Help, with weight gain

Princess_Wendie · Post by **Princess_Wendie** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:47 pm

Ok, so today we weighed my sons market hog and she weighed 130lbs we go to fair the end of August giving us 50 days until fair. she weighed 90lbs at the first weigh in which gives us an average gain of 1.3lbs per day. i have called around and am unable to get honors powerfill here and am currently hand feeding Honors L100. What do i do to increase weight gain and get this gilt as heavy as we can by fair time???

P.S.
she is a lite eater, she takes a bite walks around gets a drink then goes back and eats some more.

TIM1 · Post by **TIM1** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:45 pm

Give your pig 1cup milk replacer, 1/2 cup corn oil and one egg. Use as a top dress in a pan of feed twice/day. Mix is all together in the pan.

Any milk replacer will do. I would stay away from Land O Lakes milk replacer products since they are very expensive.

Princess_Wendie · Post by **Princess_Wendie** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:16 pm

I have some foal milk replacer that is 19.5% protein will that work??

bcbully · Post by **bcbully** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:38 pm

Make sure you are de-worming regularly as well.

Princess_Wendie · Post by **Princess_Wendie** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:03 pm

she is being wormed every 30 days

Firehog · Post by **Firehog** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:09 am

I would try what Tim said for a week or so and see if she will start eating better and gaining. If she is still not going after the feed you may what to start wet feeding her. Just add some water to the same ration and make it into a mush. You will need to clean her feed pan each day because with the milk replacer it may start to smell bad and she may not want to eat out of that pan. I would also be feeding her two times a day. If you can go out there several times a day to cool her down or just to make her get up some pigs will go get something to eat if it is in the pan before they lay back down. Seeing how she likes to eat some then drink water this may help. Good Luck Take care and have a good day.

Princess_Wendie · Post by **Princess_Wendie** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:39 am

I went out about a half hour ago and and made her a feed pan with her feed, milk replacer, and egg and some water. she ate for about 5 minutes straight but then went off the scratch herself on the fence, should i just keep trying that?

TIM1 · Post by **TIM1** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:29 pm

Did you not use the corn oil? Keep that up twice a day. That will also help with cover.

At a spring show I was at this year, because of the poor cover on pigs that the judges put up at the top of the show is going to start ultra sounding and put a minimum of .5 fat on the pigs. The outfit that did the flooring and other buyers really complained. The fair manager was really nervous about this situation when I talked with him at a conference.

hampy622 · Post by **hampy622** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:38 am

With the extra protein in milk replacer you arent getting the full effect of the fat in it. I would go with either a fat supplement like moorfat which I have had great success feeding this summer. It has really increased the weight gain alot. Or I would feed soy oil which works well but doesnt mix with feed the greatest. Milk replacer is extremely expensive and if you are able to track down some powerfill there is already whey in it.

Princess_Wendie · Post by **Princess_Wendie** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:49 am

How about high octane power fuel ?, that is available here..

hampy622 · Post by **hampy622** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:02 pm

that will work

CHOPSTER · Post by **CHOPSTER** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:22 pm

i agree with Hampy on the moorfat, it's 80% fat and pigs love it. another trick that has worked for me is to skip a feeding. this gets them good and hungry. then on the next feeding only allow them to eat for about 20 min then take the feed away from them until the next feeding. a pig can eat more than enough in 20 min twice a day. some pigs seemed to get bored with their feed when its in front of them all the time. this method has really worked well for some of our pigs.