Feeding Your Pigs: Tips and Techniques

Feeding your animals is a daily and time-consuming activity on a farm. You need to take into consideration the types of animals and their individual needs, along with general best practices. This can seem like a big task to take on, but let’s start with feeding the pigs first!

The following is an excerpt from Happy Pigs Taste Better by Alice Percy. It has been adapted for the web.

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It’s not just what you feed; it’s how you feed it! There are a number of approaches to daily feeding chores. What makes sense for you will depend on the number of animals you keep, your local climate, and your management goals.

Full Feeding versus Limit Feeding

“Full feeding” is allowing your animals free-choice access to grain at all times., while “limit feeding” is providing them with a measured quantity of grain at certain intervals (generally these quantities are 5 to 10 percent lower than what the animals would consume if full fed, or whatever the animals will clean up in half an hour when fed twice a day). Both approaches have benefits. Full feeding is more convenient: Large feeders may be filled at infrequent intervals, and you don’t need to weigh anything. Full-fed hogs will also reach slaughter weight sooner than limit-fed hogs. Between these two factors, you will spend much less time handling feed.

On the other hand, limit-fed hogs have slightly higher feed efficiency and better lean yields than full-fed hogs, and limit feeding reduces feed waste because the hogs tend to eat everything put in front of them instead of soiling it or playing in it. While limit feeding does require more time than full feeding, it also provides an opportunity (and reminder!) to frequently monitor your animals’ feed consumption, health, and behavior. Limit feeding is only possible with calorie-dense feedstuffs, however. If bulky feedstuffs are used, animals must be full fed to provide adequate energy and protein.

Feed Containers

Pouring feed on the ground is a great way to waste money. Feed containers should be selected to reduce spillage and prevent contamination of feed while allowing easy access by animals.

Full feeding is typically accomplished with large roofed bins made of metal or sturdy plastic and equipped with feeding pans. Such bins must be sturdily constructed, be weathertight (if situated outdoors), and have enough capacity that they will be too heavy to knock over even when partially emptied—but also small enough that the last of the feed won’t spoil before it is consumed.

Limit feeding opens up options for many different kinds of smaller containers. Choose a container that does not have crevices or corners that will be difficult for animals to access and for you to clean, especially if you feed moistened mash or slops. Similarly, do not use rough or absorbent materials such as wood. Spoiled feed in your containers reduces the palatability of the fresh feed that goes on top of it and may even pose a health risk to your animals. Feed containers for limit feeding do not need to be expensive or even purpose built—just look for something in a half-cylinder shape, preferably. An old metal hot water heater tank cut in half lengthwise works beautifully!

The wall height of your feeders is an important consideration. Too low a wall will contribute to spillage and waste, and too high a wall will prevent easy access and reduce feed consumption (this is especially a risk with small piglets). Select feeders with walls that reach approximately to the top of the animals’ forelegs.

To reduce aggression and help ensure even growth rates, there must be adequate space at the feeders for all animals to eat without excessive competition among penmates. If your pigs are jockeying for space at the feeder, the weaker or more submissive ones will get crowded out and all of your animals will experience higher levels of stress and injury. Limit-fed animals must have more linear feet of trough space available per animals than full-fed animals. To calculate the linear feet of trough space required for limit-fed pigs, multiply the average body width of the animals by the number of animals in the pen and add 25 percent. This figure may be trimmed back by 30 to 50 percent for full-fed animals, as long as the feeding bin is well designed and well stocked to ensure 24-7 access to feed. Some feeding bins for full feeding have pans equipped with bars that separate animals from each other while they eat, reducing aggression-related injury.

Watering Containers

Most commercial hog producers rely on nipple drinkers to prevent spillage and ensure constant access to water. Nipple drinkers come in a variety of sizes for different classes of swine; a piglet nipple will not provide adequate water flow for a sow, and—conversely—the trigger on a larger nipple may be too difficult for a piglet to depress. Some nipple drinkers are designed to be used with pressurized water systems, while others are suitable for the gravity flow systems most likely to be used in pasture-based operations.

Nipple drinkers may be attached directly to large barrels using a water-resistant marine glue. The barrels must hold enough water that they will remain stable even when partially empty—fifty-five- gallon barrels work fine for growing and finishing pigs, but a good-sized stud boar can knock over a full fifty-five-gallon barrel if he gets itchy. Nipple drinkers may also be attached to water lines running from larger tanks in a central location. If you have such a system installed in your barn, it can be effectively weatherized with a submersible tank heater and heat tape.

Watering cups are similar to nipple drinkers except that, instead of constantly sucking on the nipple to trigger water flow, the pig depresses a paddle to fill a small cup with water. This provides easier access to water for the animal but also allows for more waste and more mess. If your pigs are pastured, cups may be preferable to nipple drinkers, especially when hot weather increases the animals’ desire for water. Cups also work well in confinement barns with slatted floors, but in barns with solid floors they will only serve to ruin bedding and reduce animal comfort.

Nipple drinker and watering cup systems allow you to add substances to the water if necessary. On conventional operations antibiotics and other medications are commonly metered through the water systems, but there are also natural additives worth considering for organic farms. Adding organic molasses to water in the winter will help prevent freezing in moderate temperatures and give a small caloric boost to make up for some of the additional energy demands of cold weather.

In the summer, water held in tanks is prone to algal growth that reduces palatability; adding organic vinegar to the water will reduce algal growth and may even improve feed efficiency. Oregano oil products encourage water consumption and help to control coccidia.

Water may also be provided in open containers, but thanks to pigs’ desire to wallow in hot weather, and their active play instinct in any weather, much of the water will end up on the ground. This is fine if your water supply is ample and your hogs are on a roomy pasture or a well-drained heavy-use area, but it’s less desirable inside a barn or in small paddocks. Open containers should be refilled with fresh clean water at least twice a day—three times a day in hot weather.

The best open containers are molded rubber tubs, which come in a variety of capacities and wall heights (as with feeding troughs, select a container with walls about the same height as the animals’ forelegs). These tubs are flexible and rugged enough to withstand several seasons of being used as not only drinking containers, but also toys and wallows. Pigs really do need to wallow in hot weather (see Wallowing in chapter 2, page 22), so the advantage of using an open container system for watering is that you are satisfying their need for drinking water and wallowing water at the same time. If you are using nipple drinkers or watering cups in hot weather, you should also provide wallowing water or a mister to keep the animals cool and comfortable as well as hydrated.

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