Waiting to be fed -Girl (l) & Boy (r) 1-2-12
Well the pigs turned 5 months old yesterday. They are doing good. I've gotten much better over the last month going into the pen. Jamie said that pigs are like dogs, they can sense your fear. So now I try to calm myself down and be confident before entering the pig pen. It's made such a difference.
I actually was the one to tape measure them this time. The girl now weighs 136lbs which is a gain of 16lbs and the boy weighs 116lbs with a gain of 15lbs. I'm a little disappointed with the amount of growth they had for the past month even with the increase in food we do when they turn another month old. The weight gain wasn't as much as it has been in the past months.
Boy pig -I'm just waiting for him to get over this board one day 1-2-12
We have taken some advice from a friend who knows a bit about pigs. We are going to finish up the pig grower feed we have them on now and switch to corn. There are two reasons for this. Reason one is corn is suppose to help with the taste of the pigs when it's time to butcher them. We were told at the feed store to start them on corn about a month before butcher time. Reason number 2 is because corn is less expensive then pig grower feed. We can get a bag of corn for about $8 a bag, the pig grower feed was about $13 a bag. We were told at the feed store to soak the corn in water for a few days and the pigs will go crazy for it.
We also bought another feed dish so the pigs will each have their own dish to eat from and aren't sharing anymore. We have noticed that when the food gets low in the dish the pigs start pushing each other to get the last bit. Hopefully the separate dishes will resolve this problem and help with the weight gain.
The pigs are still getting whey when I make cheese and any leftovers we have too.
Girl pig saying hello 1-2-12
Hopefully with changing the feed and of course increasing the amount since they are another month older we will see an increase in their weight. I am thinking we may need to keep them longer than 6 months unless they have a sudden growth spurt.
Jamie with the pigs, girl (l) & boy (r) 1-2-12
Everyone keeps telling me we should get a pig or two in the spring to feed our extra milk to, then butcher it in the fall. But I just don't LIKE pigs. And the only pork I eat is bacon. So I'm not sure the effort would be worth it. The only pigs i have ever really been around screamed like you were killing them every time you had to do ANYTHING with them and that noise they make just grates on my nerves.
ReplyDeleteMine aren't too bad with screeching, they only do that if they touch the electric fence They of course make the grunting noise alot. We got ours back in September, my goat was in milk from sept. to about a week ago. So we were able to feed the pigs extra milk. We decided to do our pigs in the winter to keep down on the smell. But I don't think the smell will be such an issue since I have learned that they always go the bathroom in the same place so as long as you keep that area cleaned out often there really isn't any smell at all. We love pork, ham and such. Waiting to try fresh pork though they say it tastes different. Hopefully we all like it :), I do have to comment that the pigs have been the easiest animal as far as upkeep that we have had yet. We also have laying hens and meat chickens and goats.
ReplyDelete