FEEDING THE PIG

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 212, 21 August 1931, Page 4

FEEDING THE PIG

ECONOMICS IN PRODUCTION. Several articles have already been published in these columns giving some idea of the proportions of the import trade of bacon and pork into Great Britain, also advising dairy farmers in the Dominion to make strenuous efforts to capture a larger proportion of this lucrative trade. An article published below, taken from a recent publication of the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, will give producers a good idea of the costs of producing pork in Great Britain. From the details given in this article, it certainly appears that farmers in the Dominion have a much better opportunity of producing pork at a lower cost than their fellow farmers in Great Britain. This is particularly the Case in this district, where crops of roots, maize and pumpkins, beside the invaluable skim-milk from home separation, are all produced at a low cost. Also climatic conditions are conducive to the successful raising of pigs, without a large expenditure in expensive buildings. The following is tho article referred to:—

Does it pay to increase the weight of food for pigs with a view to speeding lip the arrival of maturity ? This is one Of the questions put by Lord Phillimoro (a Berkshire breeder),' in ah article on “BconoiinCs in rig prtfduction” in the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal for 1930. The answer to the question, given by the author, is that food being anything froth 70 per cent, and upwards 1 of the cost of a pig, it can never pay to feed more than will bring about the lowest possible ratios of food to dead weight gain. Selling for pork, using a 40-sow unit, Lord Philltmore found that his overhead expenses in 1929'were 26 per cent, of his total costs. He found, as most systematic commercial feeders do, sooner or later, that there is a limit to what can be economically fed. WHAT ARE- THE LIMITS* , What are the minimum and maximum amounts properly feedable at various ages! “With eight-weeks weaners,” he says, “I begin at 21b. per day for tlie first two weeks, and I find an eightweeks pig will not eat more than 21b. meal per day. I go on to 2 Jib. at ten weeks, a further Jib. at 12 weeks, 3 Jib. at 14 weeks, and , 41b. at 10 weeks. On this basis, if I can reach 1001 b. live weight in 16 weeks, I have fed 1941 b. of meal plus green food since weaning, for a live gain of 70 lb.; if I reach it in 18 weeks I have fed 2501 b., which at 11/- a cwt. costs £1 4/9, and I should be well satisfied if I could average this last rate of gain.” Much needed light would be thrown on this subject, Lord Phillimore suggests, if a series of experiments with sufficient numbers of average (not specially selected) pigs were carried out. EQUIPMENT COSTS. Cost of equipment figures put forward by his lordship are interesting. He accepts £l2O per annum to cover the cost of housing the plant for a 40-sow unit. After allowing for high depreciation, this provides for a capital expenditure of about £IOOO. He allows £250 as the cost of huts for breeding Stock, £350 for permanent yards for fattening purposes; and 3boo yards of fencing at 1/3, which comes to £l9O, making a total of £940, to which is added the cost of troughs and loose plant, and laying on water. For rent £3O is set doWn for the necessary grassland, Which will be about 25 acres. Rates, veterinary expenses, commissions, carriage and office expenses, will amount to £IOO, part horse is reckoned at £SO, and these costs, added to wages, will amount to about 25 per cent, of the total cost of production, of £1 0/6 per pig bred and sold at the rate of one pig per sow per month. What Lord Phillimore calls the “cost structure” of the pig of 1001 b. live weight is then built up as follows:—

AU IV u From this is to he deducted the proportion of the labour and the overheads already included in the £1 5/for the weaner, say 6/-, leaving a final cost of £3 4/3, but it is admitted that the figures relating to overheads and their division between, weaner and the fattening pig are not easy to elucidate.

£ s. a. Cost of wearier 1 5 0 Food at 11/- cwt, 8-18 weeks 1 4 9 Labour and overheads .... 1 0 6 £3 10 3