SOME POINTS ON PORKPRODUCTION.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 107, 21 November 1918, Page 1

SOME POINTS ON PORKPRODUCTION.

(By J. Brown, B.SC., N.D.A.,, Central Development Farm, Weraroa.) The relative scarcity of pigs of all classes and the high prices now being realised for pork and bacon call for some consideration of the subject of pigs on the dairy farm. The system widely followed of maintaining brood sows on whey and rough grazing with odds and ends of roots when available, and of carrying on progeny "In slow progression from the weaner stage on whey with a minimum of pollard, sucrosine, or other meal, cannot be considered satisfactory. The usual life cf the sow under such treatment is unprofitably curtailed, and successive litters tend to become more and more puny and ill-nourished. Two points require special consideration : (1) Better maintenance for the sows; (2) more rapid progress of wean-" ers to the pork or bacon stage.

So far as the carrying of the sows is concerned, the main improvement should be in the direction of replacing casual foraging by crops systematically grown and grazed. Lucerne, red clover, rape, mangolds, artichokes, and pumpkins can be grown and utilized to provide bulky feed for sows throughout the year. If these crops are supplemented by a small area of field-peas harvested and stacked near the grazing of feed pens and forked over as required, the best results may be expected. In most of the dairying districts of the North Island cob-maize is also successfully grown, and the feeding of maize on the cob as an alternative to (or better in conjunction with) peas affords an easy and economical method for the successful maintenance of sows in good breeding-condition.

It is estimated that for the four months August to November inclusive 1 acre of well-grown mangolds, with an allowance of peas on haulm, or cob-maize, equal to 1 lb grain per head per day, and some soaked lucerne or clover chaff, will maintain from fifteen to twenty sows. During the summer, by sectional pasturing on lucerne, red clover, and rape, 2 to 3 acres with whey supplied ad libitum will sustain the same number of sows for five months; while two acres of pumpkins and artichokes will see the breeding-herd through the rest of the year. To provide grain, peas, or maize for supplementary concentrated feeding from 2 to 3 acres should be planted. Such a system of cropping and feeding for brood sows may be relied on to give good results; and here it may be pointed out that there is a prevailing misconception that a poor condition of the sow is most favorable for conception and large litters. Distinction must be made between an overfat condition and goodbreeding condition. The proper type of sow will put on condition rapidly under proper treatment after weaning, and will milk it off again after farrowing, to the unquestionable advantage of her litters.

With regard to the raising of market pigs, it has been pointed out that unsatisfactory results are frequently attributable to two factors: (1) Lack of robustness of the young pigs at weaning, due to an impoverished condition of the dam ; (2) a prolonged store period of slow increase due to illiberal supplies of whey and scant measure of any solid food. The first obstacle may be removed by a cropping-system planned for the needs of the sows as just described. In the carrying forward of weaner pigs it is always a point of departure in opinion whether rapid progress towards market weights should be aimed at, or whether a definite store period, during which the animal grows without developing much condition, should be observed. In these days of high-priced purchased foods the tendency is to feed concentrates very sparingly, thus prolonging the growing and finishing processes. That this is false economy is readily realised from a consideration of the respective parts played by food in

maintenance and fattening. It takes about 2lb of pollard or similar foodstuff per day to maintain the weight of a 100 lb pig. Any food supplied above this amount make for increase. If this “ food for increase ” is supplied in quantity less than the pig will consume the time required to reach a given weight must be proportionately lengthened, at the cost of so much more expenditure on the maintenance requirement. A difference of even one month in the time taken to bring a pig to a marketable weight may mean a difference of 6s to 8s in cost of production in favor of the rapidly finished pig. Obviously, if any prolonged store period is observed it must be effected largely by utilising cheap home - grown foodstuff. Even in this connection the following data from observations made at the Central Development Farm are interesting and instructive.

In March, 1918, seven pigs, aggregating 4881 b. fasted liveweight, were pastured on red clover, with an allowance of IYi lb wheat seconds per head per day, pollard being unprocurable at the time. The gain in fifteen days was 20 lb. The area of red clover was YL acre. Another lot of seven pigs, aggregating 472 lb live-weight, were pastured on Yi- acre of red clover, with an allowance of 1£ gallons per head per day of separated milk. The gain in fifteen days was 461 b. At the same time two lots of seven pigs each, aggregating respectively 515 lb and 536 lb, were pastured on two J4-acre sections of ripe peas. The total gains in fifteen days were respectively lb and 84 lb.

These figures clearly bear out the argument for ad libitum feeding of grain or meal for reducing maintenance costs. The profitability of ordinary field-peas as a fattening-crop for pigs grazed on them is also established by the final results. The Yz-a, ere section carried fourteen pigs for one month, during which they put up a total increase of equal to 593 lb per acre. It may be added that was grown on stony ground and experienced very dry weather during the growing-period. At current prices for pork this must be regarded as a very satisfactory return. The practice of growing an area of field-peas and maize for topping off market pigs can be commended to all interested. The labor involved is inconsiderable. No whey was fed in the foregoing trials but the writer is of opinion that the highest returns for whey fed to pigs are realised when it is given in conjunction with a ration of peas.