Pie-RAISINS IN CANTERBURY

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 62, Issue 5, 15 May 1941, Page 333

PIG-RAISINS IN CANTERBURY

By

A. H. FLAY and H. E. GARRETT,

Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiniiiiii n uii mini mi mu jmih

Pig-raising should , have a ————— definite place in .Canterbury ' .. ■ farming and especially on I , \ i mixed farms. / With the proper I breed and management, net ...... returns can be substantially I ' assisted.

Profitable Side-line For Mixed Farms

CANTERBURY farms are well suited to side-line pig production. This is especially so on mixed cropping,and dairy farms, where there is. always a ready supply of roots, discarded and seconds of grain, and some skim-milk. The essentials to v successful pig raising are a suitable breed or breeds, satisfactory housing and paddock accommodation, and a supply of homegrown roots or grass to make the use of meals and grain profitable. It is considered that the first cross,' Tamworth boar on Berkshire sow or, vice versa, Berkshire boar on Tamworth sow, produces the most valuable pig, as this cross is suitable for either pork or. bacon production. In some, instances it may be desirable to replace - gradually at little expense the present breeding stock with young animals of the desirable lengthy, light shouldered type. Housing Requirements The housing and paddocking of a few sows and a boar on Canterbury farms is simple. 1 All that is required

is a dry area of land suitably watered by a creek, water-race, pump, or windmill. . This land can be fenced by the use of tight-lock hog netting into small ' sections, the size of these paddocks being such that four or five I mi iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiii inn mi Uli'

coils of netting are- sufficient for four or five fenced areas. About five such pens , are necessary to handle conveniently four sows and one boar where weaners' and porkers are the main sources of pig income. The cost of materials for such pens would be about £3O, made up as fol-lows:—-5. coils tight-lock hog netting at £4 12s 9d, £23 3s 9d; 13 posts, £1 15s 9d; 16 stays, £2 4s; and 130 stakes, £3 Bs. This material enables the erection of five pens side by side, 2-J chains by 1 chain. . Into one or more of these areas a ■stack of wheat, oats, or barley straw

is threshed. In the others a rough frame is erected upon which is placed a few loads of straw. By these means the cheapest form of warm, draught-proof house is provided.’ .No, other housing is necessary for many years, except perhaps for sows at farrowing time. Feed Supply Many Canterbury farms carry four or five milking cows, or at any rate on the better land they should do so. . The skim-milk ■ from these provides a part of the pig diet; cheap home-grown feeds,'Such as turnips, and especially mangels and swedes, are usually available, and seconds of grain from peas, barley, and wheat are nearly always available. These feeds usually have a low cash value. A lucerne stand from which a forkful of greenfeed: is cut each day is valuable for keeping pigs in health, and in addition, the stands provide large bulks of cheap pasture feed. A meat-meal ration necessary for balancing root and grain diets can be bought for 1 approximately Id. per lb a' very cheap figure considering its

utility in balancing the ration. For the boar and breeding sows between farrowings, good grass is used to provide a part of the diet. All these feeds are. cheap when considered in relation to the returns obtainable from three or four sows properly managed. The economical' feeding of pigs as a side-line becomes much more difficult if too many sows are kept. ' On the typical mixed cropping farm two or three sows seem to be a satisfactory number. ' With the accommodation mentioned, the daily work of pig feeding is not great. A short .time morning and evening suffices to feed all pigs. An

additional few minutes are required in the middle of the day - when porkers or baconers are being fattened. Under average conditions a total of one hour daily should suffice to do all pig feeding, and usually this time should not interfere with the day’s work. The advantages of the additional work and organisation necessary '■ for successful Canterbury pig raising can be summarised briefly by stating that each year (from one sow) two litters of seven pigs sold as weaners, porkers, or baconers should be obtained. Where four sows are kept, there should be 28 piglets weaned in the spring, and 28 again in January and February.

