Saving Acorns :)???

[Watcher48]

Hopefully next fall I will do another couple hogs for the freezer. I got a bunch of acorns this year (about two acres) . I was wondering if I gathered them up if there was someway to keep them till next fall and have two years worth to feed them. Last hogs ate them like crazy , along with old bread and cut the feed bill way down.

[Steve L.]

They should keep alright in refrigerated storage. They also may dry down alright, if you can spread them out thin enough.

[FL.Boy]

how are you going to pick up that many? I have a ton that need picked up but I'm looking for the easiest way to do it.

[haypoint]

If you have a dry place to store them and keep the rats, chipmunks, etc out of them they will keep.
I wouldn't feed acorns for the pigs final 6 weeks. All that tannin could effect the flavor. Where are you located? It seems there might be some other sources of feed that would be more time/cost effective. I'm thinking that instead of a double dose of acorns, you could just gather apples or carrot rejects, etc.

[Labrat407]

The acorns might help the flavour, look here for what you can do.
Best storage might be to fence off the area and let them range for a bit. They will find the windfall's from last year.

[BetsyK in Mich]

there is a lot of moisture in a fresh acorn, after all it is a seed and will sprout in short order under the right conditions. I remember as a kid trying to save some in a grain bag through the winter to use for craft projects for 4-H. Us kids gathered up a bag full and put them in the shop in a garbage can. Next spring we had a sprouted moldy mess.

[roneil76]

I would say to store where it is dry. Where there is some air movement. Maybe a barn loft with a screen window. Something like that. They will keep if you stir 'em up now and then. let the air touch as much surface area.