Feed Efficiency

The last time we raised pigs in the winter of 2011-2012 we used 12,400 pounds of feed for 13 pigs. That's approximately 950 pound per pig to go from wean to market. It also took them 6 months to go from wean to market. This seems very inneficient! Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs (page 50) by Kelly Klober says that it takes between 650 to 750 pounds to take a pig from 40 pounds to market. Small-scale Pig Raising (page 4) by Dirk van Loon assumes 700 pounds of feed to take a pig from wean to 220 pounds. My pigs dressed out to 180 pounds which means, according to this website, that they had a live weight of approximately 250 pounds. 30 more pounds of gain would take about 100 pounds of feed. Regardless I used 100 to 200 pounds more feed that I should have needed to. Now assuming today's price of .26 per pound for feed, $26 to $54 per pig wasted times 13 pigs equals $338 to $702 wasted. Yikes! Obviously I missed the mark by a long shot so this go around I am making some changes.

So what factors lead to this inefficiency?

1. Home made feeder was letting to much feed out.

2. Pigs were standing in mud while eating so any food that hit the ground was unrecoverable

3. Feeder was not well protected from the elements so excessive food in the trough of the feeder got wet and became unpalatable.

4. Not enough bedding when raising pigs in winter so they shivered off many calories.

Wasteful feeder

In this picture you can see a couple of bad things. First, the pigs standing in the feeder to more easily reach the feed. Sometime after this picture I did put a 6"x6" landscape timber I had sitting around in front of the feeder for them to stand on. Muddy trotters in the feed trough doesn't help the feed stay fresh. Notice all the feed on the ground... and this is when it was still relatively dry out. By this point the pigs have ripped the lids off the feed trough. What a mess.

Homemade pig feeder when new

As you can see in this picture the trough had lids at one point, but the pigs were too rough with them and they ended up getting ripped off. Also note the the giant gap between bottom of the trough and bottom of the storage hopper. This let way too much feed out.

The whole picture

The flip top roof was good for filling but did not provide nearly as much protection as you might think it would!

For this round of pigs I have built a deck for them to stand so they can reach in the feeder easier and be out of the muck. The feeder is now also in the hoop house so the only moisture that can get in the trough is from the pigs bringing their wet snouts from the waterers or from condensation from the tarp that covers the hoop house.

Feeder after modifications

So here it is after modifications. I added a 2 by 6 across the bottom so now the opening is only 1 1/2 inches from the floor of the trough. With it also being 1 1/2" thick it really reduced the feed output. So much so I felt compelled to break out the sawzall and cut out some areas for increased feed to get out. A google search for adjusting pig feeders revealed these reference cards. I wish I had know to search for these earlier! I think my feeder still flows a little too freely. I will keep an eye on it and report back over the coming months. I already see some feed on the decking I built and there is some moisture from the nipple waters, but nothing like it used to be. Time will tell though as the pigs are still small!

One of the advantages of the hoop house is all the bedding involved and the heat from the composting action that should be happening by this winter. By keeping them out of the muck, and this extra warmth I hope to observe an increase in feed efficiency. Here is some research to support my "shivering off the calories" premise.  I discussed the hoop house and straw bedding at length in this blog post.

In addition to these measures I am hoping that the corn we are growing will help offset feed costs as well. It will make it harder to measure feed efficiency but will help reduce the amount of purchased feed to reach market weight.

Now for cute pig pictures...

Rooting below the straw in the deep litter bedding.

Trip to the "big" city, part two: Feed mill and history lesson

Part two of our trip to the big city was going to the feed mill. I get a little jealous of reading other blogs and people having more than one feed mill to choose from. In our area there are many feed mills but they are all owned by chicken farms. They are not available to mix pig feed for little guys who may be interested in some bulk purchases. That being said; the one independent feed mill is good to work with, but the customers would benefit if they had some competition.

When I first started finishing pigs I found a guy who owned a grinder-mixer relatively close to my house. The price was very good and I would call him up and go pick up a 1000 pound super sack of feed whenever I needed one. I think he was supplying several small time hobby farmers like myself and it worked out great!

Scoop the super sack into front end loader

Dump into home made bulk feeder

Store remainders in derelict chest freezer

When year two of pigs came around "Jim the pig feed guy" wasn't grinding grain anymore because the state found out and said he needed to get a permit and keep batch samples. The permit wasn't expensive, but he just didn't want to deal with it so he stopped.

This suddenly made raising 10 - 12 pigs, selling them and trying to make a little bit of money a lot more difficult!

Options: 1. Buy from local feed store (really expensive)
               2. Buy from feedmill (cheaper, but lots of time and gas)
               3. Get a grain bin and have it delivered by feedmill (same price as pickup, but need a 3 ton minimum.)

So in raising pigs round two we were able to go with option 3 due to the beauty of craigslist. Found this for $500.

Grain bin on trailer ready to go its new home.

Brought it home, made some footings with rebar, sonotube, and concrete to get to the point of raising it.

Push with loader, pull back with yellow strap

and the feed mill sent the truck to auger in 3 tons of pig feed.

Filling with auger

 It was a little more involved than that with some paperwork form the feed mill and learning about sonotubes and footings to figuring out how to raise it. It all worked though! It paid for itself in time and money saved.

For round two this worked great. I raised 12 pigs, got two loads of feed. 1000 pounds of feed went to each pig (very inefficient, I know. Many plans in round three to deal with that issue. future blog post)

With this great grain bin why am I going to pick up feed at the feedmill? I am trying to get my feed efficiency to the point of being able to raise each pig on 800 pounds of feed. The books say I should be able to do that. Once again, future blog post on what changes I plan on making. I am raising 10 pigs. That adds up to needing 8000 pounds of feed. Problem: 3 ton minimum from the feed mill. I don't want to buy all 8000 pounds at once Feed shouldn't sit around for 5 months, fresh is better.

My plan is to feed them 16% hog feed that I get from the feedmill in sacks for the first 2000 pounds and then, when they are bigger and eating faster, fill the grain bin with 6000 pounds of 14% to finish them.

We picked up 400 pounds today. 400 pounds fills the bulk feeder. No sales tax as feed for animals that are to be sold is tax exempt. It was $105.20. My local feed store would have charged me $139.04, sales tax included. They do not want to mess with tax exempt status paperwork. The savings was worth the gas right there and when you add in the pop cans...

My "local", independent feed mill

But you're thinking about the remaining 1600 pounds I will have to buy before I fill the grain bin. One good life change since the last round of pigs is that my daughter has violin lessons every week in the same town as the feed mill. Picking up a couple sacks each week while the pigs are small and eating slower will be easy to do and no new strain on the budget!

The feed mill seems to be running a brisk business supplying small farmers and small independent feed stores and the delivery driver has told me that he makes deliveries all over western Washington even up to Ferndale near the Canadian border and down into Oregon! I hope they don't end up going the way of Wolfkill feed (also in western Washington) as told about here by Bruce at ebeyfarm.blogspot.com. They seem to have tapped the retail market he talks about in his blog entry.

There you have it; a trip to the "big" city, farm history, micro-economics, and planning!