So, all the experimenting and testing that we got to do with all our other projects, we now get to do with the pigs! Only a few days into having these critters around, and I'm already in love.
This morning I stayed and talked to my friend in the parking lot after work, so I was a tad later than usual getting home. The boys were up. I call the pigs the boys right now because they don't have names yet. I love sitting with them, and they're getting comfortable with me now. Either that or they want to eat me...
One likes to play around. He likes pats and rubs, and horses around a bit. The other, when I reach out, trips over himself to not get patted. He actually ran into a little hackberry tree running away, it was pretty funny to see. Poor little clumsy fella, he'll get friendlier.
This little piggy played games!
The playful one keeps trying to taste test my boots. I guess the factory smell just smells so tasty? Who knows? I won't be going in there barefoot, just in case it's my toes that smell tasty...
They still haven't touched their pig feed, and they look like they've lost a bit of weight. Being weaners, I kind of expected a bit of weight loss, but for some reason I was more concerned this morning. They weren't lethargic or anything, they're plenty active, vocal, and playful, but I wanted to try something. The feed they'd been on at the farm was a soy free, non-gmo, peanut based feed, and the only feed they had at the feed store I went to was soy based. It makes me happy that they rejected the soy crap as "not food-worthy," but it was bought in a pinch until I could get some of the stuff they're used to. Y'all know me, I hate the idea of feeding my critters soy. Speaking of which, it doesn't outright say soy on the lable, it just says "plant protein." Sneaky move, big ag, I see you.
The farmer said in a community chat we're in how, in a pinch on the farm, he would use chicken feed for the pigs or pig feed for the chickens, and that gave me the idea to see if it'd work. Chicken feed isn't nutritionally balanced for pigs and vice versa, but if it'll buy me a few days, I'll take it. I'll be going in a week to pick up half a ton of the good stuff that they're used to eating, it's only $210 for half a ton, and the manufacturer says it's good for six months in a barrel out of the heat and sun. I'll store it in the apartment to keep it safe from the elements, and it shouldn't get near the six month point, being half of what we'll need before harvest in December or January, eight months away. I don't want the whole ton though. A half ton is pretty affordable considering what it is. $210 for half the feed to raise out what'll be a very good amount of pork is a heck of a deal.
Pigs seeing if they like comfrey... The don't like comfrey.
Our comfrey is booming, and I'm about to start harvesting it regularly for rabbit feed, along with fresh green mulberry growth. I figured since it's a fodder plant that I'd offer some to the pigs, and they rummaged through it and went back to digging worms. Fair enough boys, message received. I guess it's just as well, since pigs digest similarly to humans, and too much comfrey can be toxic to humans. It's not an issue with rabbits since they're rodent herbivores that digest much differently than pigs and humans.
They like chicken feed more than soy based pig feed or comfrey.
The rabbits are kicking right along with all the plants on the wagon too. I need to find a way to store all this yard hay in a way that it won't compost. Anyone know how to make hay with a bagging mower? It's good in the pile for a day or two, but the rest is pretty well composted soon after that, and I doubt it has a ton of nutritional value for the rabbits... Or does it? I'm new to Urban hay farming, so I don't know how any of this goes lol
I've heard pigs like to eat beans. Glad I planted so many bean trees this year, I think I'll look for a way to plant even more. Perhaps I'll go harvest some bamboo poles again and trellis them like @bobydimitrov does... Maybe work that next half ton of feed down even less...
Well, I'm gonna call that a post in the name of actually getting it out on schedule for once this week. It's been a heck of a week with my morale being pretty damn low. Yesterday I had a panic attack for three hours thinking about some issues I may share about later. It was really great, definitely will be partaking in the anxiety again 🤣
Anyways, love from Texas
Nate 💚
It's a very funny post! You've reminded me of the time I had my toenails painted a bright red, and went out to the chickens. They thought my toes were bright red cherries. I got my exercise that day, hopping around in the chicken yard.
The playful one seems to know the drill! "If only I can get them to love me, maybe I won't be eaten."
$210 does seem like a great deal on feed!
