Finishing pigs to #1s

[JMJ Farms]

There used to be hogs in every branch around these parts. Everybody had hogs. Bc they’ve been gone so long I don’t know the best, most current way to finish them. I’ve got a friend that raises show pigs. I’m gonna get 5 or so that don’t make the cut around the end of October and finish them out for myself and hopefully a few customers. If not I will give them to my friends and family. They will be around 100lb when I get them. Plan to carry them to around 250 lbs in 75-90 days. Is ground corn w/ meal/premix still the most economical way to finish them? I figure bag feeding will be too expensive. I’m all ears and I appreciate any advice offered.

 

[Jogeephus]

When I raised pigs for meat my base was a ration like you describe but I also fed them lots of peanuts I got free from screenings and whole corn (cheap) and I had a source of fajitas and tacos which were expired and peanut butter. All these other things just lowered my production costs though I'm sure a good bulk mix feed probably would have done better growthwise but the pigs seemed to like the assortment and got pretty fat.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I'm sure a good bulk mix feed probably would have done better growth wise, but the pigs seemed to like the assortment and got pretty fat.

So lean mean ranchin machines should stay away from Mexican food? :nod:

 

[ez14.]

No way are you bringing them to butcher weight that fast. No way no how

150 pounds in 90 days is about 1.66 lb a day of gain. He could come pretty close

I'd look for waste milk to give them

 

[Stocker Steve]

I'd look for waste milk to give them

How does old timy milk feed pork finish and taste?

 

[1982vett]

No way are you bringing them to butcher weight that fast. No way no how

I know I’ve forgotten a lot about hogs in the last 30 years and may not be using the correct feed conversion, and definitly the genetics are different, but it’s converting at 2 lbs, in 90 days it should weigh @280....heck, it’s already 100 lbs...

 

[JMJ Farms]

No way are you bringing them to butcher weight that fast. No way no how

150 pounds in 90 days is about 1.66 lb a day of gain. He could come pretty close

I'd look for waste milk to give them

Slim chance of finding waste milk here EZ. Dairies around here are like hens teeth. Nonexistent.

 

[JMJ Farms]

No way are you bringing them to butcher weight that fast. No way no how

I know I’ve forgotten a lot about hogs in the last 30 years and may not be using the correct feed conversion, and definitly the genetics are different, but it’s converting at 2 lbs, in 90 days it should weigh @280....heck, it’s already 100 lbs...

I know for sure that they are capable of gaining more than 2 lbs a day if they are on high powered feed, but it’s cost prohibitive to feed to a butcher hog because high powered equals high priced. These pigs are far from swampers. They have very good genetics. I figure on a good 16-18% ration for the first 45 days and then maybe a 14-15% for the next 45 days I should at least be able to hit 1.66 lbs/day.

Grinding your own feed used to be the most feasible way and judging by the responses so far, probably still is unless you can utilize some cheap byproducts. I will do some digging to see if I can find any that someone else doesn’t already have locked down. Peanut culls would be good during September but around here most of the farmers get there own culls back to feed to feed and wild hogs.

 

[1982vett]

No way are you bringing them to butcher weight that fast. No way no how

I know I’ve forgotten a lot about hogs in the last 30 years and may not be using the correct feed conversion, and definitly the genetics are different, but it’s converting at 2 lbs, in 90 days it should weigh @280....heck, it’s already 100 lbs...

I know for sure that they are capable of gaining more than 2 lbs a day if they are on high powered feed, but it’s cost prohibitive to feed to a butcher hog because high powered equals high priced. These pigs are far from swampers. They have very good genetics. I figure on a good 16-18% ration for the first 45 days and then maybe a 14-15% for the next 45 days I should at least be able to hit 1.66 lbs/day.

Grinding your own feed used to be the most feasible way and judging by the responses so far, probably still is unless you can utilize some cheap byproducts. I will do some digging to see if I can find any that someone else doesn’t already have locked down. Peanut culls would be good during September but around here most of the farmers get there own culls back to feed to feed and wild hogs.

We used to mix 1700 lbs milo with 300 lbs soybean meal to finish. Most everyone liked to use corn for the last mont or so for their own butcher hogs but Dad didn’t always do that.

Texasbred will have to correct me but I think tat was about a 14% mix.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

What's the color of most of his pigs?

 

[JMJ Farms]

What's the color of most of his pigs?

He’s got about 40 sows, little of this and that. Yorkshires, durocs, and some listed (hampshire) sows and a couple of teaser boars. AI breeds everything. Im gonna buy some blue butts from him.

 

[ez14.]

I'd look for waste milk to give them

How does old timy milk feed pork finish and taste?

Have had some milk fed pork, and I always thought it was pretty good! But sky would be the best person to ask about that

 

[JMJ Farms]

No way are you bringing them to butcher weight that fast. No way no how

150 pounds in 90 days is about 1.66 lb a day of gain. He could come pretty close

I'd look for waste milk to give them

Slim chance of finding waste milk here EZ. Dairies around here are like hens teeth. Nonexistent.

