PROFITABLE PIGS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 279, 20 July 1932, Page 6

PROFITABLE PIGS

EXPERT TELLS FARMERS HOW ] TO MAKE MONEY BY FEEDING. ; BENEFITS OF MEAT 'MEAL. The association bf meat meal and roots-in the feeding of pigs is strongly advocated by Mr. K. W. Gorringe, instructor in the swine industry. He told farmers in a recent address that he considered ths class of fsedng indispensablc. Many experiments with pigs' had been carried out, and all were successful, Half a pound of meat meal per day per pig, associated with as many roots as the animal could ; cortsume during the day, with a llttle fresh water and a warm house, was all that was required. Out of experiments carried out extending from Marlborough to the Central Waikato, and including 260 pdgs, there was not one death and the pigs averaged half a pound gain a day. There was no hard work — it was simplicity itself. Every £1 spsnt on meat meal would return a £4 dividend. Value of Minerals. j Experiments had shown that a daily dose of minerals, blended and given at any time of the pig's life and with any food, increased the growing capacity of the animals enormously. A sixty-pound weaner would, to the average farmer, seem out of all reason, yet that was what a litter averaged as the result of giving the .animals minerals in association with approved feeding. ' j Referring to the feeding of barley, Mr. Gorringe said that it seemed as if . they could do without 'that, but they Tuhi er.hance the quality of the side by atlding a little grain at the lattep stages of the feeding. There was a f hance for every dairy farmer to grow hr-e times as many pigs this year and bring in more revenue. Massage for Sheepfarmers. j Mr. Gorringe said that he had a message for the sheepfarmers also. i Pigs could be grown just as well without cows as with cows. If a por- ' tion of a sheep farm, say, 50 acres, j was set aside for the growing of pdgs, ; and a man employed to look after them, that 50 acres would bring in a J very good return. The speaker said that he was bank- | ing on the pig being the greatest asset of the smal holding scheme, and. added that 10 acres would not carry more than seven cows, but it would be pcssible to get 240 porkers on this area in 12 months. One and a half to i two acres of mangolds would see all the pigs threugh right up to Christmas with meat meal and minerals. He considered it would pay a sheepfarmer 1 to put an unmiployed man on a por- ; tion of his farm for the purpose of keeping pdgs. Why should they not mix their farming? I