PROPER PIG MANAGEMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2802, 18 November 1931, Page 6

PROPER PIG MANAGEMENT.

It would pay dairy companies to foster the pijr industry much more than they do. Properly managed pigs could make all the difference to many t farmer nt the present time. True, the way pigs arc generally kepi, failure to breed and depending on stores tc use the skim milk and whey, do not leave much profit, especially at ruling market rates. But why not arouse some interest in proper pig management and dnve home to farni- ■ ■ the good money in the business when it is properly conducted. Cleanliness is the chief considera-tion-clean, draught-proof sties and clean grass runs. There is hardly a piggery in the country where any attempt is made to keep the pigs out of their drinking troth hs, with the result that in hot weather one pig may be laying in the food, and where this is not the case a number of the pigs will have their feet in the trough. Water is never laid on to the piggery, and Ihe skim milk or whey supply falls off the pigs have not sufficient drink. The provision of water for pigs is certainly a serious problem now that movable pens are becoming popular. Indeed, the day of the fixed pig pen is rapidly disappearing, and it is well that it should be so. Where pigs are given the run of a poor pasture—it is generally the worst field they are put on—the owners have found to their surprise that in six or nine months time it has become the best rye-grass field on the farm. This was the experience of Massey College, where the pigs were put on ‘o two very poor pastures, on which hardly a plant of ryegrass was to be found, and in six 'months’ time the fields were thick rye grass pastures. This suggests that by pasturing pig in small enclosures on diffeernt parts of the farm ryegrass fields can be automatically established without any expenditure on fertilisers.