when it comes to feeding them ... I just don't want to waste anything.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

Pigs and humans are biologically similar, they can catch a lot of our diseases. The question is which of the common bugs do we have better antibodies for than they? Even if they just catch a cold or the flu, that's time they're not gaining weight well, making your pork more expensive. It's a risk/reward though, free food, less hassle without sterilizing it, more nutrients without sterilizing it...


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## jpjjwyatt (Mar 28, 2014)

I don't feed my pigs anything that I wouldn't eat myself. Also, I stay away from meat. I feed them everything else from our table leftovers. I also hard boil our extra eggs and give them to the feeder pigs. As long as you don't try to sale the meat I would feed them anything you are comfortable with. My dad tells stories of slop buckets that sat outside until feeding time, even in the hot summer months. Older generations of pig farmers used their pigs for garbage disposals or at least some did from the stories I have heard.


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