PASTURE SUITS THE PIGS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1932, Page 12

PASTURE SUITS THE PIGS

SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDING GOOD RANGE OF USEFUL RATIONS. AN AUTHORITATIVE SURVEY. (By Dr. J. A. Gilruth in the Argus). Victoria is an important dairying State. Pig production is recognised as a valuable adjunct of the dairying industry. Yet according to the director of Agriculture (Mr. R. Crowe), the number of pigs in the State decreased .in 30 years from 350,000 to 220,000, although the human population has increased enormously. Britain imports every year pig products to the value of more than £55,000,000. The American farmer not only feeds a population of 120,000,000 people with pork and bacon, but he exports each year a surplus of 140,000 tons. Surely Australia can capture some of this trade. The pig, though omnivorous, is graminivorous; he does best on pasture, provided that he has supplementary feed. With supplementary feed there is no class of stock which offers a better and quicker return for capital expenditure and labour at the present time. This statement does not apply only to the dairy farmer; it applies equally to the wheatgrower. Sufficient and suitable pasture is an essential of profitable production. Lucerne is the best; if litters drop-

ped in spring are. depastured on this, and given a liberal supply of grain, they will be marketable in autumn. Ulover pasture comes next. Rape also is excellent. But any good succulent pasture is suitable. In every case, however, even with herbage of high protein content such as lucerne and clover, the addition of grain and other supplementary foods of high protein content is imperative if the best results are to be expected. The best of these other supplementary foods is skim milk. Where that is unobtainable or insufficient in quantity, what is called “tankage” in the United States or meat meal must be supplied. Tankage is composed of slaughterhouse refuse meat, internal organs, blood, etc., from which most of the fat has been removed by cooking —in fact, the material that is too often made into fertiliser here. Where skim milk is available, it should be used for growing pigs at the rate of 21b to each lib of grain, and where it is not available its place should be taken by 51b of tankage for each 1001 b of grain. Even linseed meal is not so satisfactory as tankage, 21b of it only equalling lib of tankage as a feed. SOME NUTRITIVE MIXTURES. A growing pig can add to its weight at the rate of to 21b a day. Food of great nutritive value must be supplied therefore. The two principal classes. of food elements are the proteins—the growth producers—and the carbohydrates, or fat producers. The former build the animal body, tne latter are necessary for finishing in marketable condition. The protein feeds. include skim milk, tankage, bran, lucerne and clovers. The carbohydrate feeds include maize, wheat, barley, etc. A reasonable mixture depending on price and convenience is to be aimed at’ in each case. A. liberal supply of protein feed is advisable till, the pig weighs about 1251 b, and any one of the following mixtures supplied in self-feeders has. been found suitable from careful experiment:1. Maize, 1001 b; “tankage,” 101 b. 2.

Maize, 1001 b; skim milk, 2001 b. 3. Wheat, 1001 b; maize, 1001 b; tankage, 151 b. 4. Barley, 1001 b; tankage, 101 b. 5. Wheat, 1001 b; tankage, 101 b. At wean-ing-time the pig should weigh from 301 b to 501 b. This ratio of protein feeds should be continued till the live weight is ‘1251b to 1501 b, when the tankage or skim milk should be decreased by half. Perhaps nowhere has the question of adding minerals to the food supply of animals reecived so much attention as in Australia. Experiments have been carried out on pigs at the Roseworthy Agricultural College (S.A.) with interesting and valuable results. The mineral mixture consisted of: Charcoal, 20 per cent; common salt, 20 per cent; sulphate of iron, 9 per cent; Epsom salts, 5 per cent; sulphur, 5 per cent; bicarbonate of soda, 5 per cent; potassium iodide 1-8 per cent; bone meal or superphosphate, or ground rock phosphate, 40 per cent. This mixture was either added to the grain rations at the rate of 8 per cent., or left as a free ration according to the class of experiment. AVliile the value incidentally of some of the ingredients may be questioned the last would certainly be important and of I value. The test enabled the following ; conclusion to be arrived at among others: i“Bearing in mind the . preferences indicated by the pigs in the free choice pens and the current trend in grain prices, an economical ration for pigs at the present time appears to be a dry crushed mixture of grains in the following proportions: Wheat, five parts; barley, four parts; peas, one part. Meat meal should be added, in the absence of skim milk, at the rate of four parts per 100 of the above mixture and a superphosphate mineral mixture, such as that indicated above, at the rate of 1-Jlb per 100, together with whatever green feed may be available.” Full particulars of these and other experiments were published in the Journal of Agriculture of South Australia in March last, and republished as Bulletin 245 by the South Australian Department of Agriculture, to which interested readers are referred for details.

