Great Idea for FREE Pig Food

[freezefamilyfarm]

My husband came up with an idea that I wanted to share. It may be common knowledge with pig people, but I thought it was genius. We bought 4 feeder pigs to winter in our garden area. He put up hog panels all around the garden and built a little pig house. We have a friend who has pecan orchards and sorts and sells them for a living. Tons, and I mean tons of the pecans are rejected, too varied sizes, worm holes, still in outer shell, etc... He normally just dumps these so if we are willing to come get them they are FREE and the pigs love them. We should have pecans to supplement their feed all winter, keeping our feed cost very minimal. We also feed table scraps, but my estimate on actual feed costs for four pigs fed up to market is less than $300. I will have to see how their feed consumption grows as they grow, but still, a very good deal I think.

 

[phaethona]

this reminds me of how my father in law gets free corn, he waits till right after harvest and asks the local growers if he can go through the empty fields, usually he has a couple truck loads in half a day's time, all for free

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

A lot of restaurants will give their left over food each night to farmers around here too. Unfortunately the restaurants can't always donate the food to people shelters due to insurance reasons, but there's no reason animals can't eat it!

 

[PineappleMama]

I read that Old Gloc Spots are known as orchard pigs because they're awesome about eating all the apples/etc that fall and can't be used for humans.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Oh man, send me some bacon. I bet pecan fed pork tastes amazing!

Good job on scoring that as feed...and let me know how it tastes when you slaughter.

 

[she-earl]

If you live near a dairy farm, there is probably a good chance that you would be able to get milk that would be discarded. If a cow is on antibiotics, her milk cannot go into the tank but you could fatten a pig on it. Also, if she is being treated for mastitis, her milk is unable to be put into the tank for a certain number or milking. We have had a couple of people get our discarded milk and have fatten pigs nicely on them. One of the pigs weighed over 400 lbs. when the butchered it. We didn't charge anything for the milk and possibly you could find the same type of situation.

 

[abhaya]

go to a local grocerie store and ask them if you can have produce they are disposing of to feed your pigs. Many will give it away happily.

 

[lil'turkeymama]

That is the way to raise hogs/pigs.I've heard my dad talking about how his grandparents and their neighbors used to turn the sows lose to let them feed on acorns.They would all get together in the fall and gather them up and sort out who's was whos.He also said the meat from those hogs would be nut-flavored.I didn't even get to see the good ole days and I still miss them.