hog feed

anyone grind their own hog feed and care to share what they put in it? I've been buying commercial hog feed but have been thinking about buying a mixer grinder and grinding my own

Making feed with a grinder mixer is fairly easy. All you need is a scale, corn, soybean meal, and a basemix for the micro nutrients. Where are you located?

Jim

Making feed with a grinder mixer is fairly easy. All you need is a scale, corn, soybean meal, and a basemix for the micro nutrients. Where are you located?

Jim

about half way across Illinois and just south of I-80 about ten miles. I know I need corn and soymeal, or some kinda protein, not sure what else or how much of what. I don't know anyone around here that grinds hog feed and they don't wanna tell me much when I start asking questions at the mill. I suppose they figure if they tell me too much i'll cut em out of the picture, they probably right

Illinois probably has one too, this was just the first one I found. Some folks are in the business of telling you things, so they are good to look at...or talk to, in the case of extension agents, rather than publications.

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/swine_extension/nutrition/nutritionguide/default.htm

Find a Kent Feeds dealer. He will have all the information you need to grind and mix all of your own feed. He can give you a book on "how to"..for each weight and class of swine. He can also sell you the supplements that you need. He can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.

My local dealer is able to get a hog concentrate which is everything except the grain. Its about the same price as soybean meal and has the additional nutrition that would be needed anyway such as minerals. I grind the grain and mix the 2 together and have the same pig feed as an already prepared feed. You can make different rations depending on what protein you want. Pretty easy.

What!!!! Pigs eat grain.


I thought milk; bread; and other pre consumer products (except for meat scraps) is what made up a pigs diet.
Heck I have seen a guy take scraps; cook it in a drum; and feed that to pigs.

Give or take, here's what I put in: a ton of shelled corn, 1/2 bale of alfalfa, a bag or so of dry molasses, and 6 or 7 bags of Purina Concentrate 40. I make mine closer to 17% protein. Some like it a little less, but I always had good luck with it. The cattle eat it as a treat and the chickens get it for daily scratch grain. It makes the chickens lay like they are on speed or something.

Depending on the price of corn, I sometimes do half wheat but I idle the tractor down to half so it doesn't make wheat flour. I've also put some oats in if I have them.

The Coop will be your friend. Tell them the weights of what you are putting in and they will tell you how much concentrate you need. A mixer with a scale isn't a necessity but makes it more exact. I have never had a scale - I just use the markings on the grinder bin. You will get the hang of it.

Would that be half a small square bale ? Just starting to mix my own pig feed and I like the fact that your recipe can be fed to chickens also.

Thanks,
Jug

I never thought of grinding the same feed for my hogs and birds both but I like that idea too, how much difference in the protien does the half bale of hay make, I also like the idea of adding a little hay

Yes, half of a small square. Believe it or not, just adding that much can DOUBLE the amount of feed in the grinder because it gets so fluffy. If I have the mixer over half full I watch the level carefully when I start adding the bale. I always grind it in last and let it mix for 5 minutes or so. The alfalfa pieces end up a little more than 1/4 inch in length. It keeps the hogs from gorging themselves on corn but the protein is high enough to make them gain. Also, if the feed doesn't have enough texture to it hogs will sometimes get ulcers. It helps avoid that.

We always did it growing up, so I have always done it too. I have used hay bales as well. It adds nice roughage and gives the chickens more to pick through. The last few times I have used hay as it was close at hand.

The chickens are crazy for it and some days it will double egg production. I think it is the minerals. The mix I do is about the same protein as bagged feed and has the same minerals. I have been hesitant to feed it as sole chicken ration but have been thinking next time I go to the coop I would pick their brain about it. I have a house of old layers so I might experiment with them.

If I am feeding out a steer it gets about 1/2 a five gallon bucket of it a day. The cows just love it - it is like ice cream for them. For whatever reason horses won't touch it. They are a little slow to try something new, though.

I don't know that the alfalfa adds a lot of protein. If I use hay I put in another bag of concentrate 40. The alfalfa maintains the protein level but the hay brings it down. With that in the mix it is beautiful feed, though.

I guess I have never thought twice about it - I just did it. I guess we did it growing up to save money. We didn't know any better and those animals were just fine. Sometimes we over think things in the enlightened age!

Thank you for your reply gonna try your recipe this fall. I"m feeding out some hamps and feed prices are getting in my pocket pretty bad.

Thanks ,
Jug