THE FOOD OF PIGS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3822, 16 October 1936, Page 10

THE FOOD OF PIGS

TWO MAIN CLASSES. Food substances may be divided into two main classes—those which produce fat and warmth, and those which produce muscle or meat. The former are known as carbonaceous fods, the latter as fleshformers or proteins. No matter how liberally they are fed, carbonaceous foeds are incapable of producing flesh, and unless proteins are available no growth can take place. Proteins will produce fat and warmth in addition to meat but as they are usually the dearest part of the diet it is wasteful to fed them for this purpose. Any excess of protiens may cause unthriftiness and disease. Best and most economical results are obtainable only if the ration is properly balanced and contains the correct proportions of carbonaceous and protein foods. The proportion existing between protein and carbonaceous food in a ration is called the nutritive ratio. A food sue has milk of a sow contains one part of protein to two parts of carbonaceous food. This is necessary to provide for the extremely rapid growth of very young pigs. As pigs become older their capacity for rapid growth diminishes, and conseqeuntly a ration containing a smaller proportion of protein is indicated. Unless there is at least an approximate observance of these proportions a serious wastage of food must result. At this point it is informative to note that the nutritive ration of potatoes is 1 to 16, and that of separated milk is 1 to 2. It i s not uncommon to find that pigs are fed for extended periods on one or other of these substances. The resultant waste is enormous. If fed together in the correct proportions these two foods form a good diet, but used indiscrimiinately— as they often aife—tjhey are largely wasted. Wlherever posible, it is desirable to use foods produced on the farm, but it will often pay to purchase pig feed in order to balance the home-grown foods available. For instance, the dairy farmer with large amounts of separated milk available may find it profitable to purchase barley, while the farmer with a big amount of potatoes, apples or barley should consider the purchase of foods rich in protein—meat-meals or peas—in order to balance the rations of his pigs. Unless the producer ha s a clear understanding of the principles of feeding, he should seek technical gui-

dance before making purchases, as otherwise much of his money may be I wasted. It is not uncommon to meet i with instances of carbonaceous foods I being purchased to supplement foods of the same kind, while protein rich ' supplements are purchased to feed in conjunction with home-grown foods already rich in protein.