Saturday, September 22, 2012

Farming Pigs - Importance of Proper Food and Diet When Raising Pigs

By Sarah Brown


The diet of your pig is very critical for when farming pigs. Although food scraps and leftovers can be fed to your pigs, you should consider proper nutrition for your pigs to ensure they grow up healthy. Keep in mind that keeping your pigs healthy is your top priority when learning how to raise pigs.Pigs have tremendous appetite and will eat anything edible you throw at them, but it doesn't mean you should settle for that.

o Water - Perhaps the most essential thing in your pig's diet. Since pigs don't have sweat glands like humans do, they need plenty of water to regulate body heat. Pigs need plenty of water and can consume about 20% of their own body weight. Water also helps in their digestion and absorption of other nutrients.

o Carbohydrates - This is the fuel that supplies energy for your pigs. Sugars, such as lactose and fructose, are also necessary to keep your pigs healthy. Grass and hay are a good source of carbohydrates for your pigs. You can get them from oats, corn and other cereal grains.

o Lipids - Also known as fats. Lipids are more efficient in providing energy than carbohydrates. Since it is a better energy source, it can assist reduce food consumption when farming pigs. Feeding too much lipids to save money on farming pigs is a bad idea because it can give your pigs diarrhea. However, this doesn't mean you should stop feeding carbohydrates and focus on an all-lipids diet. Sources of lipids are canola, corn oil and soybean oil.

o Protein - Protein is necessary for the health of your pig's blood cells, muscles and tissues. Soybean meal is a good protein source because it has a high quality amino acid. When giving your pigs protein, you should all the time consider quality over quantity when farming pigs; it is better to give your pigs few high quality proteins and many low quality proteins.

o Vitamin K - Can be found in fishmeal and is important for blood clotting

o Vitamin A - Is necessary for good bone structure. It can be discovered in legumes and grasses such as alfalfa.

Groceries and specialty stores for farming pigs sell feeds made particularly for pigs. There are commercial pig feeds and supplements that are made especially for piglet while some are best used for adults. It has all the vitamins and minerals they need to be healthy. It can be bought easily and is affordable but you can also make a pig feed on your own, you just have to know what vitamins and minerals are important to your pigs diet and where you can get them.




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