FARMING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4515, 15 January 1923, Page 1

FARMING.

DRYING OFF COWS. The N.Z. Journal of Agriculture supplies the following information as to the best, method to adppt when drying off cows : “Tn general, the dryingoff process should be commenced at least two months before next calving, milking being stopped gradually. Once a day for a fortnight and twice a week for the following fortnight will leave the udder so that it only occasionally needs drawing out. When the cow is a good milk-producer u may be that the supply continues. It is necessary then to make ,the diet less liberal and give dry food, such as hay, with an occasional dose of physic. Epsom salts, 12 to 16 ounces according to the size of the cow, dissolved with a pound of treacle in a quart of warm w,ater will serve this purpose. It is important that, the drying off should be conducted with care, or a close teat or defective quarter after the next calving may result. The thick and ropy milk sometimes seen is a symptom of such trouble, although stringy milk is often due to other causes, such as digestive disorders and bacterial contamination.” - OATS AS HOG FEED. The value of oats as a feed for hogs has never been clearly determined. As a feed for market hogs they are generally looked upon with disfavour on account of the large percentage of hull they contain. Probably this prejudice from the market hog standpoint has prevented them from receiving the attention they deserved as a feed for breeding stock. There is a place for them in the ration of both classes of: hogs. The truth of this was demonstrated by experiments conducted in the centre of the corn belt, where corn is the universal toed and where even less attention is paid tp producing bacon in the market bog than is the case here. The lowa experiment station fed two lots of pigs froni weaning until they were ready for. the market. One lot received a ration consisting of equal parts of ground oats and corn supplemented with tankage, the othe\ a full ration of corn also supplemented with tankage. Botji lots w.ere on pasture. In the comparison of the two rations It was found that .the pigs fed on ground oats and corn reached a weight of 250 pounds in 205 days, or live days less time than was required by the pigs fed a straight corn ration. Xhe feed requirements were slightly greater per 100 pounds v gain .with qato and corn .than with the straight corn, but the comment was' made that the advantage in time required to reach marketable age showed the effect af the oats ip developing scale and bone.

There was np mention, cf course, of the better bacon qualities that the oat-fed hogs would show, but the fact that, the hogs made more rapid gains where the oats were used indicates that the common prejudice against oats for market hogs is not well founded, particularly in the growing stages of the younger pigs. If paints of the hulls' were sifted out for very young pigs, then the oats fed just as they come from the mill, from the time the pigs are two months old until they are put in for the final finishing periods, when the pats could be gradually taken away and replaced by barley or corn, oats might well be used as one half of the grain ration for the market hog.

Infoma,tion regarding the extent to which oats may 7 be used in developing breeding pigs is also contained in the lowa tests in which breeding gilts on pasture .were fed on shelled corn at the rate of three-tenths of a pound of tankage, and whole oats self-fed. During a 168-day feeding period gilts which, weighed about 50 pounds to begin with ate from two and a half to two and .three-quarter pounds of the oats each day as an average. They consumed slightly more oats on blue grass than on alfafa or clover. Ths gilts raised on this ration delevoped into stretchy sows of good bone and size,, and farrowed strong litters of pigs the following spring. In this country, where oats are as a rule cheaper than corn, they might, well form the basis of .the ration for brood sows, young gilts, .and boars.