Re: Raising swine & Kefir questions

[Guest guest]

hi, rhea:

really good question!!

here we go. we started out feeding slops (ie, dinner leftovers and whatnot)

and grain, and they were out on pasture. i wasn't happy about the grain,

even though it was organic and whole...

if you do have to use grain, you want HOMESTEAD brand, which comes out of

canada. they don't use any soy, and they don't use " byproducts " : it's all

the real stuff. yeah, i'd soak it, and it's not really that much of a pain

in the butt - just put it in the bucket the night before, put in your

water/kefir/whey, and feed in the morning.

we still do feed a handful of grain here and there, but we've mostly gotten

away from it. we grow a separate slop garden of root veggies and squashes

(cause they'll make it through the winter). i've recently heard that you

ought to cook pumpkin for them or it causes indigestion, though our pigs

seemed to just know when to stop with the pumpkin. we never noticed any

tummy aches. they do enjoy playing with a raw pumpkin though, tossed into

the pen whole.

we give them egg shells and they gobble those right up. basically anything

that isn't mouldy or gross goes into the slops. in particular, after

slow-cooking meat, i give them the fat and juices that we didn't use for

the meal - there's almost always more than we can use. you do need to be

careful about bones, though there have been some that made it in and that's

just that.

local " byproducts " are great - around here it's whey from cheesemaking and

apple mash from cidering, etc. if you're costal, it might be fish byproducts...

ok. that's what i can think of just at the moment...question away!

At 09:56 PM 4/8/2004, you wrote:

>Katja and others,

>

>Last year about this time I was asking if there was anyone on the list who

>had experience raising swine. We didn't get any piglets last year because

>of piglet shortage, but this year it is looking good for us to get at least

>one (the 4H pig) and hopefully 2 more. So...

>

>What have you been feeding your pigs?

[Guest guest]

>Kefir. Who was it that posted about putting all their scraps in kefir for

>their chickens? I can't help but wonder if one could do this for swine.

>Any thoughts anyone?

Yeah, I do. I soak it in kefiili (thick thick kefir) which also helps the

chickens eat it. I don't know about pigs, but kefir seems to be

really good for every other animal. It also keeps the scraps from

smelling bad on the counter, or growing mold (which IS bad for

most animals). I'm not sure how much grain pigs need ... I read

something about how in some parts of the world they feed pigs

sweet potato vines, or fermented sweet potato vines, as their

main food. Grain probably makes them gain weight faster. But I

did know a guy who raised pigs mainly on restaurant scraps ... he

made a deal with the restaurants to haul off their plate scrapings

and raised pigs on them, then sold the pigs to pay his college

tuition. I've also heard of this being done with old produce and

bread from grocery stores. You may be able to make a deal. When

I talked to a grocery about the stuff they threw out, they said

they'd be happy to donate it to anyone if they were good about

picking it up. Saves them disposal fees.

When I worked for a smorgasborg, we tossed a 55 gal garbage

can of plate scrapings every Sunday! I used to take out the

prime rib scraps to feed the cat. But I always wondered how many

pigs a smorgasborg could support.

-- Heidi Jean