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40 days to show, need weight gain

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:48 pm
by bonnyju
We are new to showing and my son’s Hampshire weighs 160 lbs with 45 days to the show. We’d like him to get to 260. Is this possible? His ag teacher has us feeding him 1 1/4 cup Lindners 611, 1 1/4 cup 685 and 1/2 cup of groats twice per day. He’s been on this combination for about two months now but it seems on the conservative side for more weight gain. Should I change things up?

Re: 40 days to show, need weight gain

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:49 am
by mjw1980
You need to up the feed intake. 3lbs of complete feed should result in 1lb of weight. The oat groats are not really adding to weight gain. Take them away and replace with feed. At this point I would be asking what the minimum weight is and ensure you make that. So I would feed 1.5lbs of each feed for a total of 3lbs per feeding twice a day. Make sure there is plenty of fresh water available.

After you hit your minimum weight I would look to see if he needs muscle or cover (fat). You can start by adding a high protein supplement and a high fat supplement.

If you can get 2lbs a day you can easily make 250. The problem is pigs don't always eat all their food. They sometimes don't gain but 1.8lbs a day or they can get sic for a few days go off feed. There are a lot of factors that can affect this. I would shoot for the minimum first because if you don't make it into the ring then this is all for nothing. We always have 2 goal weights. The minimum and then we work for our target weight.