Homesteading - I Love a Red Head...

Yesterday we decided to move some of our younger red wattle ladies that we decided to keep for next seasons breeding. These two ladies were so happy to get into their new pen that has been empty for a month now so it has gotten a nice amount of growth. We always get lots of corn and other plants like sunflowers that grow in our pens after rotation since it is left over seeds that get turned over into the ground from the fodder we feed our livestock.

Many people have told me that they have tried to feed whole corn to their hogs but they just pass it all out and don't digest it. If you soak the corn for a day or two or even sometimes four days depending on how dried out the corn was before it was harvested then it will not only soften up but it will also swell increasing your feed stock around 25% in weight and mass. This will allow the livestock to eat and also digest the corn better. It also helps if you feed with a filler to slow down digestion and give them more time for absorption. We usually feed perennial peanut hay before feeding fodder or grain since the hay in their belly will slow down the digestion of the grain or fresh fodder and give you more bang for your buck instead of the feed passing right threw them.

It will take them a little over a week to eat this down and we will cut them down to one feeding a day instead of two allowing them to forage what is around. Once the pen has been eaten down in a week or so we will go back and increase feeding to twice a day and get ready to move them to a new area. We feed twice a day with our livestock especially the hogs because hogs will get ulcers on an empty stomach and it has also worked better for us feeding two smaller feedings then one large feeding. This allows anyone that may miss a meal another chance to eat later in the day. This has worked well to keep weight on our animals since sometimes smaller livestock can be ran off the feed by more dominant ones. You really have to keep a very close eye during feed time if feeding once a day since if an animal gets ran off the feed two days in a row you have to step in fast and separate them. We feed several different spots in the feed area and also twice a day to avoid any problems with the established pecking order.

We can't wait to get these ladies up to size and breeding this winter for next springs piglets.