GREEN CROPS FOR PIGS

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6573, 7 February 1925, Page 2

GREEN CROPS FOR PIGS

Green crops proper are a great help to the pig feeder, as in a favourable season they give an immense yield for a very small outlay. Probably the meat valuable of these is Chou moelly grown as a fodder crop for all kinds of stock, and it is doubtful whether there is anything of the kind that pays better for pig feeding. This kale will yield as much as 30 tons to the acre, and if we take its feeling value to be no more than a tw.ifth of barley meal, this means th; t such a crop would, at the present tin o, when meal is worth close on £2O per ton, l-epresent a return of at least £4f per acre. This kale should be sown at intervals from spring onwa;ds to the middle of summer, or even later, and will come in for use in the autumn. It stands a certain amount of frost, but it is best to begin using it before the stems get too ha d. The plant should be given plenty of room in order that it may develop properly, for ( the thing to aim at for pig feeding is a big stem rather than an abundance of leafy growth, although the leaves as well as the stems arc good food and much liked by pigs. Thousand-headed kale is also a useful food, producing, as it does, an al-indance of leaves which pigs are very fond of. It should be sown in April and well thinned, and will then come in after the marrow-stem kale early in the year. Rape is another gt.od food, its great advantage being that it matures quickly, being ready to feed off within three months of sowing. Though not of the' same feeding value as kale, this crop is a cheap one to grow. It is an excellent crop for foul land, the growth being so strong and rapid that weeds have but little chance.