Pigs question

jon f mn · Nov 16, 2020

I've got an interesting situation with my pigs I've never run into before. They eat all their straw. They have all the good quality feed they can eat consisting of corn, soy meal, salt, mineral and vitamins which they eat with enthusiasm. And they can have all they want as it's in a feeder. But they still eat the straw when I throw it in. Raised a lot of pigs in my life and never had any eat the straw. But 22 pigs will eat a half a bale in a day or so. They have plenty of room and the pen is clean, but the straw just disappears. They are healthy and growing real good so I'm not worriedly about it, just curious why and what might cause that. With past batches I could throw in a bale and eventually it would get ground down, but never had them eat it.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 16, 2020

Makes sense hogs will graze like cattle if they have a pasture to graze in,when we had brood sows about the only time we fed much grain to them was when they were nursing pigs.Also hogs require a good mineral to be fed to them.

gene bender · Nov 16, 2020

You need a good protein 40% ground in dry shelled corn give them some GOOD hay they are wanting some thing thats why they eat the straw what does their stools look like should be loose but not runny or hard. We always them some Good GREEN HAY in the winter not uncommon for them to eat straw throw some good fresh dirt in the pen dont hurt a thing a hog is a hog

DRussell · Nov 16, 2020

Feed the grain to the cows. Let the pigs run after the cows. That way you can raise them both on the same feed. The pigs will get fat on what the cows don't digest.

Hotflashjr · Nov 16, 2020

We raise our pigs on pasture with a feed ration much like you use. 18% protein corn, soy, minerals and vitamins and animals are growing and healthy. The pigs graze the pasture and we move them weekly. That being said, they eat the straw bedding we give them. The only ones that don't are the sows. Feeders will go through half a bale weekly of rye straw eating it. We typically only provide straw in the winter for warmth, but they still eat it. Currently we have gloucester old spots which are a pasture/forage pig so I think that has something to do with the eating of the straw when they do not have enough pasture. This time of year although there is grass and roots it is not the salad mix they are used to getting in the growing months on pasture. Have you tried giving them some junk hay? We have also done this and found some groups to love it, other turn their noses up at it.

cjunrau · Nov 16, 2020

doesn't surprise me. I had 4 pigs and they got a round bale of uncombined flax straw evry other week and ate most of it. Butchered them at 500 lbs a year later and nothing wrong with them. They did pasture with the cows all summer.

Bruce from Can. · Nov 16, 2020

Good for pigs to eat some roughage straw or hay. If you have cob corn, feed them some cobs. Young pigs are busy, like to play and chew. They get bored just like teenagers. We sometimes hung a tire from a chain in the pen. They would rube on it, and make it swing . A soccer ball is also a great toy for pigs.. After pigs get over 100 lb, they don’t play as much, get lazy and want to eat and sleep

HuskerLyn · Nov 16, 2020

We would throw lower quality alfalfa to our sows for roughage intake

john in la · Nov 16, 2020

Do you feed them any fiber??
Or are they strictly on grain??

If grain only their gut fermentation is out of whack.
Add so good fermentable fibers to their diet.
Aside from lower nutrition from the straw you have to worry about mycotoxin with pigs on straw.

jon f mn · Nov 16, 2020

I would either grind ear corn or add hay to the mix for sows to help keep them loose. But I've never come across feeder pigs eating the straw as aggressively as these do. They are healthy and growing good so I'm not concerned, but thought they might be lacking something. I used to grow them on the same ration I'm using now with good results

fusion1 · Nov 16, 2020

Had a uncle that use to feed his pigs soft coal
he said it was good for there digestive system.
every day he would throw in a few chunk with there feed.

fixerupper · Nov 16, 2020

The only time fat hogs around here are fed fiber is when they want the weight gain to slow down. They were doing this last winter and spring when the packing plants slowed down due to the virus. Hogs can eat concentrated grain just fine. Soy meal and corn are the two main ingredients in a fat hogs diet. Protein should be 18% for little pigs, 16% for 40 lb feeder pigs and on down to 14% or less for fats. Too much protein makes too much fat and gives them the scours. They are mixing in some DDGs here from the ethanol plants but not much, hogs need pure grain. Cattle can utilize DDGs or WDGs much better. If hogs start cannibalizing, iron or magnesium oxide are added to the ration to satisfy an iron deficiency. Animal fat is added also but too much fat will cause the feed to not feed down in bins and feeders especially in cold weather. When I fed hogs the old fashioned way they did eat some bedding but most of the bedding loss was from their feet dragging the bedding out the door. So there you have it coming from an old hog farmer.

J. Schwiebert · Nov 16, 2020

We bales some corn stalks for a couple of years. Hog will clean that up to.

Determined · Nov 17, 2020

Boredom overtook them and they began to eat?

Monkey see monkey do?

We have not raised enough pigs to give you a solid reason but I can tell you what we have observed with cattle.

Most of our herd is Angus, when on pasture none of them would ever eat leaves off of trees.

One year we bought a dozen Simmental Angus cross cows, put them in the same pasture that had lush foot and a half tall grass, they went straight for the tree line and started munching leaves off the Aspen trees.

Over time many of our Angus watched them and out of curiosity I guess started doing the same.

From what I have read the growing leaves can have as much as 10 - 15% protein.

Straw will average 4% protein so your pigs wont be getting much more than fiber out of it.

Is the straw you have by chance year old?

I can put down this years straw for bedding and the cows don't do much more than lay on it but if I put down year old straw they will eat a fair bit of it.
Smells or tastes better to them I guess.

BarnyardEngineering · Nov 17, 2020

Reminds me of a dumb heifer we had years ago. Storm blew down a big maple tree. She went in and gorged herself on the leaves. Found her the next morning, next to the tree, stone dead and blown up like a blimp, legs sticking straight out. We contemplated trying to stand her back up on her legs. The meat wagon almost wouldn't take her as they thought she'd been dead for days. Nope, that happened less than 24 hours ago.

fixerupper · Nov 17, 2020

A hog will eat anything. I was standing in the fresh straw reaching up replacing a light bulb while the hogs were tugging at my pant legs. I accidentally dropped the old burned out bulb in the straw bur didnt reach down to pick it up until I had the new bulb screwed in. It wasnt long till I heard a pop, then a crunch, crunch, crunch. A hog was chewing up the old bulb. I dont know if the hog actually ate the bulb but it was having fun crunching it.

730virgil · Nov 17, 2020

I bed my barn with shredded paper those silly cows will munch on it doesn't matter how much hay they have in front of them.

Pigs question

jon f mn

Well-known Member

Traditional Farmer

Well-known Member

gene bender

Well-known Member

DRussell

Well-known Member

Hotflashjr

Well-known Member

cjunrau

Well-known Member

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member

HuskerLyn

Member

john in la

Well-known Member

jon f mn

Well-known Member

fusion1

Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

J. Schwiebert

Well-known Member

Determined

Well-known Member

BarnyardEngineering

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

730virgil

Well-known Member

Similar threads