On another note, IF I were to find some waste milk, what kind of tips do you have on transporting, storage, and feeding techniques, amounts, quantities etc?

 

[ez14.]

150 pounds in 90 days is about 1.66 lb a day of gain. He could come pretty close

I'd look for waste milk to give them

Slim chance of finding waste milk here EZ. Dairies around here are like hens teeth. Nonexistent.

On another note, IF I were to find some waste milk, what kind of tips do you have on transporting, storage, and feeding techniques, amounts, quantities etc?

sky could definitely answer these questions better then me! But I would look for 15 gallon drums with the tops so you can seal them up and drive them home in the back of the truck, or 5 gallon buckets with lids. For feeding I'd just mix it with their feed to make a slop (you would have to experiment with the amounts) and storage depends on how hot it is but sour milk should be just fine

 

[sim.-ang.king]

What's the color of most of his pigs?

He’s got about 40 sows, little of this and that. Yorkshires, durocs, and some listed (hampshire) sows and a couple of teaser boars. AI breeds everything. Im gonna buy some blue butts from him.

100 pound Yorkx ought to make it to 250 in 60 days with a good meal feed. Corn and SBM is pretty cheap right now, so unless you can get waste or by-products for free, it's gonna be hard to beat meal feed (cost:gain wise). Waste can stretch out your days on feed, but is a good cheap supplement.

 

[JMJ Farms]

What's the color of most of his pigs?

He’s got about 40 sows, little of this and that. Yorkshires, durocs, and some listed (hampshire) sows and a couple of teaser boars. AI breeds everything. Im gonna buy some blue butts from him.

100 pound Yorkx ought to make it to 250 in 60 days with a good meal feed. Corn and SBM is pretty cheap right now, so unless you can get waste or by-products for free, it's gonna be hard to beat meal feed (cost:gain wise). Waste can stretch out your days on feed, but is a good cheap supplement.

Roger that. Kinda what I was thinking but it’s been a long time since I’ve been around this game. I’m gonna try it and I will post the results. What’s the worst that could happen :tiphat:

 

[greybeard]

A hog story...
Dad raised a pen of hogs decades ago, mostly on old bread and 30 gal trashcans full of leftovers from a local restaurant he had a deal with, plus he mixed up slop made from 'shorts'. Dad paid about $5 for every trashcan full. I came home from overseas for 30 days leave and every night we ate at that place and after supper, drove around back and loaded those trash cans full of leftovers. I don't know how that guy stayed in business. Every week for the whole month I was home, we ended up picking out 10-20 metal forks, knives, spoons out of the slop and every once in a while, one of those big metal serving spoons. After Dad died in '07, and I cleaned up his place, I found a 5 gal bucket full of that restaurant silverware.
I think Dad finished them on corn..not sure as I had to go back overseas at the end of my 30 days leave.

 

[willow bottom]

There used to be hogs in every branch around these parts. Everybody had hogs. Bc they’ve been gone so long I don’t know the best, most current way to finish them. I’ve got a friend that raises show pigs. I’m gonna get 5 or so that don’t make the cut around the end of October and finish them out for myself and hopefully a few customers. If not I will give them to my friends and family. They will be around 100lb when I get them. Plan to carry them to around 250 lbs in 75-90 days. Is ground corn w/ meal/premix still the most economical way to finish them? I figure bag feeding will be too expensive. I’m all ears and I appreciate any advice offered.

Whats your goal profit per hog?

 

[skyhightree1]

There used to be hogs in every branch around these parts. Everybody had hogs. Bc they’ve been gone so long I don’t know the best, most current way to finish them. I’ve got a friend that raises show pigs. I’m gonna get 5 or so that don’t make the cut around the end of October and finish them out for myself and hopefully a few customers. If not I will give them to my friends and family. They will be around 100lb when I get them. Plan to carry them to around 250 lbs in 75-90 days. Is ground corn w/ meal/premix still the most economical way to finish them? I figure bag feeding will be too expensive. I’m all ears and I appreciate any advice offered.

JMJ I am no expert by any means lately I have been raising around 100+ a year.. I can tell you this its not impossible for what you want to do if you have the right breed and good genetics... I prefer Yorkshires but I buy whatever is cheap and some pig breeds just grow slowly. I get the best performance out of Yorkshires. If you can get milk mix it in the feed is what I do. I also put it in troughs I was getting 7000 gallons a week now its about that per month. I feed a lot of bread brewers grain some veggies corn rarely I have very lil costs involved in pigs. If you want the pigs to grow fast and big always have more than 1 as they compete on who can eat the most and 2 NEVER LET THEM HAVE A EMPTY FEED TROUGH if you have any questions I will try to guide you as much as I can.

 

[skyhightree1]

One more thing if your pigs are wormy they wont do jack nothing so be sure to worm them good