THE PIG INDUSTRY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3938, 11 August 1937, Page 11

THE PIG INDUSTRY

WiHAT FEED TO GROW. ADVICE TO FARMERS. Roots have been nominated as the most suitable feed for pigs, but no hard-and-fast rule can be laid down The only guide as to which is the best source of cheap feed is the yield of feed units that can be obtained and the cost of obtaining it. The following figures are comparative values of different feedfstuffs and yields per acre:— ROOT CROPS. Parsnips, 40 tons per acre and 9600 lbs feed units. Carrots, 40 tons and 8000 lbs. Swedes, 45 tons and 7200 lbs. Cabbage, 30 tons and 6000 lbs. Chou mollier, 20 tons and 3600 lbs. Kale, 15 tons and 3000 lbs. Rape, 6 tons and 1440 lbs. Mangels, 60 tons and 9000 lbs. Artichokes, 12 tons and 4800 lbs. Potatoes, 12 tons and 4800 lbs. Stock melons, 60 tons and 7800 lbs. Pumpkins, 60 tons and 10,800 lbs. Soft turnips, 30 tons and 3000 lbs. GRASS, ETC. Grass, 18 tons and 4680 lbs. Lucerne, green, 16 tons and 3200 lbs. Leceme hay, 5 tons and 3250 lbs, Ensilage, 12 tons and 3240 lbs. GRAINS. Barley, 1 ton per acre and 1400 lbs feed units per ton. Maize, It tons and 1640 lbs. Wheat, 1 ton and 1400 lbs. Peas, 1 ton and 1400 lbs. Oats, 1 ton and 1200 lbs. Pollard, 1200 lbs. Bran, 900 lbs. Meatmeal, 1800 lbs.

Linseed meal, 1600 lbs. In the past too many farmers have grown crops because of convenience or prejudice. While convenience is of some importance, it can be overdone. Artichokes are often grown as a pig feed because they call for very little expense and little work in feeding them. A six-ton crop of artichokes producing 2400 lbs of feed units per acre for just the cost of the rent—say, 30s per acre—compares favourably with an 80-ton crop of mangels producing 12,000 lbs feed units if the mangels cost £8 per acre to produce. The middle course is, however, probably the most useful. Grow small areas of several different crops in place of a larger area of any particular one.

Do not grow two tons of artichokes when your land could grow 100 tons of mangels per acre.

It has been stated that the ideal amount of these cheap feeds is about half the total feed used, and in quantity this amounts to 21 tons for every cow milked—say, 1 acre of a good crop for 30 cows, plus 10 tons for every ton of grain bought. There is nothing to be gained by trying to use still greater amounts of the cheap feeds because the quality of the whole feed supply is so reduced by using too much cheap feeds that it is impossible to get pigs to thrive on it.