Alternative Feed Experiments

I've run a few experiments so far. We raise Potbellied Pigs, almost pure bloods, likely heavy on the Leah import line. We've tested out various diets  including:

1. Commercial corn/soy-based
2. Cheap sweet feed
3. Cheap all-stock
4. Dry corn
5. Kitchen slop only
6. Fermented corn only
7. Fermented corn w/grass
8. Fermented corn/oats
9. Fermented corn/oats w/ tree fodder
10. Fermented corn/oats w/ sugar beet
11. Fermented oats
12. Fermented oats w/ grass
13. Fermented oats w/ tree fodder
14. Jerusalem Artichokes only
15. Mangels with corn and sunflower heads
16. Sugar beet with fermented corn
17. Fermented corn with sugar beet and sunflower heads
18. Dry corn with sunflower heads
19. Fermented corn/oats with Jerusalem Artichokes and grass
20. Fermented Jerusalem Artichoke with grass
21. Fermented sugar beet only (just the root)
22. Fermented corn/oats with roasted soybean
23. Fermented oats/corn with tree fodder/grass blend and biochar
24. Fermented oats with tree fodder/grass blend and biochar.
25. Standing corn with field squash and tomatoes
26. Fermented corn/oats with farmer's market toss-outs (mostly lettuce and tomatoes

"When I say grass, I mean a random assortment of grass and weeds from my pasture. A lot of Bermuda grass, chicory, burdock, and lambsquarter. The tree fodder is a mix of black oak, red maple, beech, elm, and wild cherry leaves.

The point of my trials is to use what's cheap or that I can produce, raise healthy vibrant animals both short and long-term, and to have a cheaper and more sustainable product. So far, my favorites have been 9, 10, 23, 24, and 26 for warm weather. For winter months, 6, 10, 11, 17, and 22 helped the animals keep their condition best. That goes for both growers and our breeding stock. The worst were 4 and 14. It's interesting to note that most of the trials equaled or bested the performance of the control, regular commercial hog feed.

When vegetation is the primary ingredient, they need more food and older pigs do better on it. When fermented, the grain seems to have ample protein for the breed. The commercial feed fattened them the quickest, especially after 5 months old. They got a bit too far for good health. When feeding a raw grain diet (including the commercial feed) the adults get fat fast, or I restricted the feed quite a bit and they never felt quite full. That caused them to break out more often. Offering grass filled their bellies and made them happy.

Additional findings:
Fermented grain greatly reduced the smell of manure.
Green fodder greatly reduced the smell of manure.
Jerusalem artichoke reduced the smell of manure.
Adding biochar may have reduced the smell of manure.

I know this is just an overview and it would have been better if I took more detailed notes, but it's still a very useful general overview. I want to experiment with silage in the future.

Thank you for sharing this!    
Can you tell us more about #10?
Specifically,  are all three components fermented, and also, what kind of fermentation is happening?
I would expect  yeasts and actobacter to dominate, but lacto fermentation is usually what is touted as best.

William Bronson wrote:Thank you for sharing this!    
Can you tell us more about #10?
Specifically,  are all three components fermented, and also, what kind of fermentation is happening?
I would expect  yeasts and actobacter to dominate, but lacto fermentation is usually what is touted as best.

I tried fermenting just the grain, and fermenting the grain/root mix. Everything was fermented in only water, without any other additions. This was last fall and in winter so we did the fermentation indoors. Room temperature was around 65 degrees fahrenheit.
I'm not positive about the fermentation type, but I observed a few things.

The grain by itself ferments rapidly, presumably through yeast and bacteria. It went fizzy/carbonated in about 24 hours. After about 3 days, it slows down carbonation and starts to sour a bit. That's when I used it, but before it was very sour. The beets by themselves, I let them fermented through what I assume to be lactic fermentation because it didn't smell like acetic acid. I did have one batch that soured (smelled like vinegar).

Together at inclusion rates over 10 percent of root to grain, it didn't get quite as fizzy quite as fast. No acetic smell though. I took it to be a combination lactic and yeast fermentation. I mixed up to 50:50 grain/sugar beet root. This was all done in plastic 5-gallon buckets that were not rinsed between batches.

Great experiment!

Our best tasting pigs have been fed diets heavy in meat. It results in a richer tasting pork vs just using commercial feed.  One year I got a bunch of meat heavy leftover food from a retreat center.  Sadly, that ended.  Last year’s pig got excess fat, organs, and gristle from the beef we butchered.  We cook the organs(usually the lungs, liver, and pancreas)  and dice or grind them so the pig can consume them readily, and I try not to feed more than the pig can consume quickly, so the feed doesn’t putrefy.  

I’ve got 6 grassfed lambs to butcher this year, and hopefully we will get a few deer.  Probably the closest we are going to come to homegrown pig feed until the chestnut trees start putting on.  I identified a couple of mature chestnuts around town this spring that I am hoping to glean when the nuts are ready.  We also feed eastern filberts.  I’d love to try acorns, but I haven’t run into any large mast crops yet.

I’d like to hear more about #25. Do you think you could add something like peanuts or other legume to balance it out a bit more?