RATIONS FOR PIGS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 8

RATIONS FOR PIGS

Comparative Food Values RESULTS OF RESEARCH Brice a ton or bushel is unreliable as a guide to which is the cheapest pig food. Foods vary considerably in actual nutritional worth. They vary, too, in the purpose their content may serve. Foods may be approximately classified into three groups: the carbo-hydrates .which provide energy, the proteins, which make for growth, and, finally, the protective foods. In terms of the human diet such foods will be recognized in bread or potatoes, then in meat and finally in, say, oranges or spinach. In milk the human race has one almost perfect food, one that satisfies all three needs. Skim-milk, however, is practically devoid of the original fat, and it lias lost with that considerable part of its protective elements. Whey suffers both losses, and also the loss of protein, which has gone as casein into cheese. In the New Zealand pig dietry skimmilk or whey provides the standard ration, with all other foods, though playing a considerable part in the aggregate, regarded as supplementary. ■Value of Grass. The cheapest supplement and the one that might be more widely used is good pasturage. Young grasses and clovers contain both energy and growth foods, plus considerable protective elements. Roots of various kinds are widely used, but good grazing provides higher food value pound for pound than do roots Sugar-beet is a sole exception. This is not necessarily to condemn the use of roots, sueb as swedes or carrots, but rather to justly point out the virtues of good grazing. Good, however, as this is, it is not sufficiently concentrated to pro. vide an ideal diet for pigs, which have a quite different digestive system to that of sheep or cattle. Naturally the same comparison, even more so, applies to roots. ' Meal Feeding. For really successful pig farming, the year round, certain use must be made of meals in one form or another. That these might be purchased to best advantage, an excellent table was published six months ago by the Wellington District Pig Council. This gives the number of food units in every 1001 b. of the food stuff and the comparative cash value, using barley as a standard.

greater value limn those not marked with an asterisk. These figures mean thai if, for example, pollard could be purchased at £7/17/- u ton, the farmer could afford Io give £l.O a ton fol* barley and si ill get a foodstuff as cheap as pollard. Or again, that if he were offered maize in place of barley, at £lO a ton, thou the maize would be a better buy at that same priei. (Luder present conditions this is improbable as the feeding value "I maize works .mt at only 5/8 a bushel, al whirl, it could not. be bought.) Meal I nil Basis. World-wide research in feeding of animals has produced deliniie and aceur.jte tables as to their food renuirements. Applied to pi"s, these show that they require the following "meal units” daily for good growth and the production ol hrs: quality carcases from good type pigs. , ■ ’ ■ i,, Meal ot' 1 Ida's <n’ i. 40-t.tl (weaners) ••• 'j-r.o-uii I '.>o-120 (porkers) 120-150 ;!•*' 150-200 (baconers) In the feeding of a sow with young, allowance must be made for the piglets; as a large mature animal, the sow herselt i<ouires six units and one additional unit is to b<‘ allowed for each piglet being suckled.' Thus £pr a sow and litter of eiglit pigs,-1-1 meal units are required d'filv and this would be obtained iron) I t gallons of milk, were that the sole lood provided. That quantity amounts to 1-lOlb a day. Such a quantity ol liquid is over-do'ing it, and to give the sow a fair doing, it would be far better to gne her only 10 gallons of milk a day, am make up the balance ol her needs with •lib. of mixed meal. (jpon the general principles ol meal foediw" the Pig Council gives this aduee “’Hie financial results of leeding meal to pigs show that it is profitable to use nt 'iverir'e prices, provided the quantity used does not exceed 1001 b. of meal for each bacon pig* and Toll), for each. porker over the fattening period. This is with skim-milk. Best, returns and better quality carcases will be obtained it the meal is' fed in the early stages; topping-off should be avoided. Those quantities menu a maximum allowance ol i|lb. a pig a day from weaning. _ M’ith whey, meal must be used for profit.” Meal Units Specified. 'i'liat the unit system of rationing pigs may I’"' applied on farms it is necessary for' farmers to know the comparative wilues of usual foodstuffs and so this table of values is given. A meal unit is One gallon separated milk; Or li gallons whey (when meat meal is used as the major siipplenient); Or lib. of mixed meal; Or 2-tlrd lb. of meat meal; Or 101 b. of mangles, 91b. swedes, bib. carrots, or -1 potatoes; Or I.llb. molasses. Roots should not be fed in large quantities unless meat meal is at the same Except for the Hush milk period, when the main feeding problem is how to get rid’ of the milk, there are problems associated with getting the best out ol ones pigs that render knowledge of, and use ot this table imperative, if full profits are to be gained. Unfortunately all too many farmers seem frightened to spend £1 or so on the purchase of meal, even though this would give a three or four-fold return.

Comparative Food value with units barley at Foodstuff. per 1001b. . £ 10 a ton 70 £10 0 0 ♦ Pons ” 70 10 0 0 Wheat < IP 14 3 SO 11. S 7 ♦Linseed meal so 11 8 7 •Moat :iu<i bone so 118 7 “Meat meal (pure) 100 11 5 S Outs co Pollard . 1. > 7 17 1 •15 6 8 7 Molnsses .... 50 7 2 10 “These increas P food value of whey and roots, and for this purpose have a far