PRODUCING A BACON PIG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19840, 14 May 1927, Page 21 (Supplement)

PRODUCING A BACON PIG

WHAT THE CURER WANTS TO COMPETE AGAINST THE DANES. That we ought to produce one-sixth, or five hundred thousand, of our pigs thoroughly suitable for the manufacture of high-class bacon, is true, states Sanders Spencer in a Jotter to the Live Stock Journal. Our bacon competitors, the Danes, are able to produce good baconers to the extent of fivesixths; surely we ought to be able to raise an equal proportion of bacon pigs, whereas one sixth is nearer to our actual production. It may be worth while making an attempt to (discover the cause of our failure to provide the raw material necessary to keep our bacon factories at work, especially as our foreign and successful competitors have been obliged! to come to this country for breeding in order to grade up their own native stock.

This would appear to prove that the want ot suitable breeding stock is not the cause of our want of success, and that this is due to our neglect in utilising generally the best pigs which we possess. Our curers tell us that they require a long-sided pig of about six months old and weighing alive some 200 to 2201 b. The pig must be fine in bone, skin and; hair, with as little offal as is possible, light in the fore-quarters and with well-developed hams. The flanks must be thick, as this indicates a large proportion of lean to fat in the carcase, and the absence of those thin bellies which the public taste objects to. The bacon pig should not be too deep in the carcase, as such a one is likely to be too gutty and to produce a thin belly. In attempting to breed a pig of this description it is essential to have at least one parent of the formation and character described, and this must be the sire, as he is credited with having a far greater influence on the formation of the joint produce of the boar and the sow than the latter. Of course, if both the parents arc of the correct form and character,-the chances of breeding pigs such as are required would be greatly increased, but the boar can beget fifty litters of pigs during the time the sow is building up one litter; the one good boar is more easily found than the fifty good sows. In addition to that it may be much more easy to find , a number of farm sows which are prolific and good milk ers for a lengthened period than a similar number of pedigree sows possessing the same necessary qualities in a marked degree. Then the question of outlay in forming a large herd may have to be considered. The cost of the pedigree sows would be considerably more, than the ordinary far.m sows.

The curer requires a young pig to enable him to compete successfully with his foreign rivals. This requirement extends to the' pork butcher, so that the pig breeder who sets out to satisfy the needs of his customers must pay great attention to the feeding of his pigs from their youth up. The old-fashioned idea of a growing and then a fattening period in the life of a pig has been thoroughly exploded, and this for two reasons, with it yon are able to provide the butcher and bacon curer with what is to them a necessity, a young fat pig, and the other is that the system is unprofitable. It must be remembered that each day in the life of a pig a certain amount of food has to be given to it merely to keep it alive; therefore, the shorter the life the smaller amount of food is consumed for mere maintenance or continuation of the life of the pig. The amount of maintenance food required is 21b of meal for each 1001 b of live pig, so that each week a 1001 b live weight pig continues alive in excess of requirements a stone is wasted, and each two months the value of a cwt. of meal is lost.

Our grandfathers believed that each pig must have a growing period in its life, as it was not possible for the pig to’j'row and fatten at one* and the same time, and that it was cheaper to feed a pig during the first few months of it? life on less expensive food or food which costs less for a given bulk, but they forgot that the food value in the lowpriced food costs just as much as it doet in the more concentrated foods. It must be remembered that the pig is not constituted to dispose of a large quantity of bulky food as is the cow and that its natural food in the form of acorns, beech, mash and foods of this character are strongly concentrated foods. It is therefore imperative, in order to rendei the pig the most profitable to its owner and the bacon curer, to feed it liberally on the most suitable food from the time of its birth, so that it may the sooner manufacture flesh of the best quality at the least cost and the greatest profit to its owner.