Does anyone have experience with feeding milk to pigs?
I have been feeding my sows milk from the local dairy since December
1st.
This really put the condition on them after their getting sow milked
down
in the late fall and they look great. I bred them, er, I mean the boar
bred them,
in early January and they're all looking quite piggy, that is to say in
a motherly
sort of way. I expect they'll farrow the end of April.
I was talking with a farmer in the next valley over who also feeds milk
to his
pigs, from the same dairy and he's been doing it for the last 13 years.
He said
that for the final month of gestation he takes them off the milk and
puts them
on grain and water to avoid their breasts getting caked up and loosing
the
litter to lack of milk production. He had this happen with the first
farrowing
after he started feeding milk to the sows years ago and says he has
avoided
it happening again by the switch to grain for the last month of
pregnancy.
One very big difference between his operation and ours is that his sows
are
crated while ours are pastured. His are quite, shall I say it politely,
rotund.
I would go as far to say as they look like pigs and are quite over
weight.
My question is do you think that the milk is making his sows get
mastitis
or do you think that it is their inactivity or do you think that it is
simply
an incidental thing that happened to have occurred coincidentally with
when he started feeding milk to the sows?
Thank you,
Walter
in Vermont
Spark: Sow and Cow are only half a letter different.
Spark: Slaughter and Laughter are only one letter different.
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