PIGS ON PASTURE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 236, 18 September 1936, Page 11

PIGS ON PASTURE

Lower Producing Costs

The value of pasture for pig-raising has been demonstrated by many settlers in the irrigation area, but fanners in any district could largely reduce the cost of pig-keeping by making better use of the pig's adaptability for grazing. In the United States the three leading pasture plain that stand out for the production of pork are lucerne, rape, and red clover in the order named. In prime condi tion these three crops will curry about the same number of pigs an acre, al though lucerne furnishes good grazin; for a long period. They will carry from 20 to 30 spring pigs an acre and from 15 to 20 mature pigs an acre. Rye seeded in the autumn furnishes excellent grazing, and will carry up to 15 spring pigs and eight to ten mature pigs an acre. Spring-sown oats will support nine to ten mature pigs for about six weeks, and oats and rape will carry 10 to 12 mature pigs an aero fur a longer period, depending somewhat on the growth of the rape after the oats are spent. A seeding of half a bushel each of oats and lie.d peas an acre, combined with 41b. or 51b. of rape, will carry 12 to 18 mature pigs an acre. Tbo pasturing season may be extended by sowing the mixture at 10-day intervals for two or three seedings. Running brood sows and young pigs on lucerne or some other pasturing crop materially reduces the cost of producing pork. Pigs on lucerne pasture make satisfactory gains when fed maize lor fattening, as the excess protein m the lucerne balances the high carbohydrate content of the maize. Moro rapid gains are secured in all cases when some concentrate is fed in addition tu the pasture.