i South Africa is equally alive to the possibilities of pig-breeding and pork production. There, as in the southern States of the United States, maize is the staple grain product. It has been found from experiments conducted by the Division of Veterinary Services that a ration consisting of maize 90 parts and meat meal (tankage) 10 parts, to which has been added 5 per cent, of a mixture consisting of three parts bonemeal and one part salt, together with green feed has proved the most economical, although not the most desirable feed. The replacement of half the maize by barley gave better pork results, but barley is dear there compared with maize. In Australia the position is reversed. Protein supplements are very necessary for brood sows. Interesting records are available regarding 53 Kansas farms. On 29 farms where the sows received such supplements and were properly cared for, 263 sows -weaned an average of 6.5 to the litter; on Il farms where the sows received only grain with no supplement, 166 sows weaned only an average of 3.8 pigs to the litter. One hundred and forty- • live sows on 13 farms which received a full mixed ration of grain and supplements but were otherwise badly managed in housing and general care, yet weaned 4.4 to the litter. For mineral supplements American authorities recommend equal parts of salt, wood ashes and ground limestone, to which 10-15 per cent, of bonemeal has been added, but it is recognised that where an adequate amount of skim milk or tankage is | supplyed access to such a mineral mixture is not followed by striking results.

The present low price ruling for grain compels a consideration of its use on the

farm. Frequently it is more profitable to walk the produce off than to carry it off. Generally speaking the pig gives a better return than any . other animal. It has far greater fecundity, and it can be marketed as fat when quite young. On the other hand, it requires more care and attention from the successful breeder and fattener. But the pig very rapidly transforms grain into iles'h. For example, from birth till it’ weighs 2001 b, from 3001 b to 3501 b of grain, with supplements’ mentioned, will produce 1001 b gain in weight, though as the animal grows older more grain is required for each further increase of 1001 b in weight. Wheat and barley are better feed for pigs than maize, though in the past the price of these grains has made their use in this way uneconomical. Now the position is different. They have fallen in value to a far greater extent than pork, a commodity the value of which has been reduced less than that of any other meat supply. Only recently has any systematic attempt been made to foster an export trade in pig products, and mainly by Queensland. Victoria used to be till recently an importer of pork, bacon and hams, and Western Australia has always been an importer. Frozen pork has been found admirable for conversion into hams and bacon by British carers. Increased pig production on sound, practical and scientific lines will mean an increased demand for tankage or meat meal. But the abattoirs and freezing works will readily supply such a demand when it arises. It has been estimated that some 10,000 tons of dried blood alone should be available for feed purposes annually from such sources; and it is available as a direct food -for almost any growing animal if properly preserved—that is, before the commencement of any decomposition. The skim-milk of the cream supplier

must be used, but alone it is not adequate as a pig feed—at least for the best results. Unless used by calves or pigs it becomes a nuisance. Neither for

the one nor for the oilier is it a complete diet, even with pasture, although it has great value. The pig, like the calf, therefore should be deemed a necessity in the operations of the dairyman supplying a butter factory, and not treated as a separate entity to be debited in any system of book-keeping with an arbitrary valuation according to quantity available. Equally the wheat farmer who feeds his seconds wheat to pigs should not debit them with an amount greater than the delivered value, less cost of transport. Purchased materials, whether grain or tankage, and mineral supplements should be debited to the pig account. 12s 6d; lighter, 9s to .Ils.

An average yarding of fat lambs met a ready sale at values fully equal to date ciiotaiicgs. ll—ixr rd™. Ids 2d. to