MODERN PIG KEEPING

Opunake Times, 8 January 1935, Page 3

MODERN PIG KEEPING

AND COMMENTS PIG RECORDING Valuable ami necessary as pig' recording is to the establishment oi' pig keeping on a really satisfactory basis it would seem that there is little likelihood of this Important movement being resusRtat.ed in the near future in tJie IVaikato where so Jnuch valuable Information has been elicited by its means. When the Meat Board refused to increase its grant to the Waikato Pig Recording Club "in order to enable the work of the club to be properly carried out, and the club suspended operations, the Pig Marketing Association appointed the pig recording officer, Mr H, M. Pierson, to its staff, in order to keep him in the industry pending resumption of pig recording work. Now Mr Peirson has accepted an appointment on the field staff of Messrs W. and R. Fletcher. Mr Peirson will principally work among pig keepers and will be able to render the industry excellent service by advising farmers on layout problems an/d on pig management in general

Value of Minerals. A report comes from Ohio of a remarkably interesting experiment in the feeding of minerals to pigs. . . All the pigs were receiving a heavy allowance of grain on clover pasture. The minerals consisted of equal parts of limestone and special steamed bone meal, with a half part of salt and traces of iron oxide, copper sulphate, and potasium iodine. When f“d with maize and salt, they enable the pigs to be marketed 13 days earlier than those without, min erals. Each pound of minerals fed saved 2.81 bof maize. Ihe minerals comprised 2.5 per eent of the total food. When with maize, meat and bone meal, and salt, the time of marketing was advanced by nine days, and each pound fed saved I.Blb of maize and 0.1 of meat and bone meal. Barley for Bacon. A correspondent Avrites: —“I believe that there avouW be. less complaint about the quality of our bacon if more barley and less maize were used. Harley is, in my judgement, the best of all cereals for bacon production. It is so regarded in England and Denmark Maize tends to produce soft jat bacon. Good pasture and topping off with barley and skim milk; that’s mv recipe. Oats come next tp, barley. Thrifty pigs that have h|im fed on pasture until they been topped off on barley skim milk, won’t bring any' complaints from the factory. The Boar.

A fact not generally recognised is that the boar is the deciding factor in head points. As weight in head and neck in a bacon pig are largely waste, the medium head with slightly dished snout, but broad between the eyes, set on a finely proportioned neck, is the type of front in a boar to aim at.

The Permanent Site. Undoubtedly the establishment of the pig lay out on a permanent site has certain drawbacks unless necessary precaution is taken to maintain the paddocks in a clean condition. This is where the division of the paddocks and using the two halves alternately is so important; and it would be an advantage if all the paddocks were divided, though we have not yet seen a case where tins sane safeguard against soil contamination has been tried. Certainly the paddocks want to *c well limed at the rate of a ton of lime to th e acre every year and the use of a good penetrating harrowing used before the lime is applied would be a big advantage. Soiled litter from the houses should be removed from me plant. Any pugging near tlo feeding trough should be gauged against, as much as possible, for much mud means worm ml citation. One wise breeder invariably doses his sows for worms before putting them in the farrowing paddock. There is some drawback to every system, and the great economy of time and labour, apart from the ideal conditions provided, presented by the properly laid out paddock method fs so definite that making every effort to provide the drawback, soil contamination, is well- worth while. Pure Breeds.

Several of the pure breeds liave been the subject of investigation But the variation between breeds is not so great as th© variation which occurs within breeds,, and it is more important to pay attention to strain than breed. There is, however, considerable dispute concerning the value of the crossbred as compared to the pure bred pig- For economical meat production, the method adopted by many of the keenest breeders consists of a first cross between breeds. The majority of the investigators are i'll favour of the fjlosshred pig, provided that parof the pure breeds are of strains. Aet lowa, in Hie ITndted States. Professor Shearer mated sows both to boars of their own breeds and of other 1 reeds, so that in their litters there weer both pure and crossbred pics. At birth the purebred v as slightly heavier, but for the period following weaning the crossbred showed superiority loth as regards the rate of gain md economy of food consurapH »n. In a parallel experiment at JUiuois, no significant difference v-as found between the and the crosbred. Just as, there is no

particular difference in the first, cross between certain breeds of sheep and certain breeds of cattle so it is to be expected that between certain breeds of pips the first cross will not manifest this phenomenon of vigour. On the whole, it may be said that crossing is a sound commercial practice.