FOR THE MAN ON THE LAND

Northern Advocate, 28 July 1934, Page 15

FOR THE MAN ON THE LAND

THE NORTHLAND FARMER

MODERN PIG-KEEPING (Continued from previous page). An Import-ant Point, Too many of our Largo Whites are big rangy pigs and with these maturity is not reached till the animals are too heavy for bacon requirements. Therefore at bacon weight they are not nearly .so mature as other strains of the same weight: and are consequently not so well developed in loin and ham. It is the rather shorter and lower-set pig that matures more rapidly and this is the typo of Large White that should be aimed at, for not only will it mature earlier but it will bo more profitable in every way. Length can be obtained at too great a cost. A Scientific View.

According to .John Hammond, the famous Cambridge authority, it is a mistake to castrate the male animal that is only intended for pork. In addition to preventing a check to growth there is reason to believe, says this authority, that uncastrated pigs would have a better flavour at live weights of 1001 b and under. Potatoes For Pigs.

Where* non-marketable potatoes are available they can be used for pigs, but they require to 'he boiled. They ean form the bulk of the ration provided some grain meal and meat meal are used at the same time. In Germany and Holland it, is quite popular to give the pigs as many boiled or steamed potatoes as they will oat. The eoneentrate fed in addition is comprised of .TO per cent of a product rich in protein and 70 per cent of cereals. A young progressive in the TnkeIcohe district buys all the small potatoes he can from local growers and boils these up for his pigs, giving them also a little skim-milk and grain meal.

According to English experiments cooked potatoes should not be included in rations for pigs under four months of age. After that, they can be used in increasing quantities, but never more than two-thirds of the starchy food—barley, maize, etc. ’ On the Continent the proportion of potatoes to grain is very much higher, Basic Principles.

Whenever rickets, stagger or partial paralysis appears in young pigs, it is an indication that the breeding sows have not had sufficient protein and flesh and bone forming materials during the periods they wore carrying the litters. Also that the young pigs themselves have not been fed on bal-

auced rations. It is well to remember that the body is made up of different parts and substances—flesh, fat, muscle, bone, blood, hair, tusks, hoofs — and that all these require different nutrients for their development. Protein foods (nitrogenous elements) are definitely flesh formers, carbohydrates, on the other hand, being utilised more for building up the fatty tissues, and providing starch and sugar. Minerals are utilised principally in the development of bone, etc., and water is necessary without which growth and development will be cheeked.

Progeny Test, Dr. Hammond, of Cambridge University, stresses tlie value of progeny testing as the safest plan in breeding. To use his own words: CD on’t be content with what your breeding stock looks like; find out what it breeds before using extensively.’' These are very important points, and, personally, we consider them of far greater importance at present than any record of weights. Teat number, for instance, is important for suckling a large litter. There seems to bo much evidence that selecting for a large number of teats gives sows which produce large litters. “This is my experience,” writes a keen breeder. “A chance was taken (as far back as 101 S) with.a gilt which only had nine teats. She was a poor breeder, and her daughters followed suit. All bad to be cleared for this fault. Since then two gilts with sixteen teats have been roared and both have produced litters of I'.i pigs. One sow at present in the herd has not produced a gilt with less than fourteen teats, which is her own number.”