RATIONS FOR PIGS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 77, 13 March 1933, Page 11

RATIONS FOR PIGS

ECONOMICAL FEEDING. THE UidE OF SILAGE. Until recent years the common method of raising pigs was to allow them to grow slowly as big stores on the garbage and waste products of the farm, and then fatten them off on unlimited quantities of concentrates, such as barley meal, etc. Unfortunately that practice is still adopted by some pig raisers, but in the great majority of cases an entirely new idea as to the most profitable method of fattening pigs has been developed.

The present day pig raiser eliminates tho store stage altogether, or at least reduces it to a minimum. His pigs are expected to continue growing at the same time as they are being fat- s tened, and to grow fast so that they j may reach the proper weight for marketing at the earliest possible age. To- t day both the weight and age at which t pigs are marketed are very much less c than was the case comparatively few years ago. Probably no one ever took ( the trouble to determine the cost of | producing each pound weight of pork c and bacon with these old-fashioned £ pigs, but the fact that pig raising was not very popular, even among dairy farmers, suggests that the profits were r neither very large nor very certain. In more recent years the question of £ pig feeding has been the subject of considerable experimentation and in- £ vestigation. The cost of producing 1 t lb. of pork or baeon with a wide t variety of foodstuffs has been care- ( fully worked out, and as a result of the discoveries that have been made it c is possible for the pig breeder to de- g termine quite easily which of tho vari- £ ous foodstuffs available is likely to £ give the most profitable returns from L his pigs. With comparatively little trouble the present day breeder can x determine what his pigs are costing j him, and how much food is being con- c sumed for each pound of live weight 5 increase. He has discovered that the j cost per ton of the food frequently . may be a secondary factor in the cost s per lb. of pork, and that it is quite pos- , sible for a mixture costing, say, £l2 j a ton, to produce each pound of pork j more cheaply than a mixture costing , £8 or £9 per ton. Naturally the net ) profit on a pig is influenced by many other factors than the cost of food, ( since labour, depreciation of breeding ( stock and equipment, taxes, interest. s etc., all have an influence. In the ; great majority of cases, however, the ( cost of feeding undoubtdly is tho ( largest of the expenses, and the one showing the greatest variation. ( INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. ] Interesting experiments relating to ' the efficiency of various classes of foodstuffs for pigs have been discussed ’ in these columns from time to time, and recently the results of feeding ' tests with various grains were describ- . ed. Another interesting set of figures relate to te.sts carried out to determine the feeding value of meat meal. In these tests, as in those previously described the quantity of food required to produce each pound increase in live weight is found by dividing the weight of food consumed by the actual live J weight increase. In these tests it was found that this quantity varied from 2.4 lb. to 6.6 lb. The lower figure was obtained with a mixture consisting of 65 lb. barley meal, 25 lb. of pollard and 10 lb. of meat meal, while the latter figure was the quantity required when the meat meal was eliminated from the mixture. It can be readily understood that as long as meat meal is at a reasonable price tho substantial saving in food induced by its inclusion in the mixture must mean a material increase in the nett return from the pig. In the actual experiments referred to here the saving of over 4 lb. in the quantity of meal used made a difference of from 4d to 5d per lb. of live weight increase, or of from 5Jd to 6|d in the cost per lb. of the dead weight of pork. This experiment showed that the pigs getting barley meal and pollard alone put on weight at the rate of less than i lb. per day, while those receiving barley meal, pollard and fish or meat meal gained nearly 14 lb. per head per day. These pigs were growing as well as fattening, and it is emphasised that this must be the object aimed at by every pig raiser who would produce fat pigs at a profit. The old idea that a special “fattening ration’’ was necessary has been exploded, and it may be taken as quite definitely proved by modern experience that any ration that will enable a pig to put on weight at a fair rate per day and on a reasonable quantity of meal per pound of increase will also fatten it if a little more food bo given. Whatever the mixture used experience has shown that the flesh and bone formers are just as important in the ration for fattening pigs as they are in those for pigs required to grow. Actual feeding tests indicate that the proper proportions for theso mixtures should be about 12 per cent, of albuminoids, 56 per eent. of carbohydrates, i per cent, of fats and I per cent, of phosphate of lime, all reckoned on the digestive constituents only. Mixtures giving these proportions of digestible constituents may be depended upon to give good results, no matter what particular ingredients may be used. Of course, where the pigs are to be kept in sties it is necessary to include in the abovo ration provision for some fibrous materials. USE OF SILAGE. An inquiry sometimes received from correspondents is whether silage can be used economically in tho feeding of pigs. Of course, only where a very large number of pigs are being raised would it pay to set up a silo for tho special purpose of producing silago for pigs. But that a dairy farmer already possessing a silo can economically use a certain quantity of the silage in the I feeding of his pigs is undoubted. Again, pigs will eat the long, unchaffed silage made in pits or stacks, though the chaffed silage usually made in tho overhead silo is more easily handled, can be” fed with less waste, and has ’ other advantages. Pigs will eat both I sour and sweet silage, though probably 1 the sweet, somewhat brown silage, with , a fairly high percentage of dry matter s is the bettor. p For pig feeding the less hard, woody C fibre the silage contains the better will it be digested. For this reason tho

crop should be cut fairly young, and before an excessive quantity of fibre has developed. As a feeding stuff for pigs silage may bo regarded as taking the place of grass and other green crops which might not be available at certain periods of the year, particularly the summer. Silage varies so much in the percentage of water it contains, and its albuminoid ratio varies so considerably, according to the kind of crop from which it was made, that it is difficult to give any figures as to its exact feeding value. It may contain as low as 15 or as high at 35 per cent, of dry matter, and the albuminoid ratio may be as wade as 1 to 10 in the case of green maize silage or as narrow as 1 to 3 for lucerne or clovers. Obviously then no definite feeding values can be allotted, and the same rules have to be followed as in the case of pigs being fed on green crops. If the green crop consisted of green maize, oats or grass, with little or no clover, then a meal mixture fairly high in albuminoids is necessary; if, on the other hand, the green crop consisted largely of leguminous plants, such as peas, clover or lucerne, the meal would require a smaller proportion of albuminoids. As a general rule the silage should not ba mixed with meals, either wet or dry, when being fed to pigs. The better practice is to give the silage separately, and allow the pigs to help themselves to what they require.