FOOD FOR PIGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

FOOD FOR PIGS

'RECORDING CLUB'S WORK.

r. jf j THE USE OF LUCERNE. interesting discussion on the WaiKato Fig Recording Club’s feed trials /kook place at the annual meeting of the Jtelub after the reading of the * 'port of lithe pig-recording officer, Mr. H. M. Peir>on, writes the Waikato correspondent tof the Weekly News. j Mr. K. W. Gorridge, Government instructor in sw’ine husbandry, said that be was a great believer in pasture feed tor pigs. Rotational grazing in the game manner as with cows should be adopted, together with the accompanying use of fertilisers. Grass in the four-inch stage was a most valuable food. The areas devoted by a farmer to pigs should be extended. Where one acre was used now. five should be used. The return per acre for pigs was considerably higher than for cows. Mr. C. Langkilde suggested that trials should be carried out with lucerne to take the place of other food which could not be bought. Even if it were necessary to import it. it should be tried, and then grown here. It would rivo farmers an opportunity of obtaining splendid grazing cheaply. Mr. A. H. Cockayne, assistant direc-tor-general of agriculture, considered lhat lucerne was not much superior to meat meal. Tn New Zealand one could buy proteins in the form of meat meal pheaper than in any other place in the world. Of course, there was a possibility of lucerne becoming a valuable home-grown aie®t. Mr. Peirson said that better results had been obtained from the use of kumikums and carrots than from turnips, although the turnip trials were restricted owing to shortage, so that a fair comparison could not be made. Kumikums and skim milk had given exceptional gains, but carrots and skim milk were still better. From pigs fed on the latter some of the first 401 b. weaners were obtained. Valuable Results. J Mr. Cockayne said that the relative value of skim milk, and skim milk together with meat meal, should be definitely found out. By using all the meat meal available, when pig breeding extended the prices of mat mal would go up. The freezing works’ total output of meat meal was not much more than 2000 tons. The capacity of the works for standardised meat and bone equalling 50 per cent, protein value was in the vicinity of 12,000 to 14,000 tons. The club had done extremely valuable work, continued Mr. Cockayne. One most important result of its investigations was the proof that the feeding of meat meal made possible the winter carrying of pigs at a profit, and the ability to have two litters a year. This fact would make pig breeding in New Zealand a major instead of a minor industry. Another most striking result was the showing that one lb. of meat meal to every three gallons of skim milk gave extremely satisfactory results and enabled pigs to put on weight in excess of those in any European country. By the utilisation of oneninth of what was regarded in Europe as a balanced diet, New Zealand had far outstripped anything European countries could do. However, work up to the present had been confined to young pigs. Beyond the porker stage, results might be different. If possible, a start should be made on bacon feeding trials. As soon as saturation-point was reached with pork, New Zealand should be in position of strength to attack the bacon nfarket. Production of Bacon. The chairman, Mr. E. E. Hale, explained that the club was going back on sows which had been fed for two or three seasons on other foods and was feeding them on purely skim milk. These would be sent Home, for expert opinion. Mr. Hale added that the executive had given a considerable amount of thought to the baconer question. tThe majority of breeders in New Zealand did not handle baconers, rs porkers were more economical to proluce. The financial aspect of produc-

tion had to be considered. A serious difficulty the club had to contend with was the limited number of pigs it had to work on. It took a long time to carry out experiments and the club had to be very careful about its statements. Actual conditions, fertilised and control paddocks, grass, strain and many other things had to be gone into. The importance of grass had not been investigated, and not much work had been done on the question of strain. Too much of the scientific side had been left to non-scientific men by the Government. The club, through its investigations, was becoming scientific, but there should be someone to check the results. The Home market was becoming more fastidious, and what was good enough five years ago was not acceptable to-daj’. Mr. N. W. Hastings said the work of the club was appreciated all over the North Island. Wherever he had been he had heard the hope expressed that the work would be extended to all districts.