? For feed guru's......

[Conrad Fryar]

Take a look at this feed, I know their must be a reason i can't feed it to my pigs because its cheaper than anything lately I've found. My local feed store is trying hard for me to try it on my hogs and goats and says people are very satisfied with it! Tell me what you think, good and bad......
1600 pounds for 184.00.......................

[ghmerrill]

I wouldn't have any problem feeding it. They are not going to use all that fiber, but iras not going to hurt either.

[Lazy J]

You will be very disappointed if you use that feed for pigs. It has an extremely high fiber content and is probably deficient in Lysine and Methionine.

In this case the feed store staff is giving incorrect advice.

Jim

[olivehill]

You mean aside from being formulated for an entirely different type of stock -- a ruminant, which your swine is not even close to being?

It's incredibly high in fiber -- good for cattle, not so great for swine. Fiber is important in the swine diet, but not as digestible for them, especially in those quantities, and therefore more of the energy content of the feed is ultimately wasted. You may pay less per lb but if less of each pound of feed can be utilized by the animal you're not really saving anything.

It's very high in sunflower products which is not recommended in those quantities for swine. For most hogs, in most stages of life sunflower products aren't recommended at all. And when they are usually it's at 10% or less of the diet. Not only is it thought that they can contribute to poor fat quality in butcher carcasses I would exercise caution in using them for breeders as they're a significant source of Omega 6 fatty acids, a known inflammatory in humans -- whose biological systems are much more comparable to swine than cattle.

And, because three seems a good number of reasons to give, I'm highly skeptical of the amino acid profile.

[Conrad Fryar]

Thats what I thought,have not studied up on the sunflower issue and that was throwing me off. I Could not argue the fact, if you don't know what your talking about.lol...........Thanks for the reply's

[Rogo]

Aside from what's been said, I don't feed wheat, soy, corn, molasses.

[Ronney]

Conrad, I buy stuff like that or similar but I don't feed it exclusively. I mix it in with cooked food, maize, barley/maize meal and milk. If you can feed it along with something else, it helps to cut down on the feed bill a bit without being detremental to the pigs in any way.

Cheers,
Ronnie