War-Time Readiness On Farms

Northern Advocate, 6 September 1939, Page 2

War-Time Readiness On Farms

THE PIG INDUSTRY

The present emergency makes it

opportune to rail attention to two phases of Hie pjg industry particularly

The first is ilu- matter of increased production. As d is highly probable that ship;, will be lost at sea owing to

the activities of ericm\' submarines, all that we oroduce will not: reach P,ri-

i: in. Fin liter, with, armies to feed, and supplies from certain foreign countries ctil. oil, there will be a very considerable demand for our primary

products;, and those who are not <•;■

gfige-d in active service at homo or abroad will need io turn their ener-

gies fully to the production particularly of meat, wool and butter. To the extent that the farmers who arc loft, do this, w.li be measured their contribution to national service. 'The second phase relates to the facilities for increased production under difficult conditions of labour. Many of our farmers and farm hands will most probably be called upon to perform military service. As a result, tiie management of many of the farms will be left in the hands of their wives and families. ' It is therefore most essential that the conditions be made as favourable as possible for those who will have to carry on.

These two matters arc somewhat connected, for. without the best available facilities, especially in the matter of pig keeping. losses of stock must ensue.

Faciliiifes

As good management is the first essential in pig keeping, one may deal with this phase first. Under difficult conditions, the best

unit on a pig farm is a good. warm, draught-proof sty. complete with dunging passages, with earthenware troughs .in the form of half glazed pipes, set-in to the concrete.

Either pipes or a trolley should run from the shed to the sty, so that the milk can be taken there without effort. Where women and children have to do the work, this is more than over essential. No man will wish to return to his farm to find his family worn out by the hard soul-killing work of carrying buckets of milk over muddy ground to broken-down pig pens. An electric wire run round the bottom of a couple of adjacent cow paddocks will be all the grazing room that will be required for the pigs, and they can be let out on to these paddocks at will, and according to the condition of the weather. In bad weather, it will be best to keep the pigs shut up. There are several good electric fences on the market that will enable this to be done.

A Simple Sty. The main work will be in the building of the sty. Effort should too concentrated on this and the \vork completed as soon ns, possible. With these simple facilities, there will be very little work indeed in looking after the pigs, and if can be done by quite small children. The sty should be built facing the sun—that is, to the north—so that sunlight, the greatest enemy of disease, can enter as far as possible to every corner. There are many excellent sties, built in the last year since the advent of the Northland District Pig Council. In Ruakaka, on the farm of Mr H. E, Hewlett, is a modern Danish type sty. Other excellent sties can be seen on the farms of Mr D. Marra and Mr A. Cates, of Awakino Point, Dr.rgaville, on the Dargaville experimental farm, and, on a small scale, on Mr C. P. Butler’s property in Whangarei. Flans and specifications may be obtained free of cost from the council, and, as pig club members in all districts have been fully instructed in the manner of their erection, farmers who are not members should be able trj got assistance ,from them. II would be an excellent plan if farmers could gel. together in groups and assist each other in the speedy erection of such sties. They will not only assist those who have to carry on., but will be a permanent capital improvement on the farm. Feeding. The rules to be adopted in the feeding of file pigs are comparatively simple, and a definite schedule can be adhered to These rules are ns follow: About ion days, before the sows are due to farrow they should be brought in from the paddocks where they arc grazing and fed on skim milk with a small quantity-of bran and a little lick.

A dicalc;o lick :s the host, as the phosphate and lime hi ihose licks is more* readily absorbed than in any other cheap form. The day of (arrow, u little bran and water is all that is required. Anything additional to this may well lead to trouble. For the next three days, bran and water is all that the sow will require. Other feeding at this stage will upset tile normal composition of the sow's first milk and piglets will be lost. From the third day onward, the feed should be increased by the addition of milk and then, at the end of a week, a little meat meal and pollard. until iho sow is getting all she

can comfortably consume in three nr lour feeds a day.

As soon as possible, the youngsters should be taught to feed. This can be done by building a small creep in the corner of the sty. and putting a hide trough with some meat meal and barley meal in it dry.

As the pigs learn to take this, a little milk can be added so that alter

a few days from the commencement of feeding they arc taking all that they can comfortably dispose of in three or four feeds per day. At any lime after the piglets are feeding properly they can be weaned.

Piglets and Sow

The best feed for fhc piglets is milk, meat meal, barley meal, and a little lick. The amount of meal need never be more than a pound per day per pig.

The pigs should be fed this way. and given all the grazing they need, until they are heavy porkers. All meal can bo dispensed with when the pfgs are light porkers, provided that they get ample grazing and some lick. Once they reach the heavy porker stage, if one wishes to carry them on to bacon weight, their feed can be cut down to not more than four gallons of milk a day, plus ample grazing. If more milk than this is given, the pigs lay on too much fat and will be graded down at the works. No meal is necessary at all in the finishing stages, and would tend to do more harm than good. To return to the sow: As soon ps the piglets are weaned, she should be fed on a ration of milk, meat meal, barley meal or pollard, and some maize meal.

Pea meal can be substituted for moat meal, but meat meal is generally more easily procured and is less expensive. Some lick should also be provided, and peelings from fruit or potatoes are helpful. This feeding should be continued over service and for at least a month afterwards. After this there is no necessity for anything but good grazing, ample water, and access to a satisfactory lick. The former theory whereby sows were fed fully for six weeks prior to farrow has been shown to be at fault, and this new method will increase both the size and the weight of the litters.

At Ruakura it was found that tho size of the litter was increased by approximately two pigs and the weaning weight by a total of 901bs. by the adoption of this new method.

Imparting Knowledge

Those who are to carry on should bo thoroughly instructed in these simple details of feeding and management, and if they are adhered to, there should bo little difficulty m getting absolutely satisfactory results. The time to prepare for eventualities is now. Farmers should therefore make every effort to get their sties built to provide the fences round the adjacent cow paddocks, and. to instruct them families in those methods of management.

They can then rest assured that if the worst comes to tho worst, those who are left behind will be able to carry on with a minimum of labour and with good results.