What grass can be given to piglets: a list of plants that can not

In the diet of piglets must be plant foods. Vegetable additives (carrots, beets) are popular. In the summer, herbal complementary foods are required. To figure out what grass can and should be given to piglets, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the beneficial qualities of plants. It is important to take into account that there are crops that are poisonous to animals of all ages.

What grass can be given to piglets

The importance of plant foods in the diet of piglets cannot be underestimated. Herbal supplements improve digestion, contain a variety of nutrients and vitamins. Fresh grassy foods can make up 30-40% of a piglet's diet.

Part of the cut grass is given to piglets fresh. The other part is finely chopped, steamed in hot water (2 hours before feeding). The herbal mass is mixed with crushed potatoes, concentrates, and the mixture becomes like a thick soup. This food can be given to piglets from the age of three weeks.

In piglets at the age of 4 to 9 months there is an active formation of the skeletal system, muscle tissue grows. It is important to provide animals with good nutrition, with a high protein content. In summer, piglets are often kept on pastures. A green diet is supplemented with kitchen waste, vitamins, concentrates.

Beans

Herbal crops contain a large amount of protein, vitamins, mineral elements (especially phosphorus and calcium). The optimal time for mowing grass is before the flowering phase. It is during this period that herbs contain the greatest amount of protein. In plants mowed later, the indicators of nutrients and trace elements deteriorate.Clover, alfalfa are most often added to food for piglets.

Clover contains 750 kg/ha of digestible protein. The green mass is saturated with flavonoids, carinoids. Clover contains protein, tannin, and other useful substances. Mow the grass before the flowering phase, since the amount of protein in the flowering crop is reduced. Alfalfa contains 1050 kg/ha of digestible protein, essential amino acids, minerals. In the diet of piglets, young grass is added in unlimited quantities, which has grown to a height of 10-15 cm. The advantage of alfalfa is its rapid growth after mowing.

Cereals

From cereal crops, winter rye or wheat is added to food for piglets. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the nutritional value of feed from cereal crops is lower than feed from legumes. Juicy sprouts of winter crops are used as green food, which are mowed 2-3 weeks after the snow melts.As wheat and rye grow, the nutritional value of plants decreases.

Advice! Piglets eat grasses of cereal crops worse than legumes, so their share in the diet may be less.

Cruciferous

From this family of crops, turnips and rapeseed are popular.

Due to its rich composition, green rapeseed is a particularly good complementary food for piglets:

culture contains protein, ascorbic acid, carotene;
kg feed contains 2.6g calcium, 0.8g phosphorus, 0.3g magnesium, 1g sulfur, 4.5g potassium.

Juicy green rapeseed is well digested by the digestive system of animals. The winter crop grows rapidly after mowing, which is an advantage when providing piglets with complementary foods (5-6 months of a full-fledged green supplement in well-irrigated fields).

Poisonous herbs for pigs

For normal growth and full development, it is desirable to graze piglets on lawns with fresh grass. In the meadows, in addition to useful plants, crops can grow that animals should not eat. Most often there are several plants.

Veh poisonous

Perennial culture, grows along the banks of ponds, in swampy shady places. The peculiar smell resembles the aroma of parsley. All parts of the plant are poisonous, especially the root. Symptoms of poisoning: severe convulsions, respiratory and cardiac disorders. Death occurs as a result of respiratory paralysis.

Datura

Common places of growth - outskirts, garbage sites. Animals become poisoned by eating leaves and stems and become shy and restless. Cardiac activity is disturbed, breathing becomes tense, superficial.With severe poisoning, death occurs in 4-6 hours.

Hemeritsa

Tall plant found in forest, mountain, floodplain meadows. The main symptoms of severe poisoning:

nausea, stomach contents expelled through nose;
drooling;
convulsive contractions of the muscles of the neck, abdomen.

Animal behavior is getting restless. Convulsions appear, the gait becomes tense. The cause of death was pulmonary edema causing respiratory arrest.

Buttercup

Perennial plant, grows in wet meadows, forest clearings, on the banks of ponds. Eating greens leads to a violation of the animal's consciousness, convulsions, diarrhea, and a complete inability to stand. Severe damage to the digestive tract and kidneys causes death 30 to 60 minutes after the onset of symptoms.

Nightshade

Perennial culture, often grows among shrubs, in wet meadows, on the banks of ponds. In piglets, nightshade poisoning manifests itself quickly. Symptoms: unsteady gait, dilated pupils, cardiac dysfunction, diarrhea. Consequences of poisoning - degenerative changes in the liver, heart muscle.

Mustard

Weed culture is found in fields, gardens, wastelands. In poisoned animals, a depressed state sets in, muscle cramps appear, appetite decreases, and diarrhea begins. Death occurs very quickly as a result of suffocation from pulmonary edema.

Green feed is considered an important addition to piglet diets. Greens are introduced into food gradually, starting with portions of 100-150 grams. A popular and easy way to diversify the diet is to graze animals on green pastures. When mowing grass, you need to make sure that there are no harmful plants in the cultivated area.