SUGAR BEET FOR PIGS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 265, 8 October 1940, Page 4

SUGAR BEET FOR PIGS.

CALL TO FARMERS. Town dwellers, for the most part, unless they are very kocii gardeners, need think only uf the morrow, 'i'ho farmer, on the other hand must think and plan at least six months ahead, buys a statement issued by the Wo.lingfuli District Dig Council. The cycle oi tousoiiH, spring, summer, autumn and winter, move's inexorably on, each Season with its particular problems and tasks. Especially is this so lur the 'livestock farmer, who must prepare well in advance for the winter months when the bounty of grassland is at its lowest. Most lurrners hate achieved a routine in fodder conservation, lilted to local conditions and the numbers of stock carried oxer tlio year, liuc this year is not a normal year —it is a xvar year, xxlien Eritain needs tons ut thousands of extra tons of our animal products. Particularly in the held of pig production will an extra effort have to bu made to provide for the several hundred thousand pigs that .will be carried through next winter to make bacon in txvelvo months’ time. Tlio late summer litter is no problem if "<> provide for them now, but it will be useless next May to bewail a pack of ballgrown, uiiiiiiisbed porkers if farmers have no feed for thorn and they have to be sold tor only half their true vuluo in an unsympathetic market. Mow is the time to make provision fur the yet unborn pigs. The questions resolve .themselves 1 VMiat shall I (gtov/ and how much shall 1 grow? banners have a choice—pumpkins, suedes, mangolds, currots, sugar beet, ami even potatoes, are first-class for wintering pigs if they are running in good pustules, sleeping in dry, dmught-prool quarters and getting some meat-meal, at least day. Of the choice, sugar beet is perhaps tlio most promising. This is tiro experience of a prominent Shannon farmer who grexv a 40-ton crop of sugar beet last year, ifo fed it along with lib of kibbled barley and ilb of meat nielli per pig per day, to a lino of 70ib store pigs which were worth at the beginning of the winter no more than 15s apiece. Over a period of txvo months they u'.u less than 10s worth of concentrates and £ ton of sugar beet ouch, and grew at tho rate ot lib per day into l u olb pigs worth at least 4os each. The grotW return per aero lor Urn sugar boet could not liaxe been less than £t>o and the net return at least L6O, after making allowance for labour in growing and iceding out tiie crop. This is, indeed, a handsome return lot any farm crop. I

These Shannon pig-9 were intciesting in another xvay. They were something more than the hungry appetites for separated milk that many farmers seem content to carry through to the spring. They were big, xxell-gioxvn pigs carrying plenty oi bloom and they needed only live or six weeks on separated milk to- turn them into prime bacon. The average ?olb stoic pig wintered on marigolds and jib of meat meal xvill reach only 90lb by the time milk supplies are available and need the best part of TO to 12 weeks on milk before they reach bacon weight. The consequence is that they will drink an extra 160 gallons of milk as compared with tlio Shannon pigs. T hough heavy winter stores may cost a little more to produce than light stores, they pay more than proportionate dividends because the farmer can fatten at leas;, three 1301 b stores on the milk that is required to take two 901 b stores to bacon weight.

YIELD IN FOOD VALUE. Sugar beet has only half the cropping power of n angolds but,, weight for weight, it has double the dry mutter content and so the yield of food per aero is about tlio same lor the two ciops, grown under identical conditions. Sugar beet, lio>\ever, bus a very substantial advantage in that a young pig has u very busy day eating enough mangolds to keep body and soul together. Furthermore, it dissipates a greater proportion of llic food value of mangolds in mastication and digestion while it uses up further heat in warming up a large bulk of cold food to itsown body temperature. The consequence is that bugar beet lias a greater food value per acre, as compared xvitli mangolds, than one would expect from chemical analysis. The question arises: lloxv much sugar Loot will need to be grown/ On good soil whore an 80-ton mangold crop can be grown, a 40-ton ciop of sugar beet can bp expected, but a more likely crop xvill be in the vicinity of 30 tons per acre. A mature pig xvill require a ton of beet and each store pig about two-thirds of a ton. A man xvitli one boar, lixe sows, and 25 stores will need in all about 22 tons* of roots, suy about three-quarters of un acre. Don’t be afraid, however, of growing beyond the needs of wintering, because surplus roots arc very usclul in conjunction with milk for topping off pigs in the spring, while the daily cows will relish any s'ugur beet the farmer has beyond this. , The crop requires simi.ar cultivation to that given mangolds. It is best soxvn on land out of pasture which bus bad deep and tine cultivation. On account of its deep-rooting nature, soxving on the ridge is advantageous. A seeding of 51b per acre is sufficient, while manuring should follow that given mangolds —on most soils 5 to 6cxvt of super per aero is recommended. It is an easy crop to groxv, but on some JVlniiawatu soils it is subject to the borax deficiency disease, mottle-heart, and for this reason a dressing of 201 b of borax lo the acre is advisable. Mid-October is recommcndod as the best time of seeding in the Manawatu district.

Though the main theme of this article has been the advocacy of sugar beet for winter feeding, other root crops are not to bo despised. It is quite probable that there will, be insufficient sugar beet • seed available this year and so for many a choice will have to' be made from other root crops. The special virtues of alternative crops will be dealt with in a subsequent article. The concluding thought, whatever the farmer’s intentions may be, is that roots must bo grown for next autumn arid winter if ho is to achieve his objective of a baconer for every cow. Spring-time is seeding time; the harvest comes later. I '