Hello, I will be getting 4 pigs to raise over the winter. They will be living in my garden eating up the leftover produce and plowing up the dirt for next springs garden. I am able to get spent grain from a local brewery. I have been feeding it to my goats and chickens. I had planned on feeding it to my pigs. Has anyone ever raised pigs on spent grain? Do I need to feed them anything else? I will be giving the slop as well. I have looked on line to find info on this and have not been able to find very much. Somewhere I read that I needed to wait until my pigs weighed 75#'s before starting the spent grains. Does anyone know how long it takes to reach 75 pounds? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated. Crystal
the brewing process will have extracted most of the sugar and starch, there probably will still be a reasonable amount of protein and of course roughage. For whatever grain you are getting you might assume zero carbohydrates and 3/4 protein (most mills will be able to give you a breakdown of carbs and protein per pound)
Brewers spent grains are listed in the "Nutrient Requirements of Goats" as a protein supplement containing, on a dry-matter basis, 70 percent TDN (total digestible nutrients), 27.1 percent total protein and 19.7 percent digestible protein. Each of these figures is a portion of the 100 percent dry matter. So it looks like 42.9 percent (70 - 27.1) is digestible nutrients other than protein. And I just looked up this info: Brewers' grains are an excellent feed for cattle and sheep. For example, dairy cattle can be fed as much as 30 kg per head per day of wet brewers' grains with no apparent ill effect. They can also be given generously to cattle on fattening rations, up to 20 kg per day for large animals. Despite brewers' grains not being recommended for pigs due to their fibrous nature, these are the main animals to which they have been fed. The reason is that the dairy and beef feeding industries are quite small and not always located near breweries. However, when available, they are used by dairy farms. Beer production increased very rapidly during the 1980s in response to expanded consumer incomes. The brewing industry can be expected to continue growing, thus providing a substantial new source of by-products for animals. I CAN tell you that when I went to the microbrewery to get spent grains for my chickens I had to be sure to get there before the pig farmer did, because he would load up ALL they had, which was five 32-gallon trashcans chock full of steaming, fragrant spent grains twice each week. And there aren't any commercial pig operations in the area, so this was a local small operator. He said his pigs did very well on the spent grains. Now you know as much as I do, and probably more.
Your pigs should weigh between 40 and 50 lbs at 8 weeks. 75 lbs at about 11 weeks. Different diets can cause a wide variation in growth rate. Being wormy can hold them back also.
Thanks everyone for the replies! I appreciate the information. I am seeing from this that I will probably need to supplement some grain or bread or veggies. I was going to slop them as well, so I will see how they thrive on this! Again Thank you for the info!
