FARMING NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 142, 3 April 1940, Page 7

FARMING NOTES

GIVE THE PIGS A WEE DROP OF—BARLEY If you go out early on a miser--able morning in winter and find that a sow has farrowed and some •of the young pigs are chilled and near to death through crawling -away from the comfort of their mother's milk, it is a good idea to give, them a hot bath and a rub •xlo\vn. This will restore circulation, -and, if they are kept warm and rgiven a little warm milk, the chan'ces are that they will live to make Sbigger and better bacon. To make doubly certain, you might give the little fellows a nip of whisky, broken down with the milk. More generally, if the morning is particularly cold and blustering, you may deem it wiser to take the whisky yourself, without the milk, and let the pig smell the -cork. JBarley Ajs Pig Feed. Talking of-whisky naturally leads 'one to barley, which is the basis of all reputable "Scotch." Barley is aliso an excellent food for pigs, although probably you would have the greatest difficulty in persuading a day-old pig to take it. But not so later on in the pig's life. After weaning, barley along with the skim milk, or with a bit of meatmeal if you are feeding whey, constitutes one of the-fin:st fattening foods for pigs. It is chcaper to-day than it has been for ,'3O years, and that is more than can be said of "whisky.

You can buy best Australian feed barley for. 3s 4d per bushel ex ship at the main North Island ports. This is fol* minimum loj;s of ten bags, and you order it in the ordinary way through your merchant. At this price it represents very good buying, and,, with pric?s for pig-meat as they are, the use of barley for pig feeding is a sound farming proposition. It is pleasing to prohibitionists, for it means less barley wili go into distillation, and the i)ig enjoys tlu inherent virtues of the barley germ ■•without the soul-destroying influence of John Barleycorn. Those who vote "continuance" can soak the barley in water for two or three days until it has a nice beery smell, which should be eas'ily digestible, and does away with the expense of grinding or cooking. The amount of alcohol formed is infinitesimal in actual fact, ; so all consciences can be ciear if soaking of barley is generally adopted. Wholesale Prices. Many people will object to buying barley in a minimum of a tensack lot, but they can't enjoy whole •sal'e prices unless they buy in whole sale quantities. You cannot expect merchants to peddle a sugar bag of laarley and receive virtually nothing for their efforts. In any case, you can"t telll whether a ten-sack lot is going to be too much until you decide the quan tities you are going to feed your pigs. This the farmer must determine for himself, because the economics of feeding grain to pigs is entirely governed by the way they are being managed. If they sleep in a wind-swept draughty stye and take their exercise and meals with their bellies resting on mud it may not pay to feed barley at a shilling a bushel, but if they are kept! as pigs ought to be kept, then you can, with confidence,, feed as much as 21b to 31b of barley per pig per day according to age and the milk ; available. This quantity may be increased, because as the season ends and the ■ cows are drying off, it is obviously better to finish pigs near slaughter weight with a diet altaost wholly of barley rather than to keep them hungry throughout the winter. It is all a matter of judgment,, and the individual farmer is the sole judge. Service to Industry. If you are fattening 20 pigs, then 3 r ou will be feeding a bushel a day, and a ten-sack order will be finished in under six weeks. If you haven't got that many pigs or if you are unable to run to an order involving no more than £8 for the average farmer, then you might coipe to an arrangement with a neighbour to take part of the order. Get him into the habit of feeding barley as well and you will be do-

ing a good service to the industry. A bushel of barley a dry to 20 pigs will sound like a lot of barley to many farmers who think they are giving up some of their life blood when they put a handful of grain in the pig trough. It may be, on New Zealand standards, Jjut then most of our farmers have a Moslem-like regard for the pig and treat the poor animal accordingly. But past attitudes and habits are not important. What is important is that, from the evidence of surveys of pig production made by the Department of Agriculture, the farmers who feed grain or meals up to 25 per cent of the ratiion make the most money out of pigs! And this is computed with meals at £14 a ton! If you have separated milk and can land barley on your farm for £8 per ton then it is money for old boots. You will be able to feed as much as lib of barley to a gallon of milk and still obtain an increasing return from your separate-,], milk. Help the Empire. This country is at war, and Great Britain is having to ration her bacon supplies!" The dairy farmers of New Zealand can. without question, double their pig production with not only profit to themselves but the knowledge that they are making a real contribution to the Empire's war effort. No matter by what shade of the rainbow your political views may be coloured, no matter how low is your regard for pigs, keep them and feed them, because there are forty-five million people on the other side of the worl.d who dearly love/ the eggs and bacon which are being denied them. It is your duty to feed pigs, and it will be your pleasure, too. if you feed and house them properly. Who will deny you the boon of a drop of whisky on a cild winter's morning, or night for that matter, if you are doing your duty by your pigs and by your country? Just order the barley in the ordinary way from 3 r our merchant, but buy it ex ship in ten-sack lots. When| you get it home don't it, don't leit the rats eat it,, and don't let your wife feed it to the fowls. Turn it into pig flesh and marketit again as soon as possible.