PIG HUSBANDRY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 72, 15 May 1945, Page 6

PIG HUSBANDRY

AFTER WEANING CARE

A CRITICAL PERIOD

(By A. F. Harwell, Supervisor Ba}' of Plenty Pig Council. This article is written under the . auspices of the Bay of Plenty Dis-> ; trict Pig Council. District Pig Councils arc. producer organisations established to provide instruction and advice on all matters pertaining to pig husbandly. There are nine District Pig Councils covering the whole of New Zealand, four being in the AuckI land Province, with headquarters at Whangarei, Pukekohe., Hamilton and Whakatane. The advice and help of the Supervisors in these districts is available to all farmers and if you . are in diU'iculty in an}' way with 3 r our pigs get in touch with the supervisor in 3*our district. The subject of my talk is "Tlie care of young pigs after weaning." In the opinion of many experienced farmers the two most important stages of' a pig's life are the Qrst week, and the period after weaning. At the beginning of life, he is erupted violently into this world and it depends a great deal on pluvious circumstances whether he will survive these first few days. Circumstances or conditions during the four .months period of gestation Avill decide whether he is strong and vigorous at birth of good average size, about 2%lbs in weight, and containing within his own body the necessaiy elements which will allow him to survive the perils arijd hazards of that first week, or whether at some time during the period of gestation his food supply has been restricted so that he is handicapped by lack of size lack of vigour and in some ' » cases even lacking the desire and the strength to suck. Accepting that he has escaped death during the first two months and is now read3 r for the second great change of his life, weaning, what then.

At some time during those first two months of his life he should have been castrated, preferably at about three weeks, so that by now Avounds should be healed. On no account do as one farmer onto whose place 1 was called dkl —wean, ling and. desex all on the one day—and then call in the Supervisor because the weaners are not cooing too well.. I should think not ! As little change as possible ill the management should take place. For the second month of their lives the iitter should haA'c been receiA'ing .supplementary food from a "creep" which is simply a name given to a place partitioned off from the sow so that the little ones creep under and so obtain extra food other than that .supplied by their mother. By this method of creep feeding Aveaner.s should have reached the desirable live weight of 401bs or better at eight weeks, so that the process of weaning is smiply carried out by taking the mother away from the babies, and not the babies from the mother. Leave the weaners in their famil-< iar .surroundings for a few days as they are liabale to receive a setback if removed to unfamiliar surroundings and feeding conditions. I know that on many farms- it. is the usual practice to turn the weaners out to grow, but in many cases they do little else but grow smaller in numbers and smaller in size. In. my territory I had one man -who for I years kept twice a.s many sows as necesary and bred twice as many pigs as he required simply because be allowed for a 50 per cent mortality after Aveaning and accepted it as a matter of course. Mortality after Aveaning can be avoided if it ' is steadily kept in mind that Avean- , ers are still babies and require care j and attention for at least another

six weeks. Here in the Bay of Plenty where .'■wect pasture can be obtained almost all the year around where mi:ls is available for a great portion ol tiie jear, where maize grows in abundance, the only thing that requires to be bought is meatmeal and this need only be fed sparingly at the rate of lb per day per weaner. In addition maize should be fed at the rate of 3 /<>lb daily and when available L gallon of skim milk. the bulk ol the ration being made up of sweety topdresed pasture. No hard and fast rules can be laid down for feeding, .so much depending on the amount and kind of food available but some protoin-rich food is absolutely essential to ensure growth. Where meatmea: is not available, peanut meal ranks high in and next 011 the list are linseed meal and pea meal. Rapid

well-developed pigs are able to deal with much ; greater quantities of food and with greater efficiency than is the case with poorly-devel-oped pigs that have received a setback at weaning time. No matter how the feed for pigs up to three months old is made up ? it should always include %lb to lib of protein concentrate daily along with a gallon of skim milk or lib of grain. In one week pigs can eat about their own weight of grass or roots but thej' must have that concentrate to balance up their milk food. A 5011) pig can eat roughly G lbs of roots per day and along with the concentrate, maize and milk ? this will ensure satisfactory growth. As the siKe of the pig .increases it is not necessary to increase the concentration ration, for by this time the pig will be able to consume fairly large quantities of roots or grass or in the summer time quantities of skim milk. Another important aspect of the weaning stage is to see that pigs are penned according to size. On no account put weaners in to battle With stores. Only too often do 1 see on farms a large pig paddock containing everything from overfat baconers down to stunted weaners all trying to feed at one trough or perhaps two troughs. I have no hesitation In saying that this practice is definitely wrong. Where this state of affairs exists the mortality among the smaller pigs is generally high and weaknesses of management often make their appearance in the form of scours in the young pigs which in turn so weakens the fesistance that it leaves the way open for virulent diseases such as suispestlfer..

Generally speaking, where this type of management exists, there is a poor system of housing with consequent over-crowding—smali and large pigs all piled together in one big sweating heap which exposes the weaker ones to the risk of pneumonia and pleurisy. Not more than 10 to 12 pigs of even size should be allowed in the j-ounger stages and adequate draught-proof housing should be provided. When estimating the required floor space a guide is to allow 8 square feet for each 200]bs live weight. I cannot leave this subject of the care of young pigs alter weaning without stressing that most important point—CLEANLINESS. Strict cleanliness is one of the most important factors in the profitable production of good weaners. Cleanliness means disease control and this alone makes it a vital necessity. In many cases coming under my notice filth stagnant wallows four troughs and neglected skim milk barrels and pipe ]ines are either singly or colresponsible for fully 90 per cent, of wearier troubles. This is one of the things which very often mean success or failure and although in many instances the farmer knows perfectly well the grave risk in not keeping pigs under sanitary conditions he is content to carry on in the same old rut. Put your thinking cap on now and decide to do something to improve the living conditions to which you are going to subject your weaners. Remember, cleanliness means healthy pigs, pigs that will eat their food with a relish and turn it to profit in the quickest and most economical manner. Every weaner saved is a potential baconer within six months, and Great Britain needs that bacon —NOW.