MODERN PIG-KEEPING

Northern Advocate, 26 June 1937, Page 10

MODERN PIG-KEEPING

(By C. E. CUMING).

Grading. “Even in quality from day to da/,” is what the Home trade demands, says Professor Riddet. This evenness in quality is what the pig carcases of our rivals possess and what New Zealand carcases do not. And we will never reach the ideal which the Danes apparently have of absolute uniformity without a keen national system of of-

ficial grading, with the payment of a substantial premium for the right quality. This everybody, even the State experts, is demanding, but the Director of Agriculture is refusing to recommend. Is one official to be allowed to hold up the progress, of a great industry?

What the Danes Say. There has been considerable controversy in the British agricultural Press regarding the values of various foodstuffs used in pig feeding, and some very interesting practical tests have been published. Perhaps the most interesting of all was a letter

from two Danish experts, stating that after exhaustive tests extending over several years in Denmark, nothing had been found to equal grain and separated milk. Just recently, 'a complete test was made in Copenhagen of bacon cured from various types of pig feeding, and it was found that nothing equalled the flavour, colour, odour and firmness of flesh than is produced with pigs fed on grain and milk.

Weigh Your Pigs.

Just as the herd-test figures give the owner who is not always on the spot a good guide as to the management of the herd, so the periodic weighing of the pigs is an excellent guide as to their feeding and management. The other day, a keen owner, who had some litters entered in a competition had to leave home for a week. He left the feeding of the young pigs in the hands of an assistant. Under his own feeding and care the litters had been making very gratifying progress, and the prize was within sight. But at the next fortnightly weighing it was found that the pigs wete just the same weight as when previously weighed! It was no use the assistant ‘declaring that he had fed the pigs as instructed. The scales advertised his neglect of duty.