Feeding Our Pigs

Kitchen Scraps Garden/Allotment

As cereal prices increase by over double since October 2020, i.e wheat was £138/Tonne in October 2020 and is now £311/Tonne, the cost of our pig feed has equally increased. The company I buy my feed from (trade price) Sow & Weaner Nuts were £6.50/20Kg at the end of 2020, this months order they were £9.48/20kg, a 46% increase. As pig keepers we are all feeling the impact of the current climate, but that should not give cause to break the government legislation on feeding kitchen and catering waste. Many will recall the Foot and Mouth outbreak in early 2001, which lead to the slaughter of over 6 million animals from over 2,000 UK infected farms and livestock places. The cause of this was considered to be food waste fed to pigs, and the impact was heartbreaking to farmers across the UK. It is illegal to feed any kind of kitchen waste (Domestic or commercial) to livestock. With African Swine Fever (ASF) getting closer and closer to the UK, it is not a matter of IF, but WHEN ASF arrives in the UK and we all need to do our part to manage the risk. As the ASF virus is present in the carcass of affected pigs (African Swine Fever is not a human health threat.), there is the potential that EU imported pork prepared in your

kitchen could contaminate your feed waste and thus feeding kitchen waste significantly increases the chances of ASF getting into our pig population. The map above shows you just how many cases and where ASF outbreaks are and how close to the UK its getting.

So what can we do to supplement our livestock feed? Firstly its key to note that concentrate feeds like sow and weaner nuts are produced to a specific nutritional requirement to ensure a pig has all a balanced and healthy diet that meets its nutritional requirements. Moving away from concentrates can have a detrimental impact on the well being of your pigs. However you can supplement a small percentage of their daily ration with fruit and vegetables direct from your garden or allotment, but be cognisant of just how much you supplement.

For more info of feed nutrition listen to our podcasts with Victoria Phillips; Feeding for Efficency and Sows, Pregnancy and Farrowing .

For more info and our FREE A2 poster on Feeding your livestock – what you need to know! take a look on our website here.

Source: VITT/1200 ASF in Europe