FEEDING OF PIGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

FEEDING OF PIGS

FRESH MILK AND WHEY. Are pig-keepers always careful tc feed separated milk, butter-milk, whey • and swill as fresh as possible, and nut ; to allow it to become stale, sour, for- , mented, or otherwise unwholesome! Not only do these foods deteriorate nutriently when they become stale, but they may become so unwholesome as to impair the digestion and health of the pigs, say s ’an exchange. Sour milk, ii the ordinary sense, is not unwholesome, but a degree of sourness, fermentation, or stalcness, may be reached, v/hich seriously reduces the value of the food. , if it does not in effect render it unfit ( for consumption, even by pigs. Stale foods and swill are likely to De come surcharged with bacteria of a , dai gorous order. Hence diarrhoea of a virulent character may easily result Anything that in any way upsets the pig digestjvcly is injurious and a check to its growth. The food might just as well be thrown away for all the good it does, when it is unwholesome. ; If scraps of food from kitchen, dairy, and so forth, arc utilised in good condition, the pigs »vill turn such waste to good account, out it must not be supposed that pigs can b' successfully and profitably fed on garbage and fermented swill. It is possible sometimes to use stale foods when boiled afresh and mixed with wholesome materials. In this way the noxious germs may be destroyed, but the nutritious deterioration that has taken place iu the stale fod cannot be overcome without the addition of fresh materials. Pigs are not naturally dirty in habits or feeding, though they are sometimes compelled to wallow in unsavoury styes.