My daughter had a pig that we just showed this month that ended up just making the minimum weight at 190 lbs. We struggled to put on weight from the beginning. Beginning weight in March was 48 lbs and I am pretty sure that I made a mistake by not feeding starter in the start. I started feeding Purina 809, and fed 909 towards the end of the project. I was wondering, till what weight should a pig be eating starter? And what is a good starter to use? I really don't want to go through this again.

I usually feed a starter up to 100+ lbs. but it depends on the pig. Purina has a good starter, in all reality whatever brand of show feed is most readily available in your area is ok to use.

A 48 lb pig should have been on 719.

There are a couple parts to this equation other than just saying, "it was the wrong feed."

Genetics play a large roll in how your pig converts feed. For us it is always important to understand what sires are behind the pigs we buy.

Also, it is important to know how much your pig should be eating at any given weight and to do whatever it take to make sure your projects are consuming that much feed. You need to weigh often and track the ADG so you can make adjustments,add supplements, etc. when needed.

In this particular scenario I think you may have purchase a pig at too light a weight in the beginning. If you brought it home mid march at 48 lbs and went to a show in mid June at 190 you were close to average ADG for a pig. You had about 90 days and we assume an average ADG over the project of 1.7lbs...that's about 201lbs. You could've possibly pushed for a slightly higher gain, but your problem wasn't what you fed. It's at what weight or age you bought your animal.

We decided to take a chance with the smaller pig as she was the nicer animal. We ended up making weight but it was very stressful for us. I don't think we'll will do that again. On Maui hogs that are available are limited. We kind of just take what we can get. I am gonna try to see if it would be worth it financially to buy a couple pigs from California and fly them to Hawaii for next year's project. Any breeders you prefer in California?

Lots of good breeders in Calif:

Just a few

Ottenwalter
Small Town
No Limit
WD Swine

Thanks