Author Topic: Potato peelings???? (Read 40778 times)

MrRee · « **Reply #30 on:** June 09, 2009, 08:15:13 pm »

Look,the OP asked a perfectly good question about feeding potato peelings to his pigs. Instead of someone saying "yes fine,as long as they haven't come into contact with any meat products" or "if you're a commercial business then no,Defra states that you can't". Instead,the poor guy get's told about Defra rules,with no helpful links to the actual rules for him to go look at.
I think that in the most part,rules made by Defra are as much about good husbandry as they are about covering their own backsides in this ever litigious society. And yes,my last post was taking the wee. It was a poke at the hypocrites that choose to conform to some laws they deem necessary and try to enforce them,but will blatantly ignore the laws they don't deem necessary.

Farmer · « **Reply #31 on:** June 09, 2009, 09:07:23 pm »

Sorry MrRee but a direct link to the relevant DEFRA info was posted very early on in the thread...did you miss it?

Farmer

carl · « **Reply #32 on:** June 09, 2009, 09:10:04 pm »

ah, I'm going to york on friday. where did i put my longbow? damn, I'm part scot. I'll shoot myself in the foot.

a bit like the regs, you can read what you like into peoples posts, and then choose to do selective soap box beating.
feed them the peel, just don't mix in a bag of doner meat.( not a rule, just sensible)
p.s. if you think the defra regs on feeding pigs is hard to sort out on their website, try sorting out selling eggs to a third party.

sausagesandcash · « **Reply #33 on:** June 09, 2009, 11:40:26 pm »

I pick up my fruit and veg at a local supernarket at 8 am every morning, One morning I was late, kids being kids. Lo and behold, on arrival, I found another small scale pig farmer loading every bit of waste into his van....meat included. Now that just made me furious. Now it's feckers like him who need a good 'talking to'. I know that this guy fattens about 20 pigs every year for profit, clearly he feeds them on any 'ol sh*t he can lay his hands on.......but at what cost to the consumer. I love people who are passionate about pigs....I loathe people who are passionate about money.

Morgan

Farmer · « **Reply #34 on:** June 10, 2009, 06:56:35 am »

I'm with you sausagesandcash, its people like him that cause the problems in the first place and then we are all made to suffer...tip off your local Animal Health Officer...before something bad happens and the press advise the public not to buy pork from small pig breeders!

I think we have all suffered enough from the results of other peoples greed for money just lately!

Farmer

dixie · « **Reply #35 on:** June 10, 2009, 08:04:10 am »

Note to self: when trying to be helpful in replying to posts always include detailed facts, figures and direct links to relevant information

I think we did tell him its fine as long as they dont come into contact meat and should be boiled, perhaps using slightly different layout of words!! Get a grip (rant over)

shetlandpaul · « **Reply #36 on:** June 11, 2009, 04:38:22 pm »

don't forget there is pressure on defra et al to ban small holders because we pose a risk to the big producers. after all its us who feed diseased animals to herbivores. lets not give them an excuse.

The Relic · « **Reply #37 on:** June 11, 2009, 05:55:55 pm »

so am i right in saying that i shouldnt be giving my pigs the leftovers from my full irish fryups in the morning as a treat unless i boil it first.

Hilarysmum · « **Reply #38 on:** June 11, 2009, 06:12:38 pm »

Regardless of the rules, if you are feeding potatoes in any form they should be boiled first.

The Chicken Lady · « **Reply #39 on:** June 11, 2009, 07:05:45 pm »

Just curious - can I ask why they need to be boiled

and please I am a libran - I don't want to cause an argument

BadgerFace · « **Reply #40 on:** June 11, 2009, 09:35:12 pm »

Potatoes are from the Solanaceae family (deadly nightshade) - toxic when raw. I don't think one or two would do any harm, but better safe than sorry.

I do feed my pigs potatoes (miss shapes that are a pain to peel) in the winter, cooked in a large pot outside on workshop stove. I also grow them turnips.

sausagesandcash · « **Reply #41 on:** June 11, 2009, 10:46:16 pm »

potatoes can be fed raw to pigs, sheep and cattle, but pigs have difficulty digesting potato starch in moderate to large quantities. Too much starch equals stomach upsets.

Cooking overcomes this and the potatoes then become a good energy source for pigs.

It means that pigs rooting up a few left-over potatoes in a field will be fine, but they should not be fed quantities of raw potatoes as part of their morning and evening rations.

Cattle and sheep being ruminants, on the other hand, can more effectively digest raw potato starch.

But even for sheep and cattle, too large an amount of potatoes can result in starch bypassing the rumen and reaching the lower intestinal tract where it results in stomach upsets and scours.

It must also be remembered that potatoes are a high-energy, high-water, low-fibre, low protein feed.

Feed that’s too high in water content lowers animal feed intake and reduces daily weight gain, while additional roughage may be needed to counter the low fibre content.

The high water content means 4.5kg of potatoes is the broad equivalent of one kilogram of barley.

We supplement our pig rations with cooked potatoes, but never more than 20% of the daily ration. (The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation gives 6kg of cooked potatoes per day as the upper limit for adult pigs.)

As far as poisoning is concerned, it’s only green potatoes plus any sprouts, stems and haulms that are the problem.

If none of these are in the ration, then there is no danger of alkaloid poisoning. (Having said that, if pigs do root up and eat one or two green potatoes in a field they will be okay – it’s when they have them in large numbers in one go or eat a small amount regularly over a long period that poisoning will result.)