Swine

Oldfart1939 · 2017-08-13 12:14:14

Another old thread resurrection.
The dialogue of what colonists will be able to raise for food on Mars is possibly one of the most important topics we should be discussing.

Many of the prior posts on this thread were too obfuscatory, in that they were loaded with inaccurate numbers and assumptions. Let's "cut to the chase" here. How much does a real-world pork chop weigh? Figure something like 0.35 pounds, uncooked. That's a boneless portion, or rounding off for ease of calculation, 160 grams. Ten meals would be 1.6 kg, or 100 portions at 16.0 kg. Allow a serving of pork once a month for a colony of 100 Marsonauts, and we immediately see the need for 2 pigs (annually in Mars years). The initial post's figures were wildly off.

Why pigs? They are very easy to raise, and are quite social. Caring for the animals would be a form of psychotherapy to alleviate loneliness and for those missing home. A single brood sow can have several litters of piglets annually, and average litter size is between 6 and 8. High feed efficiency near 3. They are able to eat what humans would regard as agricultural waste--stalks, leaves, husks, etc, as a supplement to normal animal feeds. Our American pioneers regarded pigs as the most valuable asset, and even until a few years ago, the family farmers called them the "mortgage lifters."

SpaceNut · 2017-08-13 16:37:00

https://farmraisedcooking.wordpress.com … -one-pork/

What is important for some is the location for the cut of meat that swine will yield...

th?id=OIP.n_2QVcMpxFCp2de6mw6I4AEsDL&pid=15.1

http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/ap_pigc.html

Oldfart1939 · 2017-08-15 12:17:33

I remember my Dad telling me that on the farm in the 1920s, the only part of the pig that didn't get used was the squeal! Ever eat pickled pig's feet? Quite a tasty treat that I haven't seen in years!

GW Johnson · 2017-08-15 12:50:07

Makes you wonder how BBQ convection works in 0.38 gee (less buoyancy to heated air), and what we do with the air pollution plume.

GW

elderflower · 2017-08-20 14:55:09

Ham. Jamon. Jambon. Prosciutto. You don't need a barbecue.
Also starring brawn, sausages, soup, pate etc.
I'm not sure how Muslim and Jewish settlers would deal with this.

SpaceNut · 2017-08-20 16:58:45

They just need a new holiday where its ok to consume.

When you are hungry you will eat....

Oldfart1939 · 2018-10-26 17:48:26

I've only raised pigs once on my ranch. taking a weaned piglet at maybe 6-8 weeks old to pork roast ham, sausage, etc., takes roughly an additional 14 16 weeks. The feed efficiency is defined as the animal weight gain relative to feed required, so a feed efficiency of 3 means it takes 3 pounds of feed to result in a gain of 1 pound animal weight. Pigs are pretty good, but only chickens have a feed efficiency of 3; other animals are slightly worse. Pigs are more around 4, and beef cattle are not that great at 5.

I'm going strictly from memory on these numbers, so don't take them as absolute gospel. It was around 1992 that I did the pigs.

elderflower · 2018-10-27 05:05:57

The feed efficiency depends on the quality of the feed. I doubt that stalks etc will give the same efficiency, but still a lot better than putting it all on the compost heap. Feeding high grade rations to pigs is wasteful as these items can be eaten by humans. We need to cut out the middlehog.
There is another product that we should consider: arable and livestock waste can be combined with human waste, sterilised then used for growing mushrooms. You don't even need to light them. Spent mushroom compost can be reused as a soil conditioner.

Terraformer · 2018-10-27 07:10:35

There's also Duckweed, which could be grown using nutrient rich waste. Maybe used as animal feed for chickens - certainly for fish.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-27 11:22:03

When it comes to food ready to eat or giving it a pig to have a bit of bacon or ham I bet we will be the ones eating and not a pig....

RobertDyck · 2018-10-27 13:02:22

According to Wikipedia , feed efficiency of cattle hasn't changed. Cattle are 4.5 to 7.5, pigs at time of slaughter 3.0, dressed meat 4.5 was fair. Feed is not whole plants, it's food. So if it takes several pounds of food to produce one pound of meat, why not just eat vegetables? Livestock also consume oxygen, produce CO2, produce sewage. And you can't keep livestock in a plastic film greenhouse, they'll peck/ bite/scratch/dig/kick out. Livestock requires a hard wall barn. This may be hard for many people to accept, but Mars will be vegan for a very long time.

Last edited by RobertDyck (2018-10-27 13:34:34)

jfenciso · 2018-10-27 13:17:05

The feasible source of protein is to look for a crop produced a high content of protein, and they have high water- and nutrient-use efficiency. Sending pigs in Mars is doesn't look feasible for me this time.

Terraformer · 2018-10-27 14:12:31

These kinds of pigs could be taken, though:

Two_Adult_Guinea_Pigs_%28cropped%29.jpg

Oldfart1939 · 2018-10-27 15:32:50

RobertDyck wrote:

According to Wikipedia , feed efficiency of cattle hasn't changed. Cattle are 4.5 to 7.5, pigs at time of slaughter 3.0, dressed meat 4.5 was fair. Feed is not whole plants, it's food. So if it takes several pounds of food to produce one pound of meat, why not just eat vegetables? Livestock also consume oxygen, produce CO2, produce sewage. And you can't keep livestock in a plastic film greenhouse, they'll peck/ bite/scratch/dig/kick out. Livestock requires a hard wall barn. This may be hard for many people to accept, but Mars will be vegan for a very long time.

One of the reasons pigs are attractive is the time from which feeding begins to slaughter; somewhere in my archives, I have the record of how much feed I had to feed in order to raise 3 pigs from weaner pigs to roughly 250 pounds each. By rough calculations it was between 2300 to 2800 pounds to produce finished pigs that actually were 810 pounds in the aggregate.

It really wasn't too much work, and pigs are actually quite social creatures. I recall raking up the pig poop and tossing it into the compost pile daily. I always had one of them pulling on my shirt or jacket--very gently until I would reach down and scratch her ears.

My major objection to vegan diet is the improper amino acid profile provided. All vegan does not make for a healthier body, and wound healing is delayed in injuries.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-27 15:44:10

Some will argue that vitimans will cure all when being a vegan...

Oldfart1939 · 2018-10-27 15:58:09

Vitamins aren't the issue; it's eating protein containing the proper quantities of amino acids in their structures. Vegan based diets are heavy in carbohydrates--not so much in protein.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-27 16:32:21

Just one of the reasons that peanut butter is given in most food pantry help as they know that meats are short in supply and just for a different reason when going to mars.

Here is a topic where I posted a table on the vegan question
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7839

jfenciso · 2018-10-28 00:19:08

SpaceNut wrote:

Peanut butter is given in most food pantry help as they know that meats are short in supply and just for a different reason when going to mars.

I agree! Planting peanut will help the soil increase the fertility also.

To increase the availability of phosphate in the soil, chickpea and maize are recommended.

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