The meat fattening of pigs is aimed at obtaining the maximum daily gain and young juicy meat in a short time. Usually it begins at the age of 3-4 months. At different periods of feeding, different feed components are used and combine them in different proportions, adding compounds that satisfy the animal's need for minerals and vitamins.
Start feeding piglets for meat
Feeding pigs for meat is profitable from an economic point of view: they need 3 times less feed per 1 kg of growth compared to cattle. Feeding should begin when the piglet reaches the age of 3-4 months, and its weight will be approximately 25-30 kg.
The average length of the period of fattening pigs for meat with a minimum sebaceous layer is 4-4.5 months, but sometimes it lasts 8 months. During this time, the piglet gains 600-700 g every day. Fattening is considered complete if, at a certain time (usually by the age of 9 months), the pig reaches 110-120 kg (live weight).
Pigs of any breed and physique are suitable for meat fattening, however, the best results can be achieved by fattening representatives of the breed of meat direction.
The best breeds that produce a large amount of meat are the White and Ukrainian Steppe, Lithuanian, Kemerovo. Recently, Vietnamese pigs have been purchased for meat fattening.
To achieve this goal, the farmer must provide increased appetite for fattening individuals and feed intake. To do this, it is useful to use yeast feed, the recipe of which is given in the last section.
General recommendations for fattening pigs for meat
Starting to fatten pigs for meat, the farmer should familiarize himself with the following general rules:
- animals should consume only fresh food: if the remnants of yesterday’s food prevail in the diet, pigs will not gain weight at a rapid pace;
- It’s better to start fattening pigs in spring or summer, because at this time they can eat what grows around;
- in the process of fattening pigs, it is important to provide them with a full drinking regime; fresh and clean water should always be in the troughs;
- the air humidity in the room where fattening pigs are kept should not be lower than 60-70%, and the temperature should not be lower than +15 degrees: under these conditions, the feed is better digested, and the animals themselves feel good;
- no need to feed the animals to failure: if the pigs constantly eat up from the overflowing trough, then the food will be wasted in vain, and the nutrients will begin to work mainly on the deposition of adipose tissue;
- vegetable products, which are introduced into the diet of pigs, must be crushed, since the body of these animals hardly assimilates the food that enters the esophagus in large pieces;
- pigs should not be given too much waste from the kitchen; before offering them to animals, the residues should be boiled for an hour, otherwise various pathogenic microorganisms can enter the body, and pigs can become sick;
- food additives must be mixed with the feed, which compensate for the lack of minerals and amino acids in the animal body;
- food for pigs must be salted: 40 g of salt, which is an active stimulant of digestion in animals, can be added per serving
- any hot foods must be allowed to cool before being given to animals;
- give pigs food 2-3 times a day, preferably at the same time;
- food in pig’s troughs should not remain longer than an hour, food residues should be thrown away, and the trough should be washed thoroughly at least 2 times a week.
Do not feed the animals too often. With too frequent feed, they develop more adipose tissue.
Some types of feed should not be given to pigs. These include:
- boiled beets that have stood for too long in hot water;
- green potato tubers, even if they have been boiled for a long time;
- spurge;
- horse dill;
- black nightshade.
You also need to consider that certain foods affect the taste and structure of pork. For example, the waste from the fishing industry gives the meat a fishy flavor, and the addition of dairy products to the diet, on the contrary, gives it an appetizing aroma and a mild taste.
If the pig’s diet is dominated by potatoes, corn and wheat bran, then its meat becomes loose and tasteless.
If mold appears in the feed or parasites are wound up, you need to destroy it and in no case feed this pig.
Feeding Stages
The technology of fattening pigs is not difficult. If you follow its principles, in the end you can get high-quality lean meat. In this case, the fat at the time of slaughter will be no more than 30% of the total mass of the carcass.
The feed ration of pigs that are fattened for meat should have good taste qualities that will attract animals. The digestibility of feed should reach 80%.
Intensive meat feeding consists of two successive stages: preparatory and final.
Preparatory stage begins with the selection of piglets that will be fattened specifically to obtain lean meat, that is, at the age of 2.5 months. It lasts up to 5-5.5 months. At the first stage, the pig daily gains 500-600 g per day.
In the preparatory period, the basis of the diet is juicy green crops. In summer, pigs are given legumes and gourds, green grass. In winter, at this stage, pre-harvested vegetables, grass meal, silage are given.
The plant component in the preparatory phase will be one third of the total diet. The remaining two-thirds of the diet in this period are bran, mixed barley and corn, fishmeal.
The first period of fattening is most advantageous to carry out precisely in the spring-summer period, when fresh and juicy green feeds predominate. Due to this, it is possible to achieve the greatest weight gain of animals at minimum cost for feed.
At the first stage, proteins become important, because if you overdo it with carbohydrates, animals will gobble up and lose their ability to build muscle. Also, during the preparatory period, it is recommended to add feed yeast in an amount of 0.2 kg per day.
Final stage lasts 2 months. It is more intense and suggests a daily increase of up to 800 g.
At the second stage, half of the diet should be food waste, beets, potatoes, dairy products. The remaining half is concentrated carbohydrate-rich feed.
During this period, feeds that impair the quality of the meat should be avoided. This is fish and its waste, oats, oilcake, soy, millet.
Base feed
Basic feeds increase the taste of meat and their technological characteristics. These include:
- rough foods cooked or ground: wheat, fodder beans, rye, peas;
- waste from the production of dairy products: whey and directly the milk itself - cow, goat;
- juicy root crops: sugar and semi-sugar beets, as well as carrots and potatoes are necessarily introduced into the diet of pigs fed for meat; in raw form, root crops can be given, but only in small quantities, the rest should be thoroughly boiled beforehand.
