CEREALS FOR PIGS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19632, 28 October 1933, Page 15

CEREALS FOR PIGS

ADVANTAGE OF WHEAT. That pigs do well on wheat has been proved by many experienced feeders and also by official experiments. Among the latter was an experiment carried out some time ago by Professor E. F. Ferrin, at the University of Minnesota, to determine the relative feeding values of the five cereals which are used in the State of Minnesota for pigfeeding.

The five cereals tested were maize, wheat, barley, oats and rye. Fifty pigs averaging 1061 b. live weight each were divided into lots of 10 and fed from dry feeders ad lib. Each lot was fed on the one cereal only, but 'in addition the pigs were given free acess to a protein supplement in another dry feeder. The protein supplement was the same for each lot, and consisted of a mixture of two parts meat meal to one part each of linseed meal and finely ground lucerne meal. Each lot also had free acess to a mineral mixture.

The expriment lasted for nine weeks, when the heaviest pigs had reached 2001 b. live weight. The food consumed for each 1001 b. live weight increase was as follows:—Maize lot, 36011 b., plus 631 b. of protein supplement; barley lot 5291 b., plus 441 b., of protein; wheat

lot, 3671 b., plus 2511 b. protein; oats lot, 5061 b., plus 671 b., protein; rye lot, 4821 b., plus 541 b. protein. In each case the grain was ground. At the prices then ruling the wheatfed pigs cost over 7s per 1001 b. live weight increase less than those, fed on barley and maize, in the latter gase largely because of the much smaller quantity of protein supplement consumed. Professor Ferrin has proved that coarsely-ground wheat gives better results than finely-ground.