MILK PRODUCTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 118, 21 May 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

MILK PRODUCTION

CAPACITY OF THE SOW. i “There is one question in relation to 1 tho pig industry which has hardly re iceived the attention from pig breeders, which it rightly deserves,” says the Gazette of the National Pig Breeders’ I Association, England, ‘‘That is, the isow’s capacity for producing milk. :The breeder is anxious that his litter should be large, that there should be iat least ten pigs in each lot farrowed, and that the youngsters should be vigorous at birth and thrifty and rapid in growth. i “ Vigour may be ensured by the cmI ploymen t of healthy and vigorous parents and by feeding both with liberal ity and care, but to ensure growth it is not sufficient to provide plenty of food for the use of the sow. Whatever her age, size or breed, she is worthless as a money-making anima] if she is a bad milker. “A sow with ten or twelve pigs cannot possibly rear them to advantage if she is a bad milker, an<f very often the presence of one, two or three small pigs in the litter is probably owing to the imperfect supply of milk, which is yielded by the sow. It is well known that the milk produced in some of the teats is smaller in quantity than that obtained from ethers, and as every little pig has its own teat, it follows that they do not obtain a sufficiently large supply of milk to satisfy their requirements. “A sow may produce up to 1111 b. in a day during the fourth week, and as little as and therefore it is not difficult to see how impossible it is to expect well-grown, youngsters where the dam is an inferior milker.”