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I love pigs. We raise a dozen or so a year and direct market them through our Farmer’s Market at a healthy profit. They consume all the whey from our cheese operation along with weeds and other garden refuse. They also help renovate poor pasture and woodland that we are converting to pasture. We train them to 1 strand of electrified polywire and move them with our border collies every couple of weeks to a fresh paddock. We provide no shelter during the warm summer months and the pigs do great as long as they have plenty of shade. Pigs are also easy to raise and will hopefully be even easier with this new feeder.
I’ve been wanting to build a self feeder for hogs for years. Research from Oregon Agricultural College found that self feeders increase daily consumption by 8% and save 7% in total grain when compared with hand feeding. I have attached some plans from the University of Maryland along with some pics below. The barrel can be adjusted up or down to modify the flow rate of grain. It should hold over 300 lbs of grain. I beefed up the design a bit as hogs are tough on everything. I plan to put it on skids with my whey/water tank which I will move with a single horse.
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