Feeding multiple barrows.........weight gain......

The kids have 5 barrows for 4H projects. The pen is equiped with an auto waterer, 1 flip top feeder (2 holes) and a single feeder. There ages range from 13 weeks to 15 weeks. 1 Poland weights about 67lbs, 1 Berk weights 85lbs, 1 Duroc weights 50lbs, 1 Poland weights 30lbs and 1 blue butt weights 32lbs. The Poland, Berk and Duroc have all put on 15-20 lbs since thier last weighting. We weight every 2 weeks. The other Poland and the blue butt only put on 5 and 2lbs respectively.

They are on a 19% pig start right now. They show is mid August. My question is what should we do to get the small poland and the blue butt to put on weight like the others or will they put on weight in time.

We're new to the 4H pig bussiness. Just looking for so other opinions. Let me know if you need more info. Thanks.

If you can, you might want to put the two smaller ones in a pen by their self. That way they don't have to compete with the three bigger ones.

More then likely the 2 smaller ones are getting pushed out. We never put more than 2 pigs per pen, for just that reason.

Do you think it would it be better to pull the 2 small barrows out and put them in their own pen or do you think it would be OK to add another 2 door feeder? That would be 2-2 door feeders and a single in the pen for 5 barrows.

Update........We've pulled out the 2 lighter barrows and put them in a pen of their own. We also put them on the scale. The blue butt put on 20 lbs in 12 days, now weighting 52lbs and the small Poland put on 15 lbs, now weighting 50lbs. That was the 2 week weight they put on while being in the pen of 5. Now that they are on their own I hope their weight gain will increase even more. The weight in is August 18th.

We put the pigs in to get there weight last night.........The Brek and big Polland each weighted around 115 and the Duroc around 105 lbs. The small Poland was at 70lbs and the blue butt was at 70lbs.

We have around 79 days till the kids have to weight in. When do you really start to worry about weight gain?

Thanks

What is the minimum weight at your show?

Around 220lbs.

If you haven't been worming them, they need wormed around every 30 days. Don't know if you have access to honor feeds, but I've heard that their new product Heavy Weight works very well. It helps picky eaters eat more, and it all around helps pigs gain weight. I haven't used it yet, but am thinking about using it just to keep pigs gaining this summer.

They were wormed about 2 weeks ago. Is Heavy Weight some thing that you add to the feed or is it a feed product itself?

You add it to the feed, or you can slop them with it, or you can make it into a "milkshake" and put that on top of their feed. To get milkshake consistency its three parts heavy weight and one part water.

Is that something that once you start feeding you have to continue or can you do it on and off?

These 2 also have access to feed at all times.

Also, am i worried about nothing? lol

Thanks

You can feed it as they need it. You still have a ways to go til your show, they should make it. Good luck!

Well, we noticed our weights weren't jiving........so we calibrated the scales, yep it was off. The Berk weighted in at 164lbs, Poland at 160lbs and Duroc at 154lbs. The two small barrows weighted in at Poland was 115lbs and the blue butt at 114lbs.
I'm looking at taking the auto feeder out of the big barrows pen. How do you determine how much to feed them with out it and what is the best way to hand feed them?


Thanks

Yeah I would go ahead and take that feeder out of the bigger ones. You can hand feed them any amount of feed, it just depends on how much or little they need. Average amount would be 8 to 10 pounds per head a day. You typically hand feed twice a day.

It works best to give each pig their own clip on feeder.

Recent update.....we weighted 06/24. Berk 186lbs, Poland 184lbs, Duroc 180lbs Small Poland 140lbs and Blue Butt 130lbs.

The 3 big pigs are still in a pen together on 18% and the 2 smaller pigs are together on 18% Our goal is to have the 3 big pigs around 280lbs and the smaller 2 around 240-250. Hopefully we're on coarse to achieve this........

Weight in date is still 7 weeks away.

Update.........we weighted last night. The Berk 208lbs, Poland 200lbs and Duroc 204lbs. The Small Poland 160 lbs and blue butt 150lbs.

