MANAGEMENT OF SOWS

Southland Times, Issue 23948, 14 October 1939, Page 14

MANAGEMENT OF SOWS

EXPERIMENTS IN PASTURE CONSUMPTION

The quantities of pasture consumed by sows is of great importance when they are not receiving supplementary feed; writes Mr C. E. Ballinger, of the Ruakura farm experimental staff, in the Journal of Agriculture. The sow, unlike other farm animals, has no store period during which body reserves can be built up. She is producing all the time. From the results of trial it appears that about 201 b to 251 b of cow pasture can be dealt with by mature sows. Twenty-five pounds of grass is barely the maintenance ratio of sows of 400 to 5001 b weight, and there is no doubt that the . poor condition of sows so commonly seen shows the need for better sow management. From observations throughout the year and weekly weighing of experimental sows at Ruakura it is found that sows on pasture alone barely hold their condition in winter and do very little better in summer. If they are well fed while suckling the litter and the litter is a small one then sows stand some chance of regaining condition. If, on the other hand, the litter is large the sow will be in low condition at weaning, and whatever the condition at weaning it will be much the same at the next farrow—if pasture is the only source of feed. .It is remarkable, says Mr Ballinger, that while most farmers will agree that both cows and sheep must be in good condition <o give the best results, the sow. which is by far the greater producer, is expected to give her best results while living for two-thirds of her time on a sub-maintenance ration. For sows to produce to their maximum they should be fed up to five or six gallons of skim-milk a day after weaning until they regain condition lost in suckling the litter. From then on they should be fed enough to hold that condition until five or six weeks before farrowing, when the ration can again be increased and so have the sows farrowing in a good rising condition.