PROFITABLE PIGS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4951, 4 February 1937, Page 3

PROFITABLE PIGS.

Bearing in mind the most important feature of pig accommodation—namely, sanitation —there can be only two clearly defined systems of keeping pigs which are completely satisone is the grazing system, wherein pigs are kept on fresh pasture or crop land which is either rested or cultivated and grazed in rotation; the other is the intensive system, in which pigs are kept on impervious floors, such as concrete, which are properly drained and regularly cleaned. In both of these systems the object should be to keep the pig on clean ground or on clear floors, for a good deal of the infection to which pigs are subject lurks on the ground or floor of pig pens which are not rested or are inconvenient to cleanse. Where there is a sufficient area of good grazing land or cultivation land the grazing system has many advantages, and should be adopted either entirely or in combination with the intensive system, which is often convenient for sows with young litters of pigs. If sufficient paddocks can be cropped for the pigs to do the harvesting, the paddocks being ploughed a couple or three times each year, infection will be kept at a minimum, the pigs will receive benefit from the exercise gained in grazing or harvesting of the crop, and the fertility of the land benefits. On grazing land where cultivation is not practicable it is necessary to have sufficient paddocks of ample area to keep them always well grassed and to enable the resting of the paddocks at frequent intervals. Big paddocks should not be overstocked so that they become bare, unless they can be cultivated or rested for several months. Even if pigs are paddoclced, as suggested, the ground near the troughs will become “pig sick” after a time, and it is most desirable that such equipment should be movable. Sheds of convenient size, say with a floor space of Bft square, should be provided in the paddocks to shelter the pigs from the extremes of the weather, and these sheds should be built on skids to allow of their easy transport about the paddock or from one paddock to another. Food troughs and platforms, self feeders, and water fountains should also be mounted on skids for easy transport. With movable equipment and sufficient paddocks there is no necessity [or cleaning up with broom and shovel, and where pigs are kept on the grazing system the whole piggery is found to be free from noxious odours which are usually associated with small pen piggeries; these features make pig raising a much more congenial undertaking, where the grazing system is adopted.