RAISING OF PIGS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

RAISING OF PIGS

FEEDING MANAGEMENT. “AVOID FALSE ECONOMY.” It is astonishing how many pig breeders err on the side of undue economy in feeding. It is of no use to argue that if the pigs have cost little to feed they are sure to pay—a stunted animal is never profitable, writes “Pigman” in the Farmer and Stockbreeder. We are all aware that costs can be reduced by the common-sense use of pasture, green foods and roots. In a case in point, unfortunately, discretion was not used until experience had been bought dearly. The pigman was not to blame; he had to work to a plan mapped out for him.

During the summer months all was well. The majority of the pigs were on new pasture containing a good percentage of wild white clover, and they had a fair allowance of meal. The trouble began when the pasture died away and marrow-stem-kale and white turnips were given, while all meal was stopped for the brood- sows and older gilts. The younger gilts were allowed lb. a day each and as much kale as they could eat. The others had white turnips pulled and carted to them, without trimming. What a difference in a month! Gone was that contented and “well-doing” appearance; the pigs were never at rest and were always hungry. Of the first five sows in to farrow after two months of turnip feeding and no meal, three slipped their pigs, and the litters of the others were bom small and weak, while there was an average of five bom dead per litter. The pigs indoors fared no better, except that they had a bed and were not continually roaming about. The- turnips were put through a fingering machine and then boiled and fed at the rate of 4001 b. (of raw turnips) to 501 b. of a meal mixture containing 60 per cent, middlings, together with as much kale as they could eat. I saw March, April, May, June and July pigs weighed the last week in October. The older pigs weighed from 1201 b., down to; 701 b. and 801 b. for the July pigs. Losses averaged four per week, evidently from some stomach trouble—acute inflammation, from what I could tell. Sows and litters were fed on the same diet. The litters farrowed in September died off at an average of five per sow at weaning. MISTAKE RECTIFIED. The owner, unfortunately, knew nothing about correct feeding. Someone had told him that, as he had plenty of turnips and kale, : he could save a lot of meal. As the losses piled up week by week and there were no pigs for the butcher, the owner realised at last that something was wrong. “Cut your kale and turnips by half, and increase the meal allowance by the same amount, was the advice of a man who knew what the trouble was. In a fortnight all losses ceased and the pigs regained a contented look. They would never make up what they had lost, but I was reminded of the advice given me by the late Mr. Sanders Spencer: “Ask questions by all means, but be sure to ask people who know.”