PIGS AND THE OUT-DOOR SYSTEM

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1690, 24 November 1925, Page 2

PIGS AND THE OUT-DOOR SYSTEM

Pigs, like all aninials, are the better for fresh air. but the worse for injudicious exposure. It is to a combination of nature and art that we owe all improvement in domesticated animals. In applying the system in practice it is needful to distinguish between the pig which is produced for the butcher and the pig which is produced in order to produce a pig for the butcher. The one is produced for killing and the other is produced for breeding. From one we look to produce a good pork and bacon pig at the smallest cost in the shortest time, while from the other we look to produce better pigs, by which we mean not only pigs which will contain more prime parts with less offals, but also hardy, fecund, and early maturing pigs which can be depended upon to transmit their improved qualities to their offspring. The open air in most seasons in our climate is fairly well suited for very young pigs, for whatever purpose they may be intended, but to be well nourished they need, for a short interval after birth, shelter and seclusion with their dam—of course, with good ventilation. Pigs for breeding require little fat and giood constitution for the sake of their progeny They can do with more fresh air and exercise than pigs for killing, which require more surplus fat for bacon, and still more surplus fat for pork.