Transactions of RHASS Volume 1940 - Page 020
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| Year | 1940 |
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28 STOCK-FEEDING UNDER WAR CONDITIONS. to such experiments as have been carried out, the most suitable varieties for the purpose are Svalof Victory and the Danish sorts, Kenia and Maja. The two latter, on account of their short and stiff straw, are to be preferred for land that is in good condition. PIG-FEEDING. It is fully realised that the problem of war-time stock- feeding is met in its most difficult form by pig and poultry keepers. Normal rations for both pigs and p0ultry contain from seventy to ninety per cent of cereals and cereal offals— maize, barley, wheat, bran, middlings, &c.—and, as was shown at the beginning of this article, we have been accustomed to rely upon imports for about two-thirds of our requirements of this group of foods. Moreover, most of them are possible human foods, and their conversion into eggs and table poultry, or into pork and bacon, is, in terms of food values, a very wasteful process. To take bacon production as an example, about seven hundredweight of meal is required to produce a ZOO-lb. pig, which yields about one hundredweight of finished bacon; hence if shipping space is, or becomes, a major difficulty, it must be good policy to import the finished product rather than the raw materials for its production. Further, if actual scarcity should threaten, as it did in 1917, a 4-lb. loaf, even of indiiferent bread, would be of more value than half a pound of bacon or half a dozen eggs. It seems, therefore, that, in so far as it may become necessary to reduce our total head of livestock, the reduction will have to fall first and most severely upon our pig herds and poultry flocks. Where there are special reasons for maintaining the number of breeding stock—e.g., in the case of pedigree pig herds —there is an argument for reversion to the old practice of once-a-year breeding. Spring-born litters are usually the most profitable in any case, and spring-born pigs can be finished in summer when supplies of feeding-stufi‘s may be relatively abundant. In winter the herd would consist entirely of breeding animals. The possibility of finding reasonably good substitutes for the foods ordinarily used in pig-feeding is, at the best, not very great. Where an intensive system of pig-keeping is carried 0n—i.e., where large numbers are maintained on small areas of land—the opportunity for substitution is often practically non-existent, and the only wise course for the breeder is to bring down the number of his pigs to a figure in keeping with the supplies of ordinary feeding-stuffs that he may expect to secure. It is, indeed, known that it is not economical to feed pigs ad lib—that a system of strict rationing STOCK-FEEDING UNDER WAR CONDITIONS. 29 is more profitable than one of feeding according to appetite. The ration scale used by the writer starts at 2 lb. of meal for the weanling and increases by weekly increments of roughly a quarter of a pound until the daily allowance reaches 6 1b., at which level it remains until the pig reaches bacon weight (200 lb. live). Reduction below some such level leads to unsatisfactory results. It is perhaps necessary to stress this well-established fact, because there is an undoubted tempta- tion, under war conditions, to keep larger numbers of stock than can be adequately fed. Where the pig herd is a minor department of a general farm, the possibilities of finding substitute foods are much greater. On the one hand there may be substantial amounts of such by-products as light corn, broke potatoes, sugar- beet tops