Feeding the American Guinea Hog

The common approach to feeding modern breeds of hogs is feed them until they're full.
Not so with the American Guinea Hogs.
These guys need some portion control. Without it they become obese.
AGH were bred to forage and seek out their food. They were also designed to grow slow.
This makes them a prime candidate for the slow food movement and pasture based farming.

On the contrary, this makes them a very poor candidate for being raised in confinement and on "all you can eat" grain based diets (they need a lower level of protein then other hogs).  When they are raised in this manner the hogs become obese, struggle to move freely and you loose the highly sought after quality of AGH pork....


An example:

We had a AGH sow visit our farm to be bred last year. She struggled to walk and keep up with our hogs and looked like she needed a full body "lift." She was clearly unhealthy due to her owners feeding her buffet style. This was a living example of how AGH take a different type of management.

What do we feed?
Hay, lots of high quality second and third cutting hay. Full on clover, alfalfa, timothy and trefoil.
This satisfies their need to forage, chew and burrow.
The next part varies.
In the winter we feed sprouted organic barley and are going to start feeding peas next winter.
Growing hogs get about 1 lb, full grown hogs about 1/2 lb each for full grown hogs.
To top this tasty diet off we will be soaking our grains in fresh goats milk from our Saanen, Cranny. Mmm.
During the growing session we feed lots of fresh vegetables and fruits.
This will include turnips, beets, rutabaga, apples, nuts, salad greens, carrots and tomatoes.
We are building a root cellar this year to help supplement with vegetables and fruit throughout the winter.

Now on to exercise. Pigs need it too! Ardachy's AGH spend time in our brush filled pasture during the winter and are busy walking, playing, rooting and tilling which helps them stay fit. In the spring, summer and fall they spend all of their time rotating in small pastures to a new grassy area daily. They need high quality pastures as well. We seed a red and white clover mix as well as some timothy and alfalfa. With this mix, they graze and do not root once summer hits.

With this plan we are hoping to do most of our slaughtering between 10-14 months of age.
At this time they will have a hanging weight of 125-175 lbs.

AGH are a truely sustainable hog. With a little extra help from their care takers to make sure they have a nutritionally balanced diet, they thrive in a pastured based system both physically and mentally.

Pictures coming soon!