There are a lot of good things about pigs as livestock. They’re healthy, generally happy, and don’t take up nearly as much room as cows. And of course, don’t forget the pork! Chops, ribs, bacon, and so much more!

But as many beginning keepers find out, and often find out a little too late, pigs have huge appetites, and even a small herd of just 15 or 20 heads can quickly eat you out of house and home if you aren’t prepared.

Accordingly, the mark of a seasoned keeper is knowing how to offset those feed costs with clever sourcing and supplementation. Keep reading, and I’ll tell you all about these tried and true methods that will slash the feed bill for your pigs…

Grow Your Own Fruits and Veggies

One of the smartest things you can do, assuming you have the room and the time, to help out with the food budget for your herd is to grow food for them.

Pigs are omnivores and have the most varied diet out of all the livestock species that you might keep. Virtually every kind of fruit and veggie is on the menu, and many have lots of great benefits for them.

You might consider growing things like radishes, turnips, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, lettuce, squash, and more.

All are healthy and packed with good vitamins and minerals, and just as importantly, they grow fast, meaning you’ll reliably be able to supplement their diet seasonally.

No matter where you live or what sort of soil you have, there’s bound to be a few veggies that will work.

Put Them to Pasture

Compared to cows, sheep, and goats, most people don’t think of pigs as free-ranging animals because they’re so destructive, but with the right approach, it’s possible and indeed beneficial.

If you have good, rich pastures with a variety of edible plants, pigs can provide a significant fraction of their own food.

Plus, free-ranging will improve their mood and help them stay healthier overall compared to confinement. They love getting out in the sunshine and searching for the tastiest morsels they can find.

But there are downsides…

Pigs are indeed quite destructive, and their relentless digging and rooting can destroy plants entirely and ruin your local ecosystem.

The trick is to rotate them regularly to a new pasture, giving the one they were kept on time to recover. Generally, this will be done anywhere from once a day to once a week depending on how many pigs you have, the quality of your pasture, and the size of the parcel.

Feed Them Kitchen Scraps

Pigs eat like pigs, meaning they’ll eat just about anything, including some things that they shouldn’t. This has led many keepers to treat them like garbage disposals and give them food that has gone bad or leftovers they were going to throw out.

That’s usually a bad play considering pigs can still get terribly sick off of spoiled food, but it’s indeed possible to give them kitchen scraps responsibly.

Leftover bits of meat, fruits, and vegetables are all fine, as is the occasional bit of stale bread. Wilted lettuce that you wouldn’t want to serve to your guests or family is still totally fine for pigs as long as it’s not moldy and slimy.

Use some common sense, and your pigs can get plenty of calories out of your own kitchen and stay healthy at the same time.

Shakedown Your Local Grocer for Non-Sellable Produce

Far and away my favorite technique for feeding my pigs for pennies on the dollar is hitting up my local grocer, either the store manager or the produce department manager depending on your institution…

No matter how quick and careful they’re at getting their fruits, veggies, and other products out to market, there are always going to be some that are either deformed or slightly damaged and unsightly that they won’t put out.

Without exception, these items are always bound for the dumpster. Rather than letting them go to waste, you can help your local grocery store recoup a little bit of money and also help the planet by reducing waste. Your pigs won’t know the difference!

Now, sometimes store policy or corporate policy can get in the way of this. Take your time to build a relationship, be respectful, and, if necessary, incentivize the person you’re talking to with the promise of delicious bacon or other products for their trouble…

Talk to Your Neighbors and Friends Who Garden

You don’t have to grow food for your pigs if you know people who do. Even people who aren’t growing things for that purpose!

It never fails that folks who garden will lose some of their harvest for one reason or another. Bugs will get to some of it, a plant will fail and die back, rough weather will damage it, something like that.

Much of the time, these lost fruits will be headed for the compost heap at best, or more likely into the trash. Start spreading the word to your friends, family, and neighbors that you’re collecting such unwanted produce for the sake of your pigs.

If you can stay on top of routine collection during harvest time, most people will be more than happy to contribute their loss as a gain for your pigs.

Hit Up Restaurants and Bakeries for Leftovers

This is another one of my very favorite ways to save money when feeding my porkers. Like grocery stores, restaurants and bakeries will often deal with waste for one reason or another.

Maybe they made too much and now have to throw it out at the end of the day or the following day. Maybe something wasn’t handled correctly and isn’t fit for human consumption. Maybe a big order or purchase just fell through…

Whatever the cause, most owners and managers will be overjoyed to have you haul this stuff off and spare them the trouble of carting it out to the dumpster or dealing with it otherwise.

But you’ve got to use your brain here: obviously you don’t want to feed your pigs something that’s incredibly rich and likely to make them sick, like cheesy potato soup.

Likewise, with sweet confections like baked goods, a little can go a long way; once in a while is fine, but very large portions or a steady diet aren’t.

