craigco

Member
Raising a couple hog right now. Have been
buying feed from the mill about a 200 mile
round trip. Have bought a load of corn
locally and I can grind it down myself, but
I can't figure out what to put in it. I
worked on a pig farm for a summer and
ground feed we just used corn and bags of
minerals from Kent feeds. Do any off you
know what mineral bags were used? One will
be a sow the other eaten. The feed stores
around here don't know as this is just
horse country and they just sell pelletized
feed. There is a Kent feed 30 miles from me
to get it from but they are horse minded as
well but can probably order it if I know
what to get. Thanks.
 
I work part time at a feed store. We can order just about anything you need. Your local stores should be able to do the same.
 

I think the additive is called "Commercial 42 Meal" or something like that. I have a receipt listing this but the kent feeds site is down right now so I can't confirm this.

My elevator guys usually just follow the recipes that Kent publishes. Take a look there.

BTW, the ratio is 20% kent meal to 80% corn. Worked well for my 4 piggies. Grew to an ave weight of 255 lbs prior to butcher.

John
 
Any feed store should be able to order in a hog supplement to mix in with your corn. I'm assuming your grinding it. It should have a label that will tell you what ratio of supplement to mix in to achieve the ratio you want. Its been a while but I'm thinking about 16%.
 
Get a hog grower/finisher concentrate or premix, follow mix instructions on bag. Usually 300lb bean meal, 50lb concentrate, and 1650lb corn. Should get you in the 13-14% cp range.
 
giver the correct choice hogs will balance their own ration. feed shelled corn or cracked is best and pellets . after a short time you could be amazed that pellets will be eaten in the proper amount.
 
Do as Mr Wilson from Indiana says. Hogs will balance out their own ration. No more, no less. For guidance on what all to put out for them I recommend a quick read through the hog chapters of "Morrison's Feeds And Feeding". The bible for animal feeding.
 
You need protein not minerals you must have got it wrong as they should sell protein that you grind with corn for hogs the sow needs a good balanced feed if you want healthy pigs from her. She also needs to be flushed before breeding to get more eggs. You do know you are on a big money loosing deal no way can you raise a couple buying all their feed when you dont sound like you have any experience with hogs. Do youself a favor and find some place that raises the kind of hog you like and get a fat one from him.
 
(quoted from post at 11:11:12 11/29/15) You do know you are on a big money loosing deal no way can you raise a couple buying all their feed when you dont sound like you have any experience with hogs. Do youself a favor and find some place that raises the kind of hog you like and get a fat one from him.

How do you get experience without doing and learning.

I concur on Morrison's Feed and Feeding. I have a copy and worth it's weight in gold if you have common enough sense to not only read but understand and apply the info in the book.
 
Well, he does know enough to raise two instead of just one. And, if he doesn't know that much about it, he's better off starting out small. Who knows, he just might become the world's largest and most knowledgeable hog feeder someday.
 
Well you need shelled corn not ear corn. Then it is usually cheaper to mix soybean meal and a hog mineral/vitamin mix. When your pigs are smaller you want a 15-16% protein feed. As they get older you want to lower the protein to around 12-13%.

It is easy to figure rations for just protein balance if you know what the protein level is in each ingredient. Here is kind of rough averages.

#2 shelled corn 9%
soybean meal 48%
IF you buy the straight mineral mix it should not have any protein. Buying the mixed mineral and protein cost more per pound of protein but some mills may not keep soybean meal in 50 lbs. bags.

So for your starter mix you want a 16% protein final feed. So here is the math. 2000 x 16% = 320 lbs. per ton of protein.

Now you just work at getting the correct ratio of corn to soybean meal. A ton of corn only would have 180 lbs.of protein so you will need soybean meal to hop up the protein level.

So in just a few trial and error calculations I found that the earlier fellow as spot on in his corn level.

1650# of corn = 148.5 lbs. of protein
350 lbs. of soybean meal = 168 lbs. of protein.

So a ton would have 316.50 lbs. of protein or 15.8 % protein.

Your mineral mix would be in the 100# per ton range so you would go 1550 # corn, 350# soybean meal, and 100# lbs. of your mineral mix. That would only lower your protein by 9 lbs. to make the final feed 15.4% protein.

Then as your hogs grow you would just switch some of the soybean meal to corn. This will lower your protein level.

Now after all these calculations let me tell you how I feed hogs for a while before I had a grinder mixer an it worked well and would be simple for a smaller grower. Get yourself a divided inline eight hole hog feeder. Buy hog pellets. They usually are around a 40% protein pellet. Put them in one half of the feeder and just shelled corn in the other. The hogs will balance their feed usage as they grow. They will eat more pellets when they are smaller and slowly it will switch as they get bigger. It will be a little less efficient but only 3-5% which for you mean nothing. The convenience of not having to grind and mix feed will more than offset the efficiency difference. Caution you need pellets not meal hop supplement. The hogs will not eat the meal as well and it will not feed out most feeders. The supplement has salt in it an will attract moisture worse in the meal form.

