New trial feeding method for hogs

We tried something new this week, and it seems to have interestingly positive effects on the hogs. The weather is warm enough to start adding some seed back to the pasture where the hogs rooted everything up, so we had an idea. Why not just throw out our organic feed (wheat, rye, peas) directly into the pasture? The hogs could nibble on some and plant the rest by walking and rooting.

So we tried it last week. Insteat of sprouting hte grains and filling the feeders, we filled the back of the gatoe with dry grains, and made a trip through the pasture with it slowly spilling out. This spread it out nicely with a few heavy spots. We did this on 3 different days. The hogs immediately went to work eating and burying the grains. In fat they spent hte better part of hteir day in the pasture grazing and searching for food. It was good to see them all spread out and all eating quietly!

Then I noticed something else. The hogs seemed less interested in "treats". Even when I threw out a buckets of food scraps, they didnt come running as usual. The seemed much more content, and docile than when on free feed in the feeders. The amount they eat didnt change, in fact if anything it went down. Yet, they seemed to be happier and less hungry.

Could it be that grazing and eating slowly actually fits better with their metobalism then free feed or feed evenets in feeders where they gorge themselves until full each time? I dont know hte answer to that one, but its a fun experiment to explore what this all means.

Hopefully they left enough grains and peas buried to sprout and reseed the pasture. The next step will be to block off some sections to let the seeds grow without interruption. That comes next week.