SIMPLE PIG RATIONS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 118, 28 January 1926, Page 7

SIMPLE PIG RATIONS.

The diversity of pig rations is apt to eonfuse the beginner. But pig feed ing is a fairly simple process once you get accustomed to it. Potatoes, turnips and swedes, etc., milling offals and cheap grain and meals, separated milk, whey and household scraps make up the average bill of fare for the pigs. A very common ration, and one which seems to pay well for a growing pig is one gallon of separted milk, 31b of potatoes, 41b of barley or maize meal, and a little sharps or bran. Divided into three meals and fed to pigs of about-801b in weight, it is calculated that a dietary like this should bring about 21b a day of an increase in the weight or the pigs. No hard-and-fast rule as to the constituents of the ration can be adopted, for meals will be found to vary in price per food unit from time to time. Ground oats may partly replace barley or maize meal, and they improve the quality of the pork, more especially when potatoes are fed as part of the dietary. Nothing is gained by cooking meals for pigs. Potatoes and roots may, however, be boiled; but they should be washed fend scrubbed. Cooking makes the food a little more palatable, and there is no doubt that the growing pig assimilates cooked or moistened food more easily than dried material; but roots, if pulped, can be fed raw, and meals soaked in hot wfeter are quite as good as boiled foods. Dry feeding in cold weather would be preferable to the feeding of ice-cold slops. Meals may be soaked in cold water 12 io 24 hours, but in cold weather the chill should be taken off by the addition of hot water.