PIGS AND DAIRY FARMING.

Matamata Record, Volume III, Issue 203, 2 December 1920, Page 2

PIGS AND DAIRY FARMING.

A PROFITABLE SIDE-LINE. That thcro is a groat deal of money in pig-raising as a side-line to dairying' is proved by the experience of several enterprising- farmers who have gone in for this class of business in (he Morrinsvillc district. It is understood that Mr. ft. J. Hynes made £250 per annum from his pigs during the time ho was farming - at Tatuanui. The principal feed used by Mr. Hynes was whey "from the Tatuanui factory, large quantities of which were taken every week. Mr. Eddowcs, of Hoc-o-Tainui, lias over 20 sows and about 100 weancrs running- about his farm. He had bad luck with his pigs during the rainy season, many of them being drowned in the floods. Mr. J. Grayden, of Motumaoho, recently made £ofi from one litter of nine weancrs. Probably the one who has gone in for pig-raising more systematically than anybody else in the district is Mr. P. Tompkins, of Tahuna Road. He has found the industry most profitable, and, taking into account his success with pigs, ho claims that his profit per cow probably compares more than favourably with thai of any dairy farmer in the district. Mr. Tompkins found that pigs will graze as well as sheep. The first requisite, he said, in the course of tv interview, was a secure paddock. Ho had found that one acre to a sow provided sufficient food. In the paddock there must be a sound pig-sty, which, he sad, must be built free of draughts. If the drainage was good, an earth floor was to be preferred. '" Earth was much better than either wood or f cement, and was much easier on the pigs. Mr. Tompkins said that he had proved that the Berkshirc-Tamworth i cross was easily the best pig for grazing purposes. He believed there was no pig in the country to equal the Bcrkshire-Tamworth cross either as a grazer or as a mother. She could always be depended upon to give big litters, and she resisted disease as no other pig did. With the exception of the fowl thcro was no animal so susceptible to disease as the pig, which contracted tuberculosis, cramp or lung trouble as easily as possible. The average grazing pig was killed between the ages of nine months and a year, and it was" truly surprising how prone pigs were to catch diseases before they reached that age. Mr. Tompkins said that it might be contended that if what he had said was the case, people might say it would be dangerous to eat pork. In reply, he said that if pigs were not kept in filth, and in small damp sties, and if they were treated properly their liability to contract disease could be reduced to a minimum. No animal was subject to such careful and rigid inspection from Government officials as the pig. Mr. Tompkins went on to say that the Berkshirc-Tamworth cross was an ideal bacon pig because of the wealth of the lean it gave in proportion to the amount of fat. There was nothing- to beat it in this respect. In fact, he would go so far as to say that the Yorkshire pig was no more fit to be placed before the consumer I as bacon than the Jersey steer was fit to be placed before him as beef. The Berkshirc-Tamworth cross invariably weighed out heavier than was expected. The breed always killed heavier than it appeared. As for the food, Mr. Tompkins said he had found nothing to equal rape for grazing purposes. Ho drilled in the rape in November, generally about one pound to the acre, adding super and bone, o* super, guano, and bone a--, manure. The rape grew six or eight >nchcs>, and the pigs when put on were kept in feed during the dry sped. Then they were put on to soft turnips, lie had found Purple Top Mammoths the be-1. The pigs wore kept there until (he swedes were ready and when they were sufficiently matured to kill they were topped oil' with mangolds and a little pollard in the sty. Mr. Tompkins had a paddock of 10 acres which lie used for heifers and pigs. He had 10 sows, which usually returned two litters of an average of seven piglets per season. When the pigs were born, skim milk was served out to them. In three or four years lie had only spent about £C in pollard.