This activity took place on 19/11/2022 at one farm of BCDO which is located at Kibaale district Matale sub-county buseesa akasalaba village near karuguuza –Mubende road. In this activity the manager DEOGRATIUS MUGABI said that As an energy source, he choose a grain mix of barley, wheat, concentrate,sorghum and corn for their pig’s diet. At least half the mix should be number two yellow corns and also said that though low in protein, it is considered a primary energy source in pig. He said that farmers can buy bags of premixed pig food at most farm supply stores; they might want to make their own pig food mix. Because many people believe that they can feed pigs anything, such as their table scraps and whatever else and they can get their hands on. While it’s true that pigs will eat just about anything, they should be fed a balanced diet just like any other animal. This is especially true if they are raising their pigs commercially, as they want them to be as healthy as possible.
He again encouraged farmers to Feed their weaners, or pigs that are being weaned off of their mother’s milk, a special mix of food until they are about 10 to 12 weeks old and to Create a feed mix that is comprised of about 76 percent corn or wheat, 12 percent skim milk powder, 6 percent soybean meal, 6 percent calcium and protein supplement, and 0.2 percent salt.
He also once again encouraged farmers who are practicing piggery project that mixing most of all of their feed for pig makes them responsible for quality control and the Quality control aspects on-farm feed mixing often receives little attention. He also encouraged farmers Make sure all grains are free of molds, insects, dirt, stones and other debris and to avoid using a high proportion of broken kernels.
MR DEOGRATIOUS farm manager also says that the diets for weeks one and two are specifically adapted to the nutritional physiology of weaned piglets and consequently relatively expensive. In the third week, the recipe is slowly adapted to reduce the feed costs. In contrast to this, commercial feed is usually given to young piglets throughout the first three weeks post-weaning. The aim is an optimum start for the piglets so as to create pre-requisites for successful finishing with high daily weight gains across production In his conclusion he said that, Valuable home-grown cereals, supplemented by respective feed additives can be improved to become high-quality mixed feed and can thus satisfy the increasing demands for quality of the consumers. Of course, certain conditions on the farm have to exist or must be created to be able to apply an own mixing system reasonably and above all economically.
This means that mixing on the farm only becomes a reasonable activity if noteworthy feed quantities are used on the farm and It is also possible for farmers to join forces and use a mixing system together. In this case, it can be useful to install a larger unit, e.g. with a capacity of up to 10 t/h. The prices for additional components also play an important role for profitability