SUGAR BEET.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 167, 14 June 1940, Page 10

SUGAR BEET.

OUTSTANDING ROOT CROPS. FOR WINTERING PIGS. There are a number of excellent sugar beet crops in this district which have been grown for winter leeding of pigs, states Mr C. J. Hamblyn, Fields Superintendent of the F’iclds Division, Department of Agriculture. Experience with this crop in South Taranaki during the past three years lias shown it to be quite outstanding as a winter root crop lor pigs of all sires. Both the leaves and roots have been fed to pigs of all ages from weaners to mature sows, with excellent results and definitely no harmful effects. Unlike mangolds the sugar beet tops and roots can be fed fresh from the paddocks with no sign of scour in even the youngest pigs. Ihe tops which in a good crop will weigh in April and May up to 25 and 30 tons per acre, are themselves of much higher feeding value than either carrots or mangolds. The tops contain up to 16 per cent, of dry matter, whereas carrots contain 12 to 13 per cent and mangolds about 11 per cent. The tops are excellent food for fattening pigs or sheep in the late autumn and early winter and should be used before the roots are required. The roots can bo stored in heaps in the open, being very resistant to frost and keeping well into October and early November. If pitted and covered they will keep as long as mangolds and retain their feeding quality. On the other hand the roots which contain 23 to 21 per cent, of dry matter as compared with the 10 to 11 per cent, in mangolds and 12 to 13 per cent, in carrots can be fed direct from the paddock freshly pulled. . The crop should be fed to pigs on a grass paddock whore the animals are able to eat a considerable quantity of grass or clover whioli will help to balance the ration. Crops of 30 to 35 tons per acre of sugar beet roots are being fed to pigs tbW.winter with excellent results, the animals continuing to put on weight at a surprising rate on sugar beet and grass, or sugar beet and a small allowance of meat meal. • Sugar beet is the only heavy yielding root crop that has a sufficiently high analysis to enable winter pigs to fatten satisfactorily with little or no other food such as grain or meat meal or milk. This crop is destined to play a very important part and perhaps a revolutionary part in the pig industry, and those farmers wfio have a good crop for this winter will be well repaid for tneir enterprise in being pioneers in the use of sugar beet for pigs. IN TARANAKI. One South Taranaki dairy farmer, milking over 100 cows, has been feeding since the middle of May betwkeen 90 and 100 pigs on acres of sugar beet. 'lhe pigs are fed in the cow paddock, a part of which was used for the sugar beet crop. For shelter they have a thick box-, thorn hedge under which they lie comfortably. The crop has been very carefully weighed and the details should be of interest. The tops ; averaged 22 to 30 tons with an analysis of 15 to 16 per cent, dry matter. Ihe roots averaged 39 tons with an analysis of 24 ■" per cent, dry matter. The farmer, who is an experienced mangold and carrot grower, stales that lie has never seen winter pigs pick up and thrive on either of these crops as they have done on the sugar beet, He is satisfied that lie can carry these pigs through inthriving condition on the'sugar beet until the nnlk supply is again sufficient for them. It is his intention to draft out the heavier pigs for stye feeding as soon as there is sufficient milk in the spring. Another crop of one 'acre in the same district, though not sown until December 8, weighed out on June 3 at 31 tons for the roots and 32 tons for the tops, which were being fed with excellent results direct from the paddock to 35 pigs of all ages. These pigs will all go away in the early spring as baconers. A thirty ton cron of sugar beet roots has the same feeding value as 6 tons of barley; 51b sugar beet is equal in feeding value to lib of barley, the sugar beet .being sufficiently concentrated to allow for even small pig 9 to eat sufficient in a day to put on weight; This is not the case with any of the other root or forage c-rops such as ' mangolds carrots, swedes, or even pumpkins. All comparisons between sugar beet and mangolds from the point of view of yield in this and European countries show that a sugar licet crop about half the weight of the mangold crop, which can he grown under the same conditions, can be expected. The lower yielding sugar beet crop contains, however, the. same feed value in the roots alone in a much more concentrated form, and the feed available from the large and comparatively rich sugar beet tops is an extra. By far the most important point in favour of the sugar beet is, however, the fact that pigs have iio difficulty in eating the quantity required for ' putting on weight and have also a further appetite for either moat, meal or cloverv grass to supply the protein required. Though the export of sugar beet seed from the Continent and Great Britain is temporarily cpt off, overy effort is being made to ensure a. supply to meet (he expected very considerable demand from dairy-farmers for sugar beet seed this snring, and farmers will be advised as early as possible of the position regarding the supply of seed.