That's not a good price? Soy free non GMO feed comes at a premium usually. For half a ton of the crappy soy based feed I bought the first time, it'd cost nearly $400.
Right! I wish I could find some good non GMO chicken feed that cheap!
Check your local feed mill. That's what I'm doing, and I'm kicking myself for taking so long to do it.
Come to Texas 😍
Actually, yes come to Texas and become part of my local economy. I think everyone should do this because yes. lol
I think you've got an awesome thing going there! I'm a bit of an introverted loner, but you're kind of inspiring me to get out in the community a little bit and make some local connections.
If you do, make a post about it and tag me so I don't miss it! That's the best news ever.
The important thing for pigs is lysine. Without sufficient lysine, they do not grow well. Dairy provides lysine, which is why people will take whey from cheese operations to feed out. Eggs are another source but should be cooked before feeding, to double the available protein.
Pumpkins, apples, beets, turnips, kale, rape, sunflowers, sunchokes are all good to feed. One can feed hay or pasture, but a lysine source must be provided.
Regarding mowed grass, it must be dried in the sun, and turned often while drying. You'd have less work scything it. It would dry and store better.
And if the food you are buying by the half ton is broken grain, that seller is trying to make a sale, not provide nutrition....no wonder it's cheap. One gets what one pays for... remember GIGO.... You want good food and healthy pigs, it's not cheap.
What's GIGO? I've got other community guys I can split the half ton of feed with actually. That'd keep it fresher for both of us if we each split up the half ton between us.
Excellent to hear about whey and dairy! I hope to make more cheese this year, so that'll be awesome to have a solid consistent use for the whey. That'll help me stay motivated to actually make more cheese. Is it just poured over their feed or added in a separate dish as a drink?
Wouldn't a scythe need to be used on taller grass, or does it work well on the short stuff too?
I've got pumpkin seeds in the ground, beet seeds coming this weekend, I found that farmer Sam stole a bunch of sunchokes and thankfully planted them all over. How do they like their sunflowers? We've got tons coming up, do I just toss em the dried flower?
GIGO is garbage in, garbage out. Don't expect a nice outcome if you start with shit inputs.
Still, I'd argue that a home raised pig on such a diet would be immensely better than a factory farmed one. I'm just not a perfectionist, as we don't live in a perfect world.
Also, traditionally raised pigs here had no lysine supplements but they managed somehow... for a few thousand years... Sorry it's in Bulgarian, use google translate: https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%B7%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D1%81%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8F
If you do have whey though, that's great. Our grandparents of course raised "yard pigs" and their daily food was whatever grains they had soaked with whey. Another thing was the pumpkin. Here pumpkins were not eaten by people until very recently, I'd say 60-80 years ago. They were grown as a well storing fodder crop. This kind:
Re: yard hay, mow it, dump the bucket on the front lawn and spread it around to dry. Turn in a couple of days. Has to be thoroughly dry. And you'll need a hay shed ;) YT videos of small scale haymaking would help.
Yes! Pumpkins! I'll be planting a load of winter squash shortly, likely all over the front yard and all in the sharing garden. I've planted copious amounts of summer squash already, and these kinds of foods are going to make up a lot of their diet. Squash, peas, beets, and melons.
How long did you soak their daily grains in whey? Was it an overnight fermentation, or just a daily case of fill a trough and add the whey?
BOBBY IM SO EXCITED, DID YOU SEE THAT I HAVE PIGS? I GET TO LEARN ABOUT PIGS NOW.
I'm reading every post - matter of fact I figured the Boys have already eaten you whole, with no posts in the last few days... I was beginning to pen a letter via regular post to Melissa, no other point of contact! :D :D :D
Re: whey, they just mixed it in the morning and gave it about lunch time. Usually the early food were some quickly gathered greens and late in the afternoon was scythed nettles, or a few baskets of purslane or other weeds. But I figure some overnight soaking won't hurt and might make the morning routine a bit easier.
Yessir, that's not entirely far from the truth! They tried to eat my boots today, hungry little buggers. My pants too!
I started my first batch of cheese for the year. I haven't had much to post about, but I'm working on one now.