Experimenting with Forage Options for Pastured Pigs

Reader Contribution by John Arbuckle and Singing Pastures
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Adobe Stock/Lichtfisch
What can pigs eat? This farm sets out to find the answers.

Everybody has (or should have) something that really makes them feel alive — some topic or calling that gets them unreasonably excited. At Singing Pastures Farm, that topic is “How much grass can a pig eat?”

I use the term “grass” loosely. By grass, I generally mean forages. (Many people do not realize it, but this loose definition is also applied to grassfed cows that are fed all manner of forages, including, but not limited to, clover, alfalfa, and broad-leaf forages.)

Types of Forage for Pastured Pigs

So, how about pigs? What can they eat? Here are some of the things on the menu: broadleaf forages, like lamb’s quarter and pigweed. Brassicas, such as kale and turnips. Legumes, such as clovers and the vegetative bodies of pea and bean plants. And of course, grasses themselves, whether they are perennial, cool-season grasses like timothy, orchardgrass and fescue, or the common annual crop grasses, like oats or sorghum-sudangrass.

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