Got the feed ground today and the Piggies found a way out of the pasture!

Well, didn't have much going on today so I had a chance to split some more firewood to sell and make the new pig feed mix.  The first shot is what it looks like after we grind the alfalfa and add the the supplement mix to it.  If you zoom way in you can see a little bit of the supplements. 

A pigs stomach is not very big so every bite needs to count.  When she is feeding the little ones she needs to eat a lot of high energy feeds with lots of nutrients.  The pasture is dormant and the ground is starting to freeze.  To meet her nutrient need I am using alfalfa which has a much higher feed value than the grass hay. However it is very course and stemmy so we needed to grind it to make is small and easier to eat more at one time. We then simply added a very small amount of ground corn for extra energy, ground soybeans for a little extra protein, and some minerals to compensate for the frozen ground as normally pigs will get minerals from the ground while rooting for insects and roots. 

Normally in the summer when the pasture is growing well we shouldn't  have to do this but winter is a different story.  I am still feeding them the silage hay and grass hay which they enjoy as well.

 The neighbors grinder.  Worked pretty slick.  Took about 30 minutes from start to finish. 

 This is a quick pic of the little ones having a stroll in the drive way.  The found that they can sneak under the higher parts of the fence, through the gate, and through a small hole in the shed wall and go out in the lawn and garden.  First they stopped in my wife's garden and had some leftover tomatoes.  Then they turned the mulch in my flower beds around the garage looking for worms and insects.  Then lastly, just for fun they had some pig races in my newly seeded lawn area and rooted for some bugs there too!  After a few rounds of chasing them in I got my dog and my daughter out and they kept them in the pasture for me till I could check the fence.  Turns out it was out of an insulator and was shorting out.  I put back into insulator and it was hot again.  Before I got to the barn one of them tried to head out to my flower beds again and touched the fence.  They haven't left the pasture since!! 

I don't really mind when they go out under fence anywhere else.  However, our house sits quite close to the road and I think that getting bit by the fence once is a lot easier to get over than meeting a car or truck on the road.  Once they know what the fence is they will never test it again, they learn very quick!


Kenny