Pigs: feed planner
Enter weigh-ins and a target; get today's feed amount and a day-by-day plan to the fair.
Weigh your pig, type in the number, and the planner tells you how much to feed today, whether you're on track for the fair, and what your pig should weigh every day between now and check-in. It saves in this browser, so come back after every weigh-in.
Your pig and your target
Today's feed
Weigh-ins
Weigh every two weeks. The plan recalculates from your latest real number.
No scale? Estimate weight with a tape
Formula: girth × girth × length ÷ 400. Tapes run about ±10 lb, so use a real scale when you can.
Weight chart
- Actual weigh-ins
- Plan (feed what it says)
- If you fed full feed
- Show weight 220–320 lb
Day-by-day plan
Feed amounts are rounded to the quarter pound and split into two meals. Rows marked ⚖️ are weigh-in days.
Show the plan
Your saved data
Everything you enter is saved in this browser only. To move it to another phone or computer, copy the text below and paste it there. Paste it into your record book too.
Export or import
How it works
A pig can only eat so much, and every pound it gains costs more feed as it gets heavier. The planner uses two curves that come from decades of swine research and match what our club's pigs actually did:
- Full-feed intake (how much a pig eats if you let it): about 2.5 lb/day at 50 lb, 4 lb at 100, 5.4 lb at 150, 6.3 lb at 200, and leveling off near 7 lb by 250–300.
- Feed-to-gain (pounds of feed per pound of gain): about 2.2 at 50 lb, 2.6 at 100, 3.0 at 150, 3.4 at 200, 3.8 at 250, 4.2 at 300.
Put together, a healthy show pig on a complete 14–16% ration tops out around 1.8 to 1.9 lb of gain per day. The planner figures the gain per day you need to hit your target, compares it to what's possible, and turns it into a daily feed amount. It never recommends less than about 1.6% of body weight (that's a welfare floor, not a diet), and never more than the pig will eat.
Heads up: This is a planning aid, not a vet or a feed rep. Heat, illness, feed changes, and genetics all move the numbers. Weigh every two weeks, watch the pig, and ask your club leader when something looks off.
Where it came from
It replaces a spreadsheet the club used in 2025. That sheet grew the goal weight by a fixed 25% of feed every day and let feed climb past 13 lb/day, so by September it expected a 283 lb pig that was really 248. Checked against those two pigs' real weigh-ins, this model landed within about 5 lb at every weigh-in from April to September.
Tips for using it
- Pick a target you'd be happy with, usually 260–290 lb. If the planner says "behind" in June, that's your cue to push hard now, not in August.
- Buying a pig? Enter the pig's weight and today's date before you buy to see if it can make weight. A 50 lb pig in mid-June is a long shot; an 80 lb pig is not.
- Two pigs? Add both. Each gets its own plan.
- Print the plan and tape it to the feed can. Check off days. That's a record book page.
Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell the club leader so the Handbook can be updated.