PIG-FREEZING EXPERIMENTS.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 92, 8 March 1912, Page 4

PIG-FREEZING EXPERIMENTS.

COOKED AN J JNJJPKiD F )OD,

Numerous exp ain ml; have been made in Vm.riei .no ne value of coj . ng : o v.\ ;j ■ p g>, and at least 13 separate, series have led to conclusions mostly unfavourable to cooking or steaming. In ten trials, cooking showed a direct loss, more food being required than where the same food was used raw to produce the same result. In. some cases this feature was marked, while in the three other trials there was no. gain reported from cooking, or the gain was too trifling to reckon with. These results, says a writer in the “ Live Stock Journal,” are somewhat striking, as the foods comprised barley and maize meals, offals, whole corn of various kinds, oatmeal, and potatoes, some of whifch, at any rate, we are accustomed to think of as probably best when steamed or cooked.

However, if meal is better digested when fed dry than it is when wet, as some feeders tell us, and as was the case, indeed, in the abo.ve instances, as a rule, it must surely lose this property when cooked. There is still, however, some proof that it pays to cook potatoes. Excellent, however, as these latter are known to be for pigs, they should probably not be given in unlimited quantities even to these animals, nor should other kinds of roots, good though they are for pigs. Some experiments in Denmark have shown indeed that no kinds of roots should form more than 40 per cent of the ration given to pigs, and the opinion has been expressed that no qind of live stock should be fed with larger amounts, though all kinds have, of course, received more without ill-effects. One reason, no doubt lies in the large amount of water and fibrous matter which roots contain, and the consequent large bulk 'required before much nourishment can be extracted. The great amount of animal heat, too, which must necessarily be consumed to convert 90lb, or more of water out of every lOOlb of roots to blood heat is a heavy drain on the small margin of dry matter and the interior resources of the animal, and even with cows in milk all this water cannot be required in addition to what they drink. With sheep it is somewhat different, as they drink nothing, but the exhausting effect of a heavy meal of roots without dry food on a cold winter’s night, especially to an in-lamb ewe, must be evident to all who understand anything of physiology. Yet progress in such knowledge is slow. Experiment has shown that much better returns are obtained when roots are fed in a wellbalanced ration obtained by the judicious use of nitrogenous food, such as cake and corn. In fact, it is being increasingly shown that better va’ue for money can be obtained from a mixed diet, and mo e experiments in the practical physiology of feeding on practical lines are much wanted, and would be a welcome change from mammal trials.