MILK FOR PIGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20987, 25 September 1931, Page 16

MILK FOR PIGS.

QUESTION OF CONDITION.

CLEANNESS AND SWEETNESS.

DEFECTS IN MANAGEMENT.

RV .T. B. PUNNING. No phase of our farm work is more grossly mismanaged than the rare of*tha piggery. The criticism is not intended for the struggling farmer, who, through no fault of his own, has little to call his own. Men on new land and men on poor land must of necessity be exempt, but it does apply to the greater number of farmers who have passed through many years of prosperity and still keep their pigs in surroundings of almost indiscribable filth, and feed them cold, sour and sometimes half-rotten milk which makes one marvel at the constitution of the pigs which survive it. The old belief that pigs should have milk soured and curdled is one of the greatest fallacies of farming practice. There is not one sound reason why a pig should not be fed warm, clean milk straight from the separator, just as we feed our calves, and there are several reasons why it should be fed that way. Perhaps the most important is that, when skim milk is fed cold half the food value in that milk is used in bringing the milk back to blood heat. Countering 111-efTects. It is true that fresh milk has a tendency to cause constipation in pigs which are shut up in sties, but a small amount of grain or pollard will correct this trouble. Where pigs are grazing on pastures, as most pigs should be, their digestion will function perfectly. Another strong argument in favour of feeding fresh milk is that some few hours after the milk is taken from the cow the sugar of milk, one of its most valuable food properties, automatically disappears. Quito apart from all this, clean milk must, in the nature of things, be more wholesome and nourishing than the half decomposed concoction which is so often fed. The writer has seen the death rate of a large herd of pigs practically eliminated by a change-over to clean milk and reasonably clean troughs.

Our feeding methods also are about on a par with the quality of the material we use as food. From being the dirtiest and most disagreeable job on the farm, the expenditure of only a few pounds will make the work easy, pleasant and, possibly, profitable. I would suggest that the milk bo pumped to a smooth galvanised iron tank (corrugated iron is too hard to keep clean) of the necessary size. This tank should be in a concreted yard sufficiently large to hold the necessary troughs. The yard should take in the corners of three or four paddocks so that different lots of pigs can bo fed at one time. Arrangements in the Yard. A two-inch outlet pipe from the tank, with a stop-cock as near the tank as possible, could lead, by means of various ties and elbows, to all the troughs, each pipe being strongly held by posts let deeply into tho ground. The tank also must be protected from the rush of hungry pigs. It is an improvement to have the yards railed in with a good hinged gate into each yard. The troughs may then be filled before tho pigs are let in. A water tap at the tank is of great assistance in keeping the tank clean, but it may bo more suitable to pump a bucketful up from the shed. If half a minute is spent twice a day sluicing out tho tank it will remain perfectly clean and the milk will go to the pigs practically without a taint. Reverting to my original statement concerning cold milk. liow long will it be before some farmers make use of electricity to keep milk at tho correct temperature for separating, and at the same time ensure warm milk for their calves and pigs ? I believe the milk vat of the future will be built with a false bottom which will either be connected to the hot-water system already in the shed, or belter still, be heated direct by a small element. Tho present may not appear to be the best time to advocate changes and improvements, but it is for the very reason that, farmers must accept lower values for farm produce that it becomes increasingly necessary to improve our methods. The great slump after the war proved what farmers can do when necessity drives and this present occasion will prove no exception. As far as swine husbandry is concerned an overhaul of the management of 80 per cent, of our piggeries appears to be indicated.