Acorns, Feeding & storage?????

[RW kansas hogs]

I have a customer that wants 10 berkshire market hogs ranging from 250-275lbs and he wants me to feed them acorns in with there feed, So i'm wondering how much acorns (pound wise) to add in the feed or would it be better to hand feed them acorns like in the evening?

If i hand feed the acorns should i crush them kinda so they are more tasty for the hogs?

My other question is how does a person store acorns so they stay good, I have to have enough to last me 6-7 months or untill the hogs reach their selling weight.
If this works and the customer is happy it could be a very good thing for me, So i need all the ideas and help you can think of, Thanks ahead of time. Tim

[gerold]

Originally Posted by RW kansas hogs

I have a customer that wants 10 berkshire market hogs ranging from 250-275lbs and he wants me to feed them acorns in with there feed, So i'm wondering how much acorns (pound wise) to add in the feed or would it be better to hand feed them acorns like in the evening?

If i hand feed the acorns should i crush them kinda so they are more tasty for the hogs?

My other question is how does a person store acorns so they stay good, I have to have enough to last me 6-7 months or untill the hogs reach their selling weight.
If this works and the customer is happy it could be a very good thing for me, So i need all the ideas and help you can think of, Thanks ahead of time. Tim

Acorn feed produces the best possible Hams. 3 months on acorns will surely gave some fine pork. They will fatten fairly fast on 1/2 acorns and
corn and oats mix. My hogs are eating acorns under the trees now. They eat a lot of oak leaves along with the acorns.
I feed them morning and night, corn and oat mix. Acorns cost is high if you
have to buy them. Not sure how you would store them. Maybe in barrel or sack in the barn. If in barrel i would punch hole in bottom to drain any water that may form. Just make sure they get air. Do you plan on collecting the acorns yourself or buy them? I may collect some big acorns for winter storage. However it takes a bit of time to collect them. If i do collect some i may grind them up along with corn and oats.

[cooper101]

A good place to find them is in nice neighborhoods. They can cover a paved driveway pretty quick. Offer to sweep some up and I bet people would be happy to get rid of them.

[oink]

Out here we have more filberts (hazelnuts ) than acorns and they can really fatten up a hog in a hurry, really exaggerating the fat veins to an extreme and changing the composition of the fat to softer and more oily, but supposedly more healthy in omegas.
In the old Foxfire books the hog chapter talks about the overly dark and oily meat from hogs that fed primarily on acorns.

[highlands]

Do they know that they like the flavor of acorn pork? The acorns can bitter the meat. Whey is often fed to sweeten it for balance.

Realize that one person's best is not another person's. "Best" is an opinion, not a fact in such things. I would recommend not using such a term. It's rather grandiose sounding, gushy. Better to describe what you're doing than to claim "the best". If you win an award, fine, claim that by saying "won award X" but don't claim "the best" unless you truly are the best by all opinions in all of the universe.

BTW, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamón_ibérico

As to storage, I've just stored them outdoors in boxes when I've had them. It gets cold here so they store well over the winter but will sprout in the spring. A refrigerator would keep them over summer perhaps. I have stored acorns in the freezer for planting.

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

[gerold]

Originally Posted by RW kansas hogs

I have a customer that wants 10 berkshire market hogs ranging from 250-275lbs and he wants me to feed them acorns in with there feed, So i'm wondering how much acorns (pound wise) to add in the feed or would it be better to hand feed them acorns like in the evening?

If i hand feed the acorns should i crush them kinda so they are more tasty for the hogs?

My other question is how does a person store acorns so they stay good, I have to have enough to last me 6-7 months or untill the hogs reach their selling weight.
If this works and the customer is happy it could be a very good thing for me, So i need all the ideas and help you can think of, Thanks ahead of time. Tim

The % of acorns depends on what the finish product will be. You could crush them if mixed with corn etc. my hogs get maybe 20-30 % acorns. Some of the meat will be cured and smoked with oak and hickory wood.
The Amish folks want 50% acorns with a mix of corn,oat,and alfalfa. We settled on the 20-30% acorns in the feed. They will process the meat and sell it in their store. Sound folks will pay a fair price for good pork.

The top Chefs call this "Upscale,Designer pork for High-end consumers". :-)
I call it good country raised pork.

Another point about acorns. No green acorns or young green oak leaves. Green acorns is not very good for hogs.

[Mare Owner]

Originally Posted by gerold

You could crush them if mixed with corn etc. my hogs get maybe 20-30 % acorns.

The Amish folks want 50% acorns with a mix of corn,oat,and alfalfa. We settled on the 20-30% acorns in the feed.

Are the acorns cracked open and the nut removed first, before crushing or mixing with the corn? Don't they just eat the inside nut meat, or they ground whole in the feed?

[gerold]

Originally Posted by Mare Owner

Are the acorns cracked open and the nut removed first, before crushing or mixing with the corn? Don't they just eat the inside nut meat, or they ground whole in the feed?

I guess you could remove the nut before mixing. I don't.

[Mare Owner]

Thanks gerold, I just wondered how it was done. Thanks!

[oldasrocks]

I'd like to find a couple hogs to come over and eat the hundreds of lbs of acorns we have laying around. I'm worried they'd root up too much of the grass though.

[Mare Owner]

They won't root until they run out of acorns.

[kyleporter]

I would put the acorns in a separate feeder and allow free access to the acorns as the pigs want them. As for storage, they should do fine in a dry, pest-proof container.

[cooper101]

I got feed bags full of them from a friend and thought it was great to get all this free, good food. They were very interested in them for about a day and then wouldn't eat them. Wound up dumping them out for the deer. I guess it depends on the pig whether they'll eat them.

[Whisperwindkat]

I think it depends on the variety of acorns. Like cooper we have tons and have picked up bushels full. The pigs eat some and then leave them. Ours are in the red oak family (water and willow oaks) so they have more tannin. I think if we had more white oak acorns then they would eat more. We dump a bucket full for them once a week and they eat them but they won't eat more if we gave them more. Interestingly enough the goats like them also and so they get a bucket full each week also. This is a coffee can size bucket. I figure what they do eat adds extra calories so I am happy with that. Blessings, Kat

[wildfrogs1]

Does anyone know the protein content of acorns ?

I know it varries from year to year but does anyone know how many bu.
a year a 10" tree will produce ?

Thanks

[Whisperwindkat]

Acorns are pretty low in protein levels, but the fat makes them contain about 1700 calories per pound.

[gerold]

Originally Posted by wildfrogs1

Does anyone know the protein content of acorns ?

I know it varries from year to year but does anyone know how many bu.
a year a 10" tree will produce ?

Thanks

1 oz. acorn approx. = 4% protein, 5% carbohydrate,13% fat.

Depends on the tree. 10inch. -14 inch. white oak around 3-5 lbs per year.
about 700 lbs per/ac. here on my place in Missouri. I have mostly white oak.
some red oak, bur oak, post oak, etc. the bigger white oak has acorns about 1 inch long. The bur oak has acorns 1.5-2 inch long. The white oak is the ones the hogs like the best. White oak has acorns every year if weather conditions are right. Red oak ever 2 years.

[JohnL751]

Go into the city and offer the people a low price for cleaning up their arcons. It might surprise how many people will pay you money to roll your little wire thing around collecting their three hundred pounds of arcons.