I had hogs on five different farms when I started. So grinding and mixing feed would have been a time consuming chore. So I just put a smaller gravity wagon with shelled corn and pallet of hog pellets on each farm. Two five gallon buckets under the gravity wagon chute and your foot in the middle of the chute to split the flow of corn. A five gallon bucket holds around 30 lbs. of shelled corn. That is easy to carry/handle. The hogs will clean up shelled corn where spilled ground feed gets wasted more.

You can also use the pellets in your ground feed mix as it will make fewer fines in your final ration. I know Kent used to make the 40% hog supplement pellets. I could not find it on their web site. I found another company that showed a 40% pelted supplement. You can print off a copy and take it to your local mill and see what they can order for you that would be close in the ingredients.

I also included a picture of the feeders I used and then a picture of one that would work for you just having a few pigs. The smaller one would need divider in it to keep shelled corn on one side and your supplement pellets on the other.

One last thing. The shelled corn and pelleted feed make this a good KID project as all they have to do is keep each part of the feeder full. They can do the entire job and that makes it more "their" project.
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40 hog supplement pellets.
 
50 years ago I could have told you when Dad farrowed 500 pigs a year. We loaded ear corn in the two 1 1/2 ton truck beds until level full shoveled into an elevator from a crib then back the trucks up to the grainery and shoveled oats or spelts over the top of the corn. I just do not remember the ratio. At the feed mill all was dumped with the corn being shelled. Bean meal, molasses, tankage, salt and commercial minerals was added. All ground and mixed feed was bagged and loaded back in the trucks. Each bag was dumped in the feeders as needed. I don't think you will find many people willing to put that kind of labor into raising hogs.
 
Check the Kent Feeds online site, the should have no trouble finding the right supplement to add to you feed mix. You local ag university or Iowa State University would be alternate sources.
 
Thanks for the positive comments to the posters questioning experience its been over twenty years since I worked at the hog farm and being a teenager at the time the boss just pointed and that is what got done. I am just trying to get away from the long trip to the feed mill for a $450 tote of feed. Was able to get 4 1/2 tons of shelled corn for a good price and want to use it. I like the two feeder idea and will probably pursue that route.
 

You guys raise some pampered hogs. 65 or so years ago my parents raised 2 hogs as part of the survival scheme for poor folks. Most of our neighbors also raised hogs for the same reason. Table scraps were fed to the hogs. A few years before that, just before I was born, there was no electricity available, so leftover food spoiled quicker and there fore was fed to hogs. Often we had wheat ground to feed to the hogs. I don't remember having corn ground, but often ear corn was fed to the hogs. People kept a slop bucket into which was table scraps was added and it was fed to the hogs. Excess raw vegetables, like turnips were given to the hogs. We had a huge white oak tree and in the fall leaves and acorns were raked up and put in the hog pen. The hogs could sort out the acorns and use the leaves for bedding. I don't remember the time the hogs were fed before slaughter, after cold weather came. Lard was canned along with sausage. Mama had a bed of sage which was gathered and dried. Along with red pepper it made good sausage seasoning. Daddy liked hot sausage. Don't remember the exact recipe for curing hams, but they sure were good.

KEH
 
What kind of breeding is in those hogs? Modern lean breeds won't do as well if they aren't pampered in a confinement. York, Duroc, Hampshire, the old breeds will survive better but they will have more back fat. I assume the sow is a breeding sow. If it is for breeding it should be kept separate from the fat hog because of the feed ration requirements. You want to grow and fatten the butcher hog but you do not want to fatten the sow. A fat sow will have small litters and will be more likely to lay on and smother the piglets. Sorry I can't recommend a good sow ration because I have been away from it too long. The feed mill used to sell sow cubes with the right ration in them. You just throw the right amount of cubes on the cement feed floor and the sow will clean them up.
 
KEH one BIG difference in todays hogs is the time to market. So you may call it pampering but most hogs are gone to slaughter in about 6-7 months from birth. Hogs feed the way your talking would take maybe 2/3 to double that length of time. Also todays hogs have less fat in the meat than those feed scraps and such.
 
I just reread your original post. Your going to need more hogs or that corn had better be real dry. The two hogs your talking about will need under a ton of the shelled corn to fully finish. That will leave you with 3 plus tons of corn. We used to figure a 1000 LBS. of corn per head. They are under 750 now in the modern buildings.
 
I raised 4 hogs (duroc cross) on custom feed this year. I got them to an average of 254 lbs in 5.5 months. I used 2750 lbs of feed in that time. They were fed free choice in a dirt lot.

John
 

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