Homemade Hog Feed

I want to start by reminding everyone who might read this blog that I am in no way an expert on swine nutrition, nor do I profess to understand nutritional values of common foods (for that matter, I'm shakey on the math involved in the whole process as well).  With that said, I have been trying to find a way to feed our pigs whole foods instead of store bought grains.  Here is the stream of consiciousness that I have been processing...

We know that pigs need a varied diet.  They are not garbage disposals and will not perform well if fed incorrectly.  At our house, we only feed our pigs scraps that came right off the table and are still basically edible to humans.  We don't buy hog racks of day old bread because we like to have a lean pig at the time of butcher and we don't want our breeding stock to get fat because it inhibits their reproductive abilities.  Grocery stores tend to recycle their produce cullings through the store now, so we don't really have that as an option either.

So, I also know that the pig feed we buy contains about 19% protein, a variety of vitamins and minerals, and a source of amino acids.  In doing research, I found someone that said they need about 1800 calories per day.  I would guess that nursing, pregnant, or growing pigs need more.  The percentages I encountered suggested 50% energy (calories), 20% protein, and 30% vitamins and minerals.  When I look at the "Sow and Pig Complete" bag, I have 16% protein, 2.5% fat, 7.2% fiber and the rest is vitamins and minerals - so about 74.3%.  I'm not exactly sure where the "energy" comes from.  There is no calorie count on the pig feed.  So my assumption is that the fat and fiber content will somewhat imply the caloric intake and it must be enough to sustain pigs, because mine do very well on it.

When I started looking for homemade pig feed recipes, I found some suggestions, but nothing that talked about numbers, percentages, or amounts.  So I had to create it myself.  I made a list of the items that seemed to be common on most pig feed lists and added dairy for the amino acids (something that most "recipes" seemed to lack).  The following is a list, including calories, carbohydrates, and proteins for my first recipe attempt.  I cannot seem to get the chart to show in the blog, so this is in a list format instead.

Pinto beans, 1 lb, 1560 cal,  286g carbs,  91g protein,  Lysine, $1.50

Oats, 1 lb, 844 cal,  152g carbs, 28g protein, Carbs, $2.50

Carrots, 1 lb, 182 cal, 42g carbs, 3.5g protein, Vitamin A, $0.53

Squash, 1 lb, 117 cal, 31g carbs, 3.9g protein, Vitamin A, $0.99

Cottage Cheese, 1 lb, 790 cal, 39.5g carbs, 110.6g protein, Amino Acids, Vitamin D, Calcium, $1.25

Cabbage, 1 lb, 112 cal, 25.5g carbs, 5.1g protein, Vitamin C, $0.79

Broccoli, 1 lb, 152 cal, 29g carbs, 15g protein, Vitamin C, Iron, $1.99

Totals: 7 lbs of feed, 3757 calories, 605g carbs,  257.1g protein, $9.55

Ok.  3757 calories is too much for one feeding, so we need to break that down a bit.  But the percentages of carbs and proteins are about right (60.5% carbs and 25.7% proteins).  So if I divide the total in half, I end up with the same ratio of carbs and proteins, but fewer calories...1878.5 calories to be exact.  Just about right for the 1800 calorie per day requirement.  I don't have any way to determine the percentage of vitamins and minerals, but I know that I have a variety, so I'm gonna hope that I have a bit of everything.

In the end, this is the recipe I came up with:

.5lb uncooked pinto beans (cook them after you measure)
.5lb whole oats (like for cereal - don't worry about cooking them)
.5lb raw carrots
.5lb raw winter squash (acorn, pumpkin, or butternut have the most meat)
.5lb raw cabbage
.5lb raw broccoli
.5lb 2% cottage cheese

This makes enough feed for one hog for one day.  If you have nursing, pregnant or growing hogs, I would increase the cottage cheese and oats to 1lb per day each.  That will add another 817 calories, 95.75g carbs, and 69.3g of protein. The ratio of carbs and proteins will be different, but this group of pigs (nursig, pregnant, and growing) can easily use the added protein.

In addition to this recipe for daily meals, I would include grass hay and the occassional apples (mainly as treats).  You could add variety by purchasing the veggies that are on sale or are in season, but you need to make sure that you are including all of the big vitamin/mineral needs - A, C, D, iron.  Always include dairy and beans for amino acids.  I looked at whole milk, but cottage cheese gives you more bang for your buck - milk is almost ten times lower in protein content than cottage cheese and about a third of the calories.

I will be trying this recipe out with my piggies today.  It certainly costs a bit more than our average feed costs now, but in the summer, it might be offset with the produce that we grow ourselves.