Question on self made feed

[Owlett]

Hello everyone

I've got two pigs about six months old and their slaughter date is in the next couple months. Meanwhile, the cost of commercial feed is getting quite high. I found a source for bulk a organic barley/oat mix for . 20 cents per pound, with an average protein of 14%.

My question is what else should I add to make this more balanced? Would a protein or mineral block be a good idea or will the pigs just eat the whole darn block in one day?

Ideas?

 

[NH homesteader]

I wouldn't trust a pig to regulate themselves! I think the block would be gone. I use commercial feed but I buy it in bulk from someone with a silo so it's about half price.

@misfitmorgan was talking about making pig feed...

 

[misfitmorgan]

Hello everyone

I've got two pigs about six months old and their slaughter date is in the next couple months. Meanwhile, the cost of commercial feed is getting quite high. I found a source for bulk a organic barley/oat mix for . 20 cents per pound, with an average protein of 14%.

My question is what else should I add to make this more balanced? Would a protein or mineral block be a good idea or will the pigs just eat the whole darn block in one day?

Ideas?

Generally pigs regulate themselves quite well but....they might see the block as a treat and they seem to have no control with treats lol so i dont think that would be a good idea.

As far as the feed goes the barley/oats absolutely have to be milled some how they must be broken open or ground up. The is the problem with making your own feed you can not feed a pig whole grains...well let me rephrase that.....you can feed a pig anything but the nutrients they get from a whole unbroken grain is going to be insanely low. If you feed whole oats, wheat, barley, etc to pigs and nothing else you can literally see the whole grains in their poo. Possible TMI warning...... It kind of like a human eating corn..you know

If you can have the grains milled somehow thats best....a hammer mill or a rolling mill, drum mill..and if the grains need to be cleaned a fanning mill comes in handy but not a must. At an average of 14% protein that is going to be to low you will be feeding them pigs forever and they wont be gaining. You can add something like beans(colored,black,soy)....gotta finish this later....sorry.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Sorry i ended up having to leave work early and was very busy all weekend. So where i left off you can add something like beans as mentioned before, yellow corn, eggs, the list is about endless.

If your trying to up your protein content you can get corn gluten meal....its very important it is MEAL and not feed. Corn Gluten Meal is 60% crude protein....Corn Gluten Feed is 18% crude protein. If you have chickens you can add boiled eggs, boiled eggs are 46-58% crude protein.

Your biggest challenge is going to be that your base feed is only 14% CP on average...any crude protein lower then 16-18% and the pigs are going to lose weight and turn quite lean to the point of ruining your own end product. The general guideline is 16% for growing pigs, 14% for finishing pigs, 16% for young gilts/boars for breeding, 14% for older sows and boars for breeding, and 16-18% for feeders/butcher.

Keep in mind the lower the protein level the more your going to have to feed. So you can feed 4lbs per pig of 21%CP, 5lbs per pig of 18%, 6lbs per pig of 16%CP, and 7lbs per pig of 14%CP feed. Now most anyone would be thinking well 7lbs of 14%CP at 0.20cents/lbs has to be the way to go then....not quite. The feed amounts are general guidelines and should be adjusted as needed per pig...if our breeders are getting to fat we lower the amount a bit, to skinny and we raise it a bit. In winter we always raise the amount of feed they get for our breeders.

It would be great to only pay $1.40 per pig per day but your pigs would probly die because your only feeding them oats and barley which is not a complete feed, they would be lacking many very much required minerals and vitamins as well as fatty acids, amino acids, zinc, phosphate, salt, lysine, calcium, etc. It would be the same as a human trying to live off nothing but rolled oats and dried barley...you would die. As well as the problems of not having a complete feed you also can not feed them large amounts of straight roughage which is all the oats/barley would be, so you would need to bring your feed up to a minimum of 16%CP, preferably 18%CP.

So if we look at Corn Gluten Meal as the ingredient to raise the protein to go from 14%CP to 16%CP you would need to mix 2lbs of CGM per 50lbs of oats/barley..to go from 14%CP to 18%CP you would need to mix 4lbs of CGM per 50lbs of oats/barley. That seems reasonable until you factor in that corn gluten meal is $60+ per 50lb bag..so now your feed costs are $0.23/lb for 16%CP mix and $0.25/lb for 18%CP...which means per 50lbs your paying $11.50-12.50 minimum.

Now we need to add in minerals, you can of course go get allstock loose minerals and mix them into the feed at a low ratio but exactly what that ratio is depends on exactly what allstock mineral you get, depending on the mineral you buy that is another $14-25 per 50lbs of mineral if your mixing it at say 1:50 which is rather high depending on the mineral. Your 16%CP cost is $0.24per lb and 18%CP would be $0.26 per lb, respectively making them total feed cost $12-13 per 50lbs.

We still need to add vitamins though as most livestock minerals only have vitamin A. Which vitamins needed are debated upon but the basic ones everyone agree on are vitamin A, D, E, K, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, choline and B12. So add that cost in plus the time to figure out exactly how much of each and how to evenly mix it into the feed.

Alternatively you can get complete supplements, mineral-vitamin premixes and vitamin premixes which the latter two require you to add your own grains/protein source to(these would still have to be milled grains) and they are ment to be mixed by the ton with the directions telling you how to mix by the ton and generally all recommend corn or wheat and soy beans. This stuff can be pricey though anywhere from $25- over $200 per ton plus the cost of your grains and you can also only get them thru dealerships.

I would also be skeptical of their 14% average CP claim unless they are testing each batch because oats can range from 8-12%CP and barley is only 11.5%CP on average...it is not possible to add two low protein things together and make a higher protein. You can only possible get as high as the highest value item your adding. So if you highest value is 12%CP your max is 12%CP and that would be 100% of your 12%CP product...as soon as you add anything lower into it is not possible to even be 12%CP. So how they got from 12% to 14% is a bit of a mystery to me.

What your saving on the bulk 14% oat/barley mix your going to spend way more in mix in's and add ons. Basically your going to end up doing a ton of work to have feed that is min $13-15 per 50lbs and still likely not meeting all of their needs. If you do not meet all of their dietary needs you will experience a range of problems from weight loss, to sickness, blindness, effects similar to polio in humans and possibly even death. Really you could even up with a whole new set of problems and not even end up being able to butcher the pigs for meat so your out all the feed and money you ever put into them.

We pay $15.75 for 100lbs of pig and sow complete feed which comes out to $0.16/lb and thats 18%CP. If you have not you should see if you have a local feed mill, co-op, etc to buy feed at it should be much cheaper then any farm stores. Even at farm stores you can find complete feed for $0.24/lb. Can i ask why your waiting so long to butcher the pigs? At 6 months old they should be 250+lbs and ready for butcher now.

 

[NH homesteader]

Wow that was so overwhelming. I'm totally going to stick with the feed I have, no interest in attempting to make my own thanks!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Wow that was so overwhelming. I'm totally going to stick with the feed I have, no interest in attempting to make my own thanks!

I do tend to explain things in a lot of detail....sorry lol

Really though mixing feed for large animals is quite a complicated thing to do. We did it for awhile but it is such a PITA that we decided to just buy it when we dont have grains and when we do have grains the mill takes them and makes them into feed for us. We can make our own feed for roughly 12 cents/lb and they charge us something like 16 cents/lb to make it with our grains so way worth it for us. We do mix our own chop and adjust the protein on our layer. We also grow and feed green fodder from oats when i have the time and weather. If it ever quits raining we could harvest our corn

 

[Latestarter]

Awesome explanation! Gonna stick with "store" bought feed when the time comes. Haven't started looking yet but will be trying to find a mill or local feed store.