Vet on Call: Simplified guide to feeding pigs

George is a computer specialist, but he likes pig rearing for the love of farming and additional income.

Recently, he asked me why his pigs eat a lot of food but they do not grow according to his expectations.

“It is taking me up to nine months for the pigs to attain slaughter weight. The situation is very expensive,” he lamented.

Upon probing, he said he was feeding the pigs on vegetable waste and restaurant left overs. The leftovers are technically called swill.

“George, just as in computing, garbage in, garbage out (Gigo) principle applies in pig farming.”

Give the pigs poor feeds and they will give you back poor returns.

Gigo reminds us that if you input bad commands into a computer, it will equally give you bad results.

George’s enquiry aside, I have over the last few weeks got calls from farmers, especially from Rift Valley, western and central Kenya on optimum output from pigs and whether it is economical to produce own feeds on the farm.

Peter from Embu, for instance, wanted to know how much feed mature and young pigs require daily and in how many portions to grow profitably.

He also wanted advice on how to judge if his pigs were growing well. Peter said he was feeding his adult pigs on 1kg sow and weaner, 1 kilo maize germ and unquantified cabbage waste and swill.

Today, I will discuss the feeding of pigs for profitable production.

Pigs are simple stomach animals close to humans.

Unlike cattle and other ruminants, pigs require nutritious feeds because they are not able to manufacture nutrients from roughage and chemicals such as urea.

The difference is because simple stomach animals lack fermentation chambers for converting low quality feed into nutritious proteins.

ENSURING PROPER NUTRITION
Pigs generally require feed with sufficient nutrients for growth, milk production, body maintenance and reproduction.

Growth, which is measured by the increase in weight at different ages, is a major indicator of performance in pig production.

This is followed by reproduction which is demonstrated by the ability of female pigs to get on heat at seven months and within a week of weaning piglets, the ability to carry pregnancy to term and giving birth to at least 10 healthy piglets.

The piglets should all survive to become weaners.

Boars or the male pigs should have the reproductive ability to mate sows and deliver large piglets litters free of genetic defects.

In the Kenyan situation, farmers have free access to pig breeds of good genetic makeup mainly the Landrace, Large white and mixed breeds of the two.

Thus a farmer’s main challenge in profitable pig farming is ensuring proper nutrition and feeding of the pigs.

Let us start with the question whether feeding vegetable waste and swill is a good idea for profitable pig farming.

My answer is no because the nutritional content of the feed is unknown.

Further, such feed is a source of infections and is also accompanied by foul smell that is an environmental nuisance.

Lastly, the pigs spend a lot of valuable body energy resources trying to digest the feed and sorting out what is important to the body and what is unusable.

A good pig feed should be scientifically formulated by an animal nutritionist. It should contain sufficient energy from carbohydrates and oils, proteins, vitamins and minerals.

In addition to good quality feeds, pigs should be given sufficient quantities of water that they should drink at will.

When pigs fail to get sufficient water, they eat less feed and utilize nutrients poorly.

Such pigs will perform poorly in growth, body maintenance and reproduction.

Pigs are fed according to their age, weight and status of reproduction.

FEEDING PIGS

Dry sows and gilts should be fed 2.5kg a day of sow and weaner meal before they are mated.

Those being prepared for mating should be given an extra kilo per day one week before mating and one week after service.

This helps in ensuring maximum fertility. Lactating sows should get 2.5kg of sow and weaner meal for maintenance and 0.25kg a day extra for each piglet being suckled.

Boars should get 2kg a day of sow and weaner meal. If the boar is regularly used, the amount should be increased to 2.5kg.

Creep pellets or starter diet, which has the highest protein concentration, are given to piglets at 0.5 to 1kg for each piglet per day from day seven up to the weaning time of 21 days.

The feed should be mixed with sow and weaner meal the last one week before weaning.

Growing and finishing pigs weaned at 3 to 5 weeks at 11 – 13kg body weight should continue being fed on the starter diet until they reach 18kg live weight.

Pigs weaned at seven weeks or older may be switched gradually to sow and weaner diet.

Farmers should aim at weaning their pigs at 21 to 35 days to maximize growth performance and the mothers’ productivity.

Sow and weaner diet may be given to piglets where creep feed is not available.

Where post-weaning diarrhoea is a major problem, restricted feeding during the first week after weaning may reduce the incidents of the diarrhoea.

For growing or finishing pigs, all ration changes should be made gradually.

If this is not possible, the feeding level of the new diet should be low until the pigs become accustomed to it.

Growing pigs, technically called growers, are fed growers’ meal while the pigs getting ready for slaughter, called finishers, are given the finishers’ meal.

STICK TO HIGH QUALITY COMMERCIAL FEEDS

The daily feed ration for pigs should be divided into two portions given at regular intervals.

This allows the pigs to eat and get sufficient time for adequate sleep in between the meals. That sleep time is important for proper growth of the animals.

While a farmer may feed their pigs properly, the value may be lost to situations that rob the animals of energy and other nutrient resources, thereby causing poor performance.

These include external and internal parasites, diseases or loud noises that keep the pigs active throughout.

Farmers should ensure that pigs are dewormed regularly with suitable medicines that remove all types of worms.

The pigs should be washed frequently with suitable external chemicals and the pigsties should be kept free of biting and crawling insects.

The most problematic external parasites of pigs are mites, ticks, fleas and lice.

Fortunately, all are well controlled with easy-to-use and readily available chemicals.

The chemicals can be obtained from agrovet shops and have clear instructions for use.

Farmers should have diligent disease control programmes agreed upon with their veterinary services providers.

Such programmes should be periodically evaluated based on the production performance of the pigs and the frequency of illnesses on the farm.

In a nut shell, pig farmers should stick to high quality commercial feeds and only make their own feeds if they have large enough pig herds to meet the cost of feed production.

My advice is that should a farmer wish to produce their own feeds, then they must farm pigs in thousands not hundreds.