Page 9 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Feather and Bone - home of pasture-raised pork
* from P8
concentrate 20 percent and biscuit meal 20 percent.
and Mara Seeds’ biochar to which we add 20L of organic raw milk from our dairy.
also receive a special treat of fresh jersey milk, corn and pollard/bran mash.
The growers are given the same feed prior to weaning.
The remaining 38 per- cent of the pigs’ daily diet is comprised of barley, in the form of spent brewer’s grain from one of our local craft brewers.
Pillar Rock Pork - Bin- away, NSW
This mash is used to introduce young piglets to an adult diet and also as an animal husbandry technique to help with the moving and weighing of pigs.
No meat products or swill in the diet.
In addition, each day the pigs get around 600L of whey from our local Real Dairy cheese factory.
The sows get a lower protein feed than the young stock.
Spring Grove Fresh Food - Casino, NSW
This means that the pig- lets/growers stay up to 120 days or longer with the sow before they’re sepa- rated.
Research suggests that whey consumption can replace up to 30 percent of a regular grain diet, and we have found that as our heritage breeds Berk- shire and Wessex Saddle- backs are prone to high fat scores, the addition of whey diminishes this.
I have been using the same feed mill – Premier Stockfeeds – since 2016 and the product is con- sistent in quality, my pigs do well on it, and they are good to deal with.
Our pigs get about 900g of pelletised feed per day from the Riverina feed mill here in Casino.
During that time, we gradually train the grower pigs by feeding them sep- arately in the yards, while the sows get a bigger ra- tion outside the yards.
There are also irregular sourdough waste from our baker and out of date lines from the dairy, usually cream or feta.
The rest comes from the pasture they graze.
Oxhill Organics - Wau- chope, NSW
Saulsbury Berkshires - Frogmore, NSW
Tathra Place - Wombeyan Caves, NSW
Each pig gets approxi- mately 1.5kg grain, 0.5L milk and as much grass as they want to eat!
We feed our pigs a soy- bean protein-based pellet – not meat meal.
We feed our pigs a Vella ration that is chemical, pharmaceutical and GMO free.
The remaining 10 per- cent comes from paddock plants and grasses, plants, worms, insects – whatever they dig up and forage in the paddock.
The pigs wander on cer- tified organic pastures, so the ‘grass’ includes rye, oats, chicory, clover, paspalum, kikuyu, plan- tain and the composition changes depending on the season.
We choose to feed a pellet ratio that is spe- cially tailored to meet the pigs’ nutritional needs, rather than mixing our own.
Ingredients and ratios are subject to change based on availability and season.
Also excess seasonal fruits such as apples, cher- ries and peaches when available.
Every morning, the pigs get a feed of dry grain comprised of Mara Seeds’ organic barley 71 percent, organic wheat 20 percent and soybean meal 6 per- cent, Ag Solutions’ or- ganic minerals 3 percent
Depending on the season, this includes veg- etables, fruits, nuts and specifically grown crops including rye grass and saccaline, a heritage strain of sorghum.
Wallendbeen Park - Wallendbeen, NSW
I feed my pigs a pellet which I find suits my sows and young pigs.
We don’t wean our pigs so we can fully utilise the sow’s milk, which takes about 100 days.
I don’t give the pigs anything else and do not change it around.
Typical composition in- cludes wheat, sorghum, barley, maize, bran and pollard, vegetable protein meals, pulses, meat and blood meal, salt, molasses, vegetable oil, amino acids, lime, dicalcium phos- phate, mould inhibitor, Riverina vitamin and mineral premix.
A predominantly Tamworth herd on the river flat at Oxhill Organics in Wauchope NSW. Used along with egg laying chickens, in rotation with the dairy herd where the main on-farm enterprise is supplying organic cow’s milk to the local co-op.
We also source fruit and vegetable waste from a local food processor, usually 200-300kg each week, mostly tomatoes and strawberries.
With all the recent rain, the native grasses are bouncing away, so the pigs are enjoying grazing the pasture.
Base raw materials may gradually change season- ally.
Apart from foraged food, the daily diet con- sists of about 40 percent cracked corn soaked and 50 percent commercial pellets comprised of ce- real grains barley, wheat, bran and pollard, canola meal, lupins, limestone, bentonite, salt, Acid Buf, mineral and vitamin premix, enzymes, essen- tial amino acids.
The pellet ingredients include barley, wheat, sorghum, meat meal, sun- flower meal, tallow, me- thionine, lysine, salt, vita- mins and trace minerals.
After four months, the separation process is easy and stress-free.
In addition, the pigs receive a variety of the seasonal produce that we grow here on the farm.
Up to 30 percent of the pigs’ diet is perennial pasture, legumes, as well as bugs grubs, tree sap – anything they can find!
If you live in NSW and want to try Feather and Bone products, visit their website featherandbone. com.au or call into the shop at 8/10-14 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrick- ville NSW or phone them on 02 9818 2717.
Periodically, the pigs
The pigs are fed twice a day and receive about 2.5kg per adult pig per day – dispersed on the ground, not in feeders.
Bon appetit.
No crude protein in any form.
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Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2021 – Page 9