What is a Feeder Pig?
Feeder pigs are exclusively brought up for slaughter and bred for pork production. These are well-started young piglets that have been weaned and prolonged a feeding period of either a soft feed or a grower pellet. Generally, the feeding period range between five to six months, and it can vary due to the type of feed, breed, or any other condition. People buy young feeder piglets weighing 40 pounds or more. These piglets spending a traditional grower-feeder ratio are easy to market in many ways.
Because feeder pigs are raised for meat, their living conditions should not be miserable as feeder pigs die to earn a living or for food; it is your responsibility to offer them sufficient water, nutritious meals, shelter, space, and attention.
Feeder Pigs Vs. Butcher Pigs
Usually, both terms are used to refer to pigs that are raised for meat or slaughter. When pigs are around 220 to 160 pounds, that is a sufficient weight for slaughter. Only some breed of pig is suitable to be a feeder pig. Even though you can technically raise any feeder pig as a feeder pig, every breed is better than the best feeder pigs already identified. Therefore, let us learn which breeds are suitable to be raised as feeder pigs.
· Berkshire
· Chester
· Duroc
· Hampshire
· Hereford
· Landrace
· Meishan
· White
· Yorkshire
This list carries only a few feeder pig breeds, and you may come up with plenty of other pig breeds too. Each breed is well-known for its unique characteristics.
Some feeder pigs are specially used for bacon production or ham production. That is why selecting the feeder pig breed is essential to match your purpose. Female pigs aged four months can breed successfully. This period comes before they are slaughtered. Therefore, you must take necessary precautions to castrate male pigs if they are put with female animals. If you don’t castrate your boars, it will cause a change in flavor as the meat will give an off-putting flavor in the meat, known as boar taint.
What to Feed Pigs
The consensus is that pigs eat whatever they find, and their feeding cost is thus low. This fact is not entirely a misconception because pigs eat almost anything. However, their eating patterns and choices do not hint that they should be averagely fed or fed. The feeder pig diet contains the following food items.
- Oats
- Wheat
- Grain feeds
- Adequate water
- Amino acid-containing food
Depending on the climate, pigs should be fed and provided adequate water. Furthermore, an average pig requires two to seven pounds of feed per day which may differ according to breed, age, and weight. You can give them a good diet by adding bread, and cheese, like fresh, leafy greens, table scraps, and milk. But you must think twice before you select their diet, as refined products and meat can increase the chances of infections like ASF, of which the spread is dangerous. Whatever you feed the pig, make sure the access is not barred. You can keep automatic feeding bins and troughs that enable pigs to feed themselves whenever they are hungry.
If you do not want to keep these facilities available, you need to feed them twice or thrice a day as they need frequent meals. Two more things that your feeder pigs may love are cream and berries. Even though they are not nutritious meals, they provide a yummy treat to these animals.
How to give water to Feeder pigs?
There are several ways of giving water to pigs. No matter which way you choose, make sure you provide them with clean water and easy access to water. If you are giving water buckets, it is natural to notice playful and impatient pigs knock them over. You can prevent continuous knock-overs by putting a brick in the bottom of the bucket. To prevent them from playing with drinking water and making it dirty, you can adopt a nipple drinking system to a large barrel. However, the barrel needs refilling once or twice a week as per the Size of the herd of pigs.
Shelter for Feeder Pigs
Pigs can stay in open spaces, as well as specially designed bans. However, these feeder pigs only sometimes require a place like a barn. They can even survive in a shelter taking the form of a three-sided structure. However, pigs do not have much hair on their bodies as a lamb or a goat. Therefore, as the breeder, you must prepare arrangements to protect them from the cold or guard them against the sun.
Usually, black or brown-skinned pigs are not prone to sunburn soon. However light colored pigs are easily sunburnt and become uncomfortable when they lack shelter. This shelter also needs to serve as a clean, dry, and warm place for feeder pigs to lie down, rest or sleep.
Although there is a misconception that pigs are dirty animals, they behave differently in real life. They do not want to sleep near their manure, and they are used to keeping two separate areas to defecate and sleep, making the barn’s cleaning process easy. However, there is one logical reason why people consider pigs dirty animals, which is their love for mud. Of course, they need to play in the mud for some time. But that is not of their unclean nature, and they use mud as moisture to hydrate themselves.
Can you eat Feeder pigs?
The important thing in raising fodder pigs is to eat them. Size and age are the only major differences between fattening pigs and other types of pigs (except potbelly and miniature pigs). Do you have a marketing plan for promoting poker to local restaurants? Market or consumer? If so, earning a reputation for respecting your pigs and providing the best possible environment for all farm animals will help your business.
Conclusion
Feeder pigs are typically purchased for around euro 40. Or more! They can reach full size in about 4-6 months, from 40 pounds to about 250 pounds. Some slaughter feeder pigs weighing even less than 250 pounds, while others wait until they are older to get heavier (even fatter) carcasses.
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