Watch the Market

Whether weaners, ' porkers, or baconers are produced will depend on the available feed supply and the ruling «market price. With „ weaners at 25s a piece, .it may pay to quit all litters, even if adequate supplies of seconds of grain are available, and correspondingly, when weaners'. are bringing 6s to 12s it may pay to carry them to pork and bacon weights. The decision made will depend always on the available food supply—skim-milk, seconds of grain, roots, cheap potatoes, etc.—and the ruling price for weaners. Because of the supply of seconds of grain, it is more . usual in Canterbury to carry the autumn litter into pork and bacon, but on certain farms and in certain seasons, it may be advisable to make heavy weights out of the spring litters. This spring (1940), for instance, with ample supplies of cheap potatoes on many farms, it will pay to carry spring litters on to pork and bacon. ■ In round figures at today’s prices (1940) the income from four sows might be: Spring Productions. 20 weaners at 20s £2O 8 porkers at £3 £24 Autumn Production. 22 porkers at £3 .. £66 6. baconers at £4 £24 Total £ 134 A fairly large quantity of unsaleable potatoes,’ sprouted wheat, and rejected barley,- as well as seconds of peas and grain, can be fed along with a little meat-meal before it would equal in value even one-half this gross income. On mixed farms the efficient utilisation of skim-milk, some roots, and the normal supply of seconds of peas and grains by means of pigs is an important method of augmenting the gross income. It is, however, in adverse seasons when certain crops are unsaleable or saleable only at very low prices, such as potatoes in 1940, or in very wet seasons when there is much unsaleable sprouted wheat and barley, as occurred in the -summer and autumn of 1936, that pig raising on mixed farms becomes of considerable importance to the farmer. The normal cash income from the pigs can be substantially increased by feeding such unsaleable. products, and the loss that is inevitably associated with such happenings considerably reduced.

Practical Examples

In the winter and spring of 1940 the farmer on a mixed cropping property carrying five cows and four sows could, with the aid of meat-meal, produce from his unsaleable potatoes income approaching something of the order given below:—

The pigs would also be grazed.

The results obtained on two farms co-operating with the Canterbury Agricultural College Advisory Service show the advantages of pig raising on Canterbury farms. The first is an illustration of the annual income obtained from pigs. The second indicates what can be done with unsale-

able produce when floods or low prices prevent normal marketing of farm produce. Example 1 This is a small mixed farm, carrying 10 milking cows and two sows, rearing four or five heifer calves, and

growing small 'areas of wheat, barley, potatoes, and mangels. The pigs carried are two Berkshire sows, which are housed- under straw shelters on an otherwise waste, unploughable corner. Two small yards and cheaply . constructed fattening houses are the only other pig accommodation. The pro-

geny of the ' two sows were sold as ■.weaners and porkers. Particulars' of pig income and costs of feed purchased are:— Example 2 This farmer carries five sows and milks five cows. He has Large Black

and Berkshire sows, and use's Berkshire and Tamworth boars. For -the season given he obtained the . usual spring income from the sale of weaners, carrying none to the porker stage. His ■surplus grain seconds had been used up the previous autumn. The autumn litters normally would have been sold as pork, but because of flooding and the wet harvest (February, 1936), he had 115 sacks of unsaleable sprouted wheat, which went blue and rusty coloured with moulds. -So mouldy was this wheat that the pigs would eat it only after soaking and with a sprinkling of meat-meal. 1 From weaning, the pigs received a little skim-milk or other feed along with sprouted mouldy wheat and meat-meal. The meat-meal ration was small. The Results from the autumn litters in 1936 at the prevailing prices were:

The gross income from the 32 pigs was £BO Is. lOd. The meat-meal used cost £1 45., and the 32 weaners at 10s. (March, 1936, price) cost £l6, making a total outlay of £l7 4s. The net return was thus £62 17s. lOd. The mouldy ■ wheat used comprised \ 115 sacks, the return per sack of wheat was Ils., and the per bushel of unsaleable mouldy wheat was 3s. 4d. Had it not been for side-line pig farming on this property, the returns ,for the season would have been substantially lower.. The returns, it must be remembered, are-those obtained in 1936. Today, these returns .would be almost doubled.

Conclusion

Pig raising should have a definite place in Canterbury farming and especially on mixed farms. With the right breed of pigs, a suitable lay-out of paddocks and straw stacks and reasonable feeding, pig production can be made to assist net returns substantially. The enterprise deserves more attention. . .

14 porkers at £3 14 baconers at £4 . . . £42 ... £56 Spring Litters (28). 8 weaners at £1 £8 20 baconers at £4 .. ... ... £80 Total ... £186 Under average normal conditions the feed used by all pigs, including the sows and one boar, would approximate: 'Meat-meal1 ton at £12 !.. , U Barley seconds30 bushels at 3/6 Wheat seconds— bushels at 5/-Skim-milk—2,500 gallons at Jd. Potatoes (cooked) —15 tons at 30/-. . £12 0 0 . < . 5 5 0 . 12 10 0 5 4 0 . 22 10 0 Total .. . £57 9 0

Autumn Litters (28).

Year. Gross Income. Feeds bought. Net Income 1937 £60 16 6 1 ton meat-meal, £6 £54 16 6 1938 £68 1 6 ■ - v ton meat-meal, £6 1 . £62 1 6 1939 £39 11 10 ' J ton meat-meal, £4 ‘ £35 11 0

Pigs weaned . .. 32 Pigs reared to selling stage' ... Sold as — ' . .. 32 Baconers . . . 27 Porkers .......... J.-.. . . 4 Others . . . 1 Total .....' ... 32