Vitamin Doses Help Keep Pigs Healthy

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 20 (Supplement)

Vitamin Doses Help Keep Pigs Healthy

As more and more farmers tum to the intensive system of fattening pigs, greater attention will have to be given to the importance of certain vitamins in the pig ration. Tlrat is what the National Institute for Research in Dairying says in a report recently issued which describes a series of experiments in which the vitamin requirements have been studied. The report points out that a pig running freely about the farmyard, fending for itself, will automatically rectify a deficiency in its diet, but when it is confined to the modern piggery and encouraged to grow at a given rate, an error in making up its ration may have eerious results. Rations, it is stated, must be planned to contain an arnple supply of vitamin A, and if only for this reason the old practice of allowing a little green food to fattening pigs is strongly commended. In general, it appears that there is little danger of disorders due to vitamin A deficiency so long as the ration contains 20 to 30 per cent. of yellow maize or of certain yellow maize products, and if one or two pounds of green food are allowed to each pig daily. The report recommends also the rich sources of vitamin A such as cod liver oil, certain other fish liver oils, vitamin A concentrates, dried grass, dried lucerne and dried whole milk, but it is suggested that when these are used they should always be obtained from a reliable source and, if possible, with a guarantee of minimum potency. The experiments showed that if a single massive dose of vitamin concentrate is given to a weaner pig it will keep in good health right up to bacon weight even though it is fed throughout on a diet lacking in vitamin A.