The local feed store in our area doesn't have a good selection of feed to choose from. Today we finally recieved our free little piggies that I posted about a few weeks ago. But before I drove over to pick them up I thought I had better pick up some feed from the feed store before they close. They close at noon on Saturdays. But all they carried was 14% finisher, so I bought a bag anyway since I didn't have much choice. So I'm wondering if there is anything I could add with the 14% to increase it to around 18%. I've heard of adding high protein dog food but is that a wise thing to do? If I bought some milk replacer to add with the 14% would that be sufficient?
Milk replacer is kind of pricey for hog feed isn't it? The most common protien additive is soybean oil meal. Is it possible to have them grind and mix the feed for you? That way is usualy cheaper than the shipped in premixed feeds. They will get along on 14% feed ok. Millions of hogs that have gone on before them have.
Uncle Will I went on ahead and bought some milk replacer to add with the feed. I got to thinking about the last time I raised some pigs was about 12 years ago when I was working maintenance at a local hospital. This hospital would throw away tons of baby formula that would be outdated. I got to taking this stuff home and mixing it in the pig feed and I raised some of the healthiest looking finishers I had ever raised before. So I thought maybe this would be the best thing to do anyway regardless of protein in the feed. With tax the milk replacer cost me $15.07 for a 10 lb. bucket. I should have been on the lookout for people throwing away commodity powdered milk.
They like eggs, I boil up my extras and feed them back to the animals that need the protein. They like beans and rice too. Any of the cheap food you can find that can be combined for the protein compliment, just like vegans use, will give the complete range of proteins they need. Really cheap too!
Here are a couple of other options. Hogs are very good at sorting out what they need better than you and the feed manufacturers. Let them have alfalfa hay. Mine snarf it up and it allows me to use roots more than otherwise. I prefer the hay to soy oil meal because the soy has too much omega 3 fats. Alfalfa will give the hogs the protein but no extra omega 6 fats. Low omega 6 fats results in hog lard with higher amounts of omega 3 fats which are essential fats (for us) and keep the omega 6's lower in our diet (we get too much since it is so abundant) In past times when I was closer to them I negotiated with the local Taco Bell. There is a lot of animal protein in Taco Bell "waste" over and above the lettuce, etc. I found I could raise one pig per Taco Bell and did. Since I've been on the homestead I've taken to feeding a lot of roots to the pigs. Growing extra beans is easy and makes good sense as Thumper has mentioned. Three little piggies will snarf it up so fast you'll wonder if you really put it in there for them. bearkiller
