HIGH-SPEED FATTENING

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 22, 11 June 1952, Page 2

HIGH-SPEED FATTENING

SCIENCE BOOSTS LIVE-STOCK GROWTH On a large farm at Gray Summit in the State of Missouri the Ralston Purina Company is experimenting with animal diets to grow livestock and poultry faster and with less feed. Scientists say that techniques developed in Gray Summit, Missouri can be applied elsewhere in the United States and in other countries: to increase meat and egg production. 'Generally throughout the United States it takes 12 bush'els of corn to^ raise a 100-pound pig in 10 montbs. But scientists in Missouri use 51 j bushels of corn plus 50 pounds of ! special supplement to grow the same size pig in only 51 montbs. Ducks are the fastest growing poultry on the farm. A duckling reaches 6 pounds in 9 weeks on 22 pounds of feed. Twenty-five years ago a duck gained this weight in 12 or 14 weeks after consuming 30 to 36 pounds of feed. Uompany researchers raise a 3-pound broiler chicken in 9 weeks on 9 pounds of feed. Fifteen years ago in the United States it took almost twice that much time and feed to produce the same size chicken. Holstein and Guernsey calves on the farm average about 50 pounds heav-

ier at four months than the average calves bred elsewhere. 'How are these gains accomplished? Partly with antibiotics — aureomycin, bacitracin, penicillin, and streptomyci. iDr John L. Milligan, in charge of poultry research in Gray Summit, says: "By adding the proper type and level of antibiotics to the feed of turkeys, we have found that they are two pounds heavier at 26 weeks than turkeys not getting antibiotics." Food scientists also hasten animal growth by improving ordinary grain feed, They add supplements that contain such ingredients as meat scraps, fish meal, Vitamins A and D, soybean meal, riboflavin, manganese, and niacin. They are creating ohickens and turkeys that lay more eggs than ordinary fowls. In the United States the average hen lays 170 eggs a year; at the Ralston Purina farm the average hen lays 2o9 a year. iSome prize turkey hens lay 206 to 245 eggs a year, although turkeys generally lay eggs only in the spring. iHere, through proper feeding, lighting, and. other management practices, they are induced to lay throughout the year. 9