Nonetheless, this is a great source of cheap calories and energy for growing pigs.

By the Sea? Try Seafood Waste

This is one of the grossest and stinkiest options on this list, but still a very good one. If you live near the ocean or anywhere where fresh seafood is processed and handled, try talking to these places and people and see if you can’t get some seafood waste.

It’s exactly what you’re thinking: fish heads, fish guts, shellfish, things like that…

As horrendous as it sounds and smells, it is nonetheless very good stuff for pigs, though, in the case of fish heads and other parts with large bones or substantially hard shells, you might need to grind it or crush it first to help prevent choking.

If you’ve got the stomach for it, you can usually haul this stuff away for free.

Feed Harvest Waste

Many common crops leave behind all sorts of waste material that is unfit or unpalatable for humans but just fine for pigs. Things like corn stalks and leaves, beet greens, bean plants, and more are all safe, tasty, and reasonably nutritious for pigs.

There are a couple of ways to approach this…

If you have a small herd and are willing to transport them, a farmer might be more than happy to let you graze your pigs on that land to help clear it, and also turn the soil to make it easier for them to prepare the next planting.

Alternately, of course, you can collect the scraps and bring them home to your pigs.

I myself like to get a variety of harvest waste, grind it myself, and then mix it all together to form a mash of sorts. This makes it more appealing to my own pigs and a more versatile basis for supplementation with other, more tempting foods.

Buy Feed Direct and By The Ton

Sometimes simplest is best. Whatever kind of food you are buying for your pigs, be it actual pig feed, bulk grains, veggies, or something else, cut out the middleman and go to the source. If you are buying grains, this means that you should go directly to the granary or mill.

You’ll usually have to arrange your own transportation and have to buy a substantially large quantity to make it worth their time, but if you’re willing to buy several tons at a time you might save a boatload of money over buying from the usual vendor.

The trick here is just to make sure you’ve got a place to store it yourself, and that it won’t go bad or get contaminated while your pigs are munching on it.

For instance, it doesn’t do a lick of good for you to buy 200 of pounds of lettuce if it’s all going to rot and shrivel away before your pigs have any hope of eating it. Foods with long storage life should be prioritized if you’re going this route…

Call Local Orchards to See if they Have Windfall or Waste

Yet another great source of produce, specifically fruit, for your herd is local orchards.

Like every other grower we’ve talked about so far, they will invariably have fruit that they lose to windfall, insect damage, poor performance, or other factors.

Just because it can’t go to market doesn’t mean it isn’t edible and nutritious for your precious piggies. Give them a ring, offer to pick up and haul off, and see if you can’t make a deal.

Get Spent Brewer’s Grain from Breweries

Here’s an old-timer’s trick that you can put to use yourself: call your local beer breweries and see if they’ll sell you any leftover malt and grains from the brewing process. This stuff is discarded after the sugars have been extracted, but it’s still safe, nutritious, and edible for pigs.

The only consideration is that you need to get it as quickly as possible, meaning you’ll be on the brewer’s schedule concerning availability and pick-up. The good news is it’s often available in great quantity for very little money or even free because it is a waste product for them.

Be advised, if you live in an area with lots of pig farms and also a few breweries, chances are pretty good that other keepers will have this source locked down already, or that the brewers will capitalize on the situation by selling the stuff to recoup even more money.

Feed Them Eggs

Pigs can eat eggs, and they are very good for them. A great source of protein, calories, and healthy fats, scrambled eggs are a great way to bulk up their usual meals.

You can see where this is going already: if you’ve got chickens too, especially a sizable flock, you’ll have more eggs than you know what to do with anyway.

Take advantage of that bountiful and nearly endless supply of eggs to keep your pigs growing, full, and happy.

Just resist the temptation to give your pigs raw eggs. Lots of people do, but the risk of transmissible diseases is very real.

Farm Worms

Pigs root in the ground when looking for food; everyone knows that. But besides looking for roots, shoots, and the occasional bug, pigs will also any eat worms that they find.

It sounds gross, but it’s a natural source of protein and calories for them. If you want to start farming earthworms, you can use them as a supplement to the usual diet of your herd.

It’s really easy to do, and you might even be able to start a little extra business on the side selling the worms to fishermen or folks who want to use them to help resuscitate depleted soil.

Talk to Your Butcher or Processor for Scraps

Pigs eat lots of different plant matter, but also lots of different animal protein… all kinds of waste products from the slaughtering and butchering of cows, chickens, and more that your pigs can have, including organ meats.

Again, kind of gross, and you’ve got to get this stuff when it is very fresh to avoid a major risk of illness, but this is one of the very best cheap sources of high-quality animal protein around.

If you’ve already got a good relationship with your local processor or butcher, it’s the perfect time to ask them for the offal and offcuts. If you don’t already have a working partnership, ask a friend or neighbor who you can talk to and go from there…