The 3 big pigs are on 16% which we started this week. The 2 small pigs are on 18% still. They are all still on auto feeders. When would you take the feeders away and start pan feeding??

The temps have been in the 90's the past few weeks, but they still seem to be eating fine. Right now we've been walking them in the late evening and hosing them down after.

Everyone seems to be putting on 20 lbs/2weeks. The goal for the 3 bigger pigs is 275-285 lbs and the smaller two at 240-250lbs.

Any advise or suggestions on what else we might do..........

44 more days til weight ins..........

I would start pan feeding, at least the bigger barrows. They can consume just as much feed as being on a self feeder, but this way you are in control. Usually once they get around 200 pounds they really start taking off and put on the weight.

One of our local breeders is coming over next week to have a look at the barrows we got from him. He's going to go over some showmanship techniques with the kids and go over each barrow to help us put them on a feed plan for the remaining days till weight in.
I picked up some lambs milk replacer for the smaller 2 barrows. Just trying to get a little more weight on them. You would have thought I was dealing crack cocaine to a bunch of junkies!! They about bull dozed me over as soon as they smelt the stuff!!

That's great, good luck!

We weight pigs again last night. The Berk(222lbs) and Duroc(215lbs) both put on about 15 lbs last week! So they are going on pan feeding within the next day or so. We're going to slop them on 1.5lbs 16% mixed with 1.5 lbs rolled oats twice a day and see how that does for them.
The big Poland(204lbs) only put on a few lbs in the week. He's been moved to the pen with the smaller Poland(174lbs), who gained around 12 lbs in the week and the blue butt(158lbs) who put in 8 lbs this week. They are all on 18%.
35 days til weight ins.

We put the pigs on the scales last night. The Berk weighted in at 238lbs. He's on 1 1/2lbs 16%, 1lbs moorfat, 1/2lbs moorbody, 1lbs steamed rolled oats twice a day with 4G paylean once a day. The Duroc was 234lbs. He's on 1 1/2lbs 16%, 1 lb fat, 1/4 lb body, 1 lb oats and 4G paylean. The Poland is 230lbs. He's on 1 1/2 lbs 16%, 1 lb fat, 3/4 lbs body, 1/2 lbs oats and 4G paylean.

The small Poland and the blue butt are still on the auto feeder. They are on 16% mixed with something called pig pusher and 4G paylean once a day. The Poland weighed in at 204lbs and the blue butt at 176lbs.

Everyone but the blue butt are on coarse. We need him to get to 220lbs at minimum. 23 days til weight ins.

Any sugestions on getting a picky eating barrow to gain weight?????

UPDATE......We weighted last night. Duroc 258lbs, Berk 256lbs, Poland 254lbs, Smaller Poland 228lbs and Blue Butt 190lbs.

We've got 17 days til weight ins and need that Blue Butt up to 220, which is the minimum weight. He's averaging 2lbs/day right now. That's on 3lbs 18% mixed with pig pusher, 1lb moorfat, 1/2lbs steamed rolled oats, 1/4lb moorbody and that's all topped off with cake batter. He's being fed twice a day. He normally leaves 1/4 to 1/2 of it at each feeding. We refrigerate it and he eats it at the next feeding. He's also on 6g paylean which I think I'm going to bump up to 9g. Right now he's on pace to make it, but just barely. There's not much wiggle room.

Put the pigs on the scale again last night. The Berk 274 lbs, Duroc 268 lbs, Poland 256 lbs, Blue Butt 202 lbs and Poland 238 lbs.

The Berk and Duroc I want to go in as close to 285 lbs as possible. That should be no problem. Both Poland barrows are doing fine. I'd like to see them come in at 270 lbs and 250 lbs. The little white pig is going to be the death of me. We've thrown everything we can at him and some days he eats good and some days he doesn't. At his current rate of gain he'll come in at 220 lbs which is the minimum.

Fingers crossed............10 days til weight ins.