SOW AND LITTER

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1929, Page 7

SOW AND LITTER

THE I R CAKE AND -MANAGEMENT. (By the Department of Agriculture.) As pip; raising is becoming more and more prominent in our dairying districts, the care and management of tile sow and litter is at all times most iuportant. It too frequently happens that a. number of the young lire lost annual.y lrom causes which with more care and attention could be prevented. Hie pregnant sow requires to be well fed during the last lew weeks before farrowing to enable her to start the sucking period with some reserves. The all-important factor is tiie rearing of the joimg litter is the provision of a proper larrowing pen lor the sow. A suitable pen to meet all requirements should be at least eight feet by eight and at least six loot liigb. The advantages of having such a pen are the belter ventilation and ('leaning facilities it oilers over the low-roofed type. If the larrowing pen is intended as a permanent building a concrete or other impervious floor is most desirable from a. sanitary viewpoint. The walls for about three feet rtrom the ground should also he impervious from a permanent building. The provision of a yard of equal size to the pen is necessary when the structure is a permanent one. The advantages of a concrete or other impervious floor, even though the walls are not concrete, are many, and wooden floors of the leaky, diaughty type cannot be too strongly condemned. .Mich wooden floored pens are conducive to dirt and disease ; in fact, are true breeding grounds of infection. Iron roofing is not very satisfactory, as it renders the sty too cold in winter ana too warm in summer. A good roofing can be provided with timber covered with felt, and later to he regularly coated with tar to keep it waterproof. If iron sheeting is used for roofing a big improvement is affected if a layer of felt is used underneath. a very necessary addition where concrete floors are used is the provision of a wooden platform. -Movable platforms permit of easy cleaning. The farrowing pen should have a pipe railing arou.ua three sides eight inches from the floor and an equal distance from the walls. This simple provision prevents the young from being crushed against the wall, and as a consequence larger litters are reared.

The farrowing pen should be in stood order, weather-proof, well cleaned and sanitary, and provided with short straw. With young sows the usual number of young reared does not (x----ceed six, and only too often the same occurs with a more mature -ow, capable of rearing at least ten to twelve young. In many cases it is not one to lack of numbers that small litte \s ire reared, hut due to lask of suffi.Mi:it protection from the weather, such as can easily he provided by a farrowing pen' as above stated, also bv insufficient feeding of the sow dnrng ihe pregnant stage, litters born be.ng small and weak. In the early spring the voting pigs require warmth and shelter more than anything eise. 'I be lai rowing pen should, therefore, he built, or, if a movable one, placed in dry, welldrained paddock facing the sun, protected from tli© prevailing winds, and in proximity to a shelter belt of trees or a ground hedge. Too much emphasis cannot he’ laid on the necessity on such protection and care, as it is during the first few weeks that the biggest number of losses occur. The seclion of grass allotted to the sow requires to lie clean, and Irec lrom mud pools caused by other pigs. As the .voung pigs are always susceptible to parasites and the eggs of parasites aie carried into the pen on the sow’s udder, clean pasture and cleanliness of the pen and feeding troughs is absolute! v essential to success.

The young, sow should lie put into tne pen about a week before iarrowing, so that she may become accustomed to her surroundings and easier to handle. A domesticated sow rarely, if ever, shows viciousness or had temper, and makes a better mother if kindly treated. Where a number ol .sows are kept with an attendant the whole time looking after the pigs, a practice sometimes adopted is the provision of a- shallow box in which the young are placed as they are farrowed. If the after-birth is removed from the sty at once, the young placed in a box until sickness has passed off. there is as a rule no danger of the sow eatino her young, especially if she is in good health and her bowels in good order. By adopting these suggestions there is no reason who our pig returns should not be considerably increased and all, or nearly all, of a litter reared instead of only a portion, as is too often the case under wrong management. With a very little extra feed and care and attention during the early life of the young, a sow will rear eight to ten young per litter as easily as four or five.