In the cold season, bean hay (6-11%), succulent feed and a mixture of concentrates (55-75%), food waste (25-30%) act as basic feed.
In winter, when there is not enough fresh herbs, more root crops are fed. Potatoes are only cooked, chilled and mashed. Potatoes need to be given in such quantities as to minimize the possibility of residues.
The main types of rations
Depending on the region, pig-breeding enterprises and farms may use a certain technology for feeding pigs to obtain lean meat. These are the types:
- Concentrate. In this case, up to 80% of concentrated feed is used for food. This type of diet is widely used in Kazakhstan, the North Caucasus, in the southern part of Ukraine.
- Concentrated root. In this case, combined silage is used for meat feeding pigs, as well as fodder and sugar beets, green legumes, hay flour. The amount of concentrated feed is about 50-65%. A similar type of diet prevails in Eastern and Western Siberia, in the forest-steppe areas of Ukraine.
- Concentrated Potato. The food is potatoes, combined silage, hay flour. The level of concentrated feed is 60%. This type of feeding is characteristic of the Baltic states, Belarus, Polesie (Ukraine).
Concentrated feeds include all grain, dried residues of starch and sugar beet production, bran, meal and meal.
Essential Nutrition Supplements
Minerals and amino acids are an integral part of the diet. Digestible protein is of particular importance. In the first 2 months of feeding, its daily rate is 230-250 g, in the next 2 months - 350-380 g.
When meat feeding pigs, food additives such as salt, crushed shells, chalk, limestone are always added to the food. They make up for the deficiency of calcium, phosphorus and sodium in animals.
Fattening pigs also need feed phosphates, lake silt and wood ash.
Amino acids are found in foods such as:
- different types of flour;
- rice
- semolina;
- pearl barley;
- oatmeal;
- buckwheat.
For pigs, vitamins and minerals are vitally important:
- vitamin A;
- vitamin B1;
- vitamin B2;
- vitamin B3;
- vitamin B12;
- carotene;
- iodine;
- zinc;
- manganese;
- cobalt;
- phosphorus;
- calcium;
- iron;
- copper.
An animal should receive at least 20 g of calcium and 10 g of phosphorus per day. These elements are especially important for pigs that grow intensively.
Also in the diet of pigs there are such additives as:
- Azobacterin. This supplement fills pigs' need for vitamin B12.
- Monosodium glutamatestimulating the appetite of animals and improving the taste of pork.
- Etonius. The supplement improves the quality of pig meat.
Various premixes are also used as additives, which include macro- and microelements, amino acids and vitamins.
Often, experts recommend Bork's premix. It is suitable for pigs of all ages. It consists of:
- phosphorus;
- calcium;
- copper;
- zinc;
- manganese;
- iodine;
- vitamin A;
- vitamin B2;
- vitamin B3;
- vitamin B5;
- lysine;
- methionine;
- antioxidant.
Premixes have a number of important functions:
- impede the development of diseases associated with metabolic disorders in the body;
- fully satisfy the daily need of animals for trace elements and vitamins;
- ensure the normal development of young animal organisms;
- reduce feed costs.
Homemade Food Recipes
Cereals that go into the food of pigs grown for meat are boiled or steamed. Most often they are prepared in this way:
- For 1 kg of grain take 2 liters of hot water.
- The feed is poured with water, mixed.
- The container with grain is covered with burlap.
- Leave the mixture to steam for 5 hours.
Valuable succulent feeds are silage masses. You can cook them by mixing components such as:
- sugar beets (60%), corn on the cob (30%), carrots (10%);
- vegetables (50%), steamed potatoes (45%), grain waste (5%).
The silage mass is crushed, placed in tanks, well tamped and covered.
At home, you can also prepare nutritious compound feed. It is characterized by the following composition:
- barley - 400 g;
- oats - 300 g;
- alfalfa flour - 160 g;
- meat and bone meal - 120 g;
- sunflower meal - 80 g;
- chalk - 20 g;
- salt - 10 g.
All components must be ground, mixed thoroughly.
Combined silage is also a meat-friendly compound that pigs like. The composition of this compound feed includes crushed juicy root vegetables, vegetables and green mass - carrots, sugar and semi-sugar beets, cabbage, lupins. The percentage may be different:
- potatoes - 40%;
- clover - 30%;
- carrots and cabbage - 15% each.
Also, a combined silo may have the following composition:
- ears of corn - 60%;
- pumpkin - 30%;
- green mass of legumes - 10%.
Another option provides the following proportions:
- sugar beet - 50%;
- carrots - 20%;
- legumes - 20%;
- hay dust - 10%.
Yeast feed to improve pig appetite
Yeast feed improves animal appetite, speeds up the absorption of other feed eaten by pigs, and also positively affects body weight.
Yeast can be performed in a pairwise and unpaired ways.
The non-paired method is as follows:
- 20 liters of warm water are poured into the container;
- add 100 g of diluted yeast, pour 10 kg of dry small feed here, mix it all thoroughly;
- the mass is left for 8 hours for fermentation, stirring every 25 minutes.
The coupled or starter method is slightly different from the previous one. 5 l of warm water are poured into a 20-liter container, 100 g of yeast are added, and they are thoroughly mixed. After that, add 2 kg of feed, mix and let it brew. After 6 hours, 15 liters of warm water and 7 kg of dry concentrate are poured into the mass. Leave for 2 hours, then use as an additive in food.
Watch the video on the effective fattening of pigs for meat with a homogeneous liquid feed with a high degree of digestibility, prepared using the special Mriya unit:
Meat fattening pigs is aimed at obtaining 70% lean meat. To grow animals for meat, they use special food technology. Organic additives and pure water are also important. In addition, animals need certain conditions. The combination of proper nutrition and favorable living conditions will allow the farmer to obtain lean meat with a minimum layer of fat.