Nursery pig feed: dense diets, modest tonnage, heavy price per tonne
Nursery feed carries pigs from weaning to roughly 25 kg. Phase FCR is the best in the herd programme, commonly 1.4–1.8, but the diets are the most expensive per tonne after creep, so tonnage and price need to be modelled by phase rather than blended.
Who buys at this stage
- Herds contracting nursery and grow-out feed with different mills
- Producers modelling the cost of a phase change in the nursery programme
- Buyers sizing annual nursery tonnage from pigs weaned per year
Form and packaging
- Crumble or pellet with diameter stated
- Bagged or big bags; bulk where nursery volumes justify it
- Separate labelling per phase so diets are not mixed on site
Commercial feed types
Nursery phase diets
Usually two or three steps between weaning and the end of nursery; price each as its own line.
Crumble or small pellet
Form follows feeder design; state particle size and fines expectation.
What the RFQ must specify
- Pigs weaned per year and weight range covered by each nursery phase
- Expected FCR per phase
- Form and particle size
- Quantity per shipment and committed annual volume
- Delivery point, port and preferred Incoterm
- Delivery schedule and acceptable lead time
- Packaging and pallet or bulk handling constraints
- Certifications and documents required with each shipment
- Currency, price basis and how long the price must hold
What moves the cost
- Specialist protein sources and amino acids
- Premix and additive package
- Mill changeovers between short phase runs
- Packaging and delivery frequency to nursery sites
Storage and shelf life
- Nursery volumes are modest — frequent small deliveries usually beat long storage
- Keep each phase separated and labelled
- Dense diets attract pests; keep the store sealed
Certifications and documents to ask for
- GMP+ B1 / FAMI-QS or an equivalent feed safety scheme
- HACCP plan and the mill's own quality manual
- Certificate of analysis per batch (proximate analysis, moisture)
- Mycotoxin, salmonella and heavy-metal testing regime
- Traceability of raw materials and batch numbering
- Non-GMO, halal or organic certification where your market requires it
- Country-specific feed registration and import documentation
Supplier evaluation checklist
- Installed capacity against your monthly tonnage, not just the annual total
- Evidence of supplying the same stage and pellet form commercially
- Batch consistency record and how out-of-spec batches are handled
- Lead time from order to delivery, and behaviour during raw-material volatility
- Price basis: fixed, indexed to a named raw material, or reviewed periodically
- Delivery capability to your point, Incoterm and vehicle or vessel constraints
- Technical support available on-site and the escalation route when results slip
Size the volume first
Questions buyers ask
How much nursery feed does a pig need from 7 to 25 kg?
Why price nursery separately from grower feed?
Does FeedMatch formulate nursery diets?
How the request is handled
You submit the requirement, a person at FeedMatch reviews it, and only then are qualified suppliers approached on your behalf. Offers come back normalised to the same delivered basis so they can actually be compared. No supplier receives your details automatically and no introduction happens without that review.
Submit a feed project requestFeedMatch Group is an independent, supplier-neutral procurement platform. We are not a feed manufacturer, trader, nutritionist, veterinarian or lender, and we do not guarantee prices, supply, FCR or animal performance. Figures on this page are indicative commercial planning ranges, not specifications. Every requirement is reviewed by a person before any supplier is approached, and no supplier receives your details automatically. Last reviewed 16 September 2026.