Can cows eat pig feed?

It is not recommended to feed cattle with pig feed. The reason is:

1. Adding a large amount of unprotected fat to the feed of pigs and broilers will reduce the feed intake and cellulose digestibility of cattle and sheep, and easily cause flatulence and bloating.

2. Pigs and broilers are fed a lot of antibiotics. Long-term feeding will destroy beneficial microorganisms and ciliates in rumen and affect rumen microbial fermentation. Thus affecting the absorption and utilization of non-protein nitrogen by ruminants.

3. A large number of rumen regulators and rumen buffers are added to cattle and sheep feed, but these ingredients are not found in pig feed and chicken feed. Long-term use will lead to high rumen acidity and affect the appetite and growth of cattle and sheep.

In short, if pigs and chickens are fed for a long time, it may cause chronic poisoning, weak legs, inability to stand, indigestion in the stomach, slow growth in the later stage, irritability after eating cattle, hurdles and other undesirable phenomena.

Pig feed contains a lot of copper, which is dozens of times more than that needed by cattle and sheep, causing rumen burden. Long-term use will lead to high rumen acidity, affect the appetite of cattle and sheep, and affect growth.

The difference between them is that the digestive systems of pigs and cows are different.

Like people, pigs are omnivores and monogastric animals, and the food they eat is mainly digested and absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract. Because a pig has only one stomach, the food it eats is concentrated feed or processed cooked food. Because of this, a pig's digestion of food requires not only gastrointestinal peristalsis, but also a large number of digestive enzymes to assist digestion, so as to decompose macromolecules such as fat, starch and protein into molecular substances for digestion and absorption.

Cattle is a ruminant, and it has four stomachs, namely rumen, reticulum, bicuspid stomach and abomasum. After eating, cows need to return the semi-digested food to their mouths to chew again, and then enter the rumen to mix with digestive juice. Under the action of a large number of microorganisms (there are a large number of fungi in the rumen of cattle), they decompose and digest food, and this is repeated several times before the food is completely digested. Therefore, the digestive system of cattle is mainly ruminant, supplemented by digestive enzymes and beneficial bacteria. The digestive system of pigs is controlled by digestive enzymes.

As far as the digestive system is concerned,

Cattle can convert roughage into their own nutrients, while pigs have higher requirements for concentrated feed. So the fineness of cattle feed and pig feed is very different. In order to help pigs digest food, a lot of digestive enzymes are often added to pig feed, while cows don't need so many digestive enzymes. Excessive digestive enzymes will disturb the ecological balance in rumen of cattle. Therefore, if you eat pig feed for a long time, cows may not digest well.

Pig feed often contains a large number of antibiotics, especially antibiotics that inhibit gram-negative bacteria. There are a large number of gram-negative bacteria in the rumen of cattle, and it is these bacteria that can help the rumen of cattle digest and decompose forage. Antibiotics in pig feed just killed these beneficial bacteria.

To sum up, it is an incorrect decision to feed cattle with pig feed. In the short term, cattle grow fast, in the long term, cattle grow slowly. Therefore, we should choose a special feed for cattle, which has sufficient nutrition, good meat quality and fast meat growth.