Tony Mcdonald

My approach is to concentrate on the digestion system of our pigs. If the right microbial environment is established then the feed content can be based on nutritional need. The same philosophy as applies to soil preparation rather than crop fertilization. We use probiotics in the drinking water for our pigs and achieve better feed conversion, healthier pigs and reduce smell and insect issues.

Cattle manure will contain weed seeds which can be killed off by composting them thermophylically. I would suggest you need to pasteurise it rather than sterilise. This you can do now by steaming it as you would a substrate for growing mushrooms. Or you could put the manure in a sack and then drop that into a drum of hot water. Hold that at over 70C for long enough to heat all the way through. The ...

Sorry for the delay in responding. I also have to tell you I dont know the exact biology in the starter kits I used as it is proprietary. I have used commercial EM but not achieved these sort of results. This much I can tell you. The main ingredient is a strain of lactic acid bacteria that is found in the intestinal tract of healthy pigs. The starter kit comes as a dormant powdered form to which w ...

Interesting article about organic acids in monogastric animals. I have been brewing and using a probiotic in our pigs drinking water for close to a year. I can attest to the positive effect it has had on piglets through to the breeding herd. During that time we have not injected a pig with anything other than iron for new piglets. The whole herd is healthier, FCR is lower and growth faster. They s ...

David, Enjoyed your description of piglet gut issues. We brew a probiotic on-farm which is LAB based. Using this in the drinking water for the whole herd has helped greatly with FCRs, general health and disease resistance, and has all but eliminated any smells. I have also made some fermented feed pellets using the same priobiotic. These use farm grown protein sources and are designed to reduce co ...

I think this article is very well thought out and states the position in Thailand very well. We use probiotics in drinking and wash water, we compost all manures and treat waste water with a series of septic tanks, again treated with probiotic. We have not used antibiotics in over a year and are actively looking at growing alternate feed plants that will grow on marginal land in near drought condi ...

I compost all our pig manure. I use two three box systems and the compost is produced in 21 days. I brew a probiotic which is added to the pigs drinking water at 1 in 1000 parts. This all but eliminates any smell from the pigs excretions, adds greatly to their health and improves the feed performance. I use the same probiotic at 1 in 20 and spray the compost heaps with it. I also ferment some fini ...

This is a very interesting article written in terms even I can understand. My interest is based on using an LAB based probiotic in drinking water and farm made starter diet pellets. Whilst my initial interest was in reducing the smells in the manure, I have noticed dramatic decreases in FCR in the younger pigs. I also have noticed across the herd a large reduction in ailments and general improveme ...

Jon, Your article about Consumer Purchasing Decisions for Pork is brilliant, well done.

My pleasure. Here in Thailand I have friends both Thai and western, that keep pigs. I am often amazed at the alternatives that the local farmers use. There is much to be learned from these people. I have a young duroc boar that I got as a recent weanling from an English friend. A spectular piglet, but had signs of scouring when we got him. My friend showed me what he had been injecting him with ...