DEVELOPING THE PIG INDUSTRY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 390, 23 March 1937, Page 2

DEVELOPING THE PIG INDUSTRY

HINTS TO FARMERS ON THE PRODUCTION OF GOOD LITTERS. Department of Agriculture Notes by M. J. Scott, 8.A.,8.5c.

Cheap Grain. Thei.e who read last week’s article critically, will surely have arrived at only one conclusion. Cheap grain is, and always has been, the corner stone of success in pig-keeping. Therefore let's have it cheap. If the last table is consulted again it will be seen that pork has to be 6d prr lb or better in order to get any benefit-from using grain at £9 per ton, and that grain has to be nearer £6 than £9 per ton for the benefit to be really worth while. It is. evident also from the table that the present number of pigs would have to be more than doubled if 2001 b of grain were fed with 160 gallons of milk, and increased about eight times if 3001 b of grain were used with 50 gallons of milk, tn, the extreme case, i.e., using 50 gallons of milk and 3001 b of grain, the return for milk is increated fourfold when pork is Sd and grain £6 per ton, but less than doubled when pork is 6d and grain £9 per ton.

The producer of pigs would carry eight times his present risk tor twice his profits, and if grain went up to £d2 per ton just for one year, hit' pigs would be a dead loss. As pointed out previously, grain-feeding is easy, and there are many advan- ■ tages from its use that need not be emumerated here, but at the fame time the uncertainty of getting cheap grain by Importing it is so great that other less risky avenues must be followed. What are these avenues? Home Production of Feed'.. Referring to the table again, it was stated there when 50 gallons of milk were used with 3001 b of grain at £6 per ton, pork at 6d per lb, that milk returned 4.08 d per gallon. This amounts to £B/10/- for a 500-gailbn cow. The production of this grain-’pn the farm is worth while considering. At least it appears to be so on paiisfer The grots receipts from a 60-ac®K farm carrying 30 cows, 2501 b buttertst per cow at 1/- per lb, £2 per cow for pigs, and 10/- per cow for bobby calves, Would be as follows:

£ Butterfat 375 Pigs 69 Bobby calves 15 Total ' 450 If the cows were reduced to 20, and 20 acres were devoted to the production of maize, peas, barley, wheat or other harvested crop that can be grown; pig numbers, could be increased by over four times, and the gross receipts might be as follows: £ Butterfat, 20 cows_ at £l2/10/- 250 Pigs ’ 270 Bobby calves 10 . Total 530 The sum of £270 for pigs is made up from £270 for milk and £lOO for grain. The difference in the amount of Work required to get this revenue does not appear to be great, and the capital required to have the necessary machinery would be provided by the sale of cows. The skill in growing and harvesting crops would have to be acquired, and the prejudice against pigs would have to be over- '■* come. The profit motive which lies behind most endeavour is the only one that is likely to cause any change, and one would expect the

change to be comparatively rapid, and probably determined by the amount of profit to be secured. Roots—Grain—Milk —the ideal. If the possibility of better farm production through the avenues of home-grov'n grain and pigs does not appear to be worth while when grain only is grown on the dairy farm, it may be of interest to explore the possibilities of growing some grain and some “other feed”—roots, mangels or carrots till these constitute about 40 per cent, of the toai feed supply. Twenty acres could grow' 24 tons of grain on 16 acres, 200 tons of mangels on four acres, and the total feed supply Would now be: Tons | Grain 24 Milk 5 Mangels To Total 49 This, is enough to feed nine sows and their litters, say 120 pigs, to bacon weights. The farm revenue is now:— £ 20 cows 250 120 baconers 360 2 bobby calves 10 Total 620 A feed supply such as this; capable mott reasonable industry. There are localities Where through unsuitable soil or climate it is impossible to grow or to harvest grain or similar crops. Inability to do so limits the tcope of pig production in such places, unless it can be arranged on a national scale for the necessary of being stored for long periods, and therefore removing one if not two of the present difficulties of the industry, i.e., winter feed shortage and seasonal pig production, would make quite a profitable, and igrain to be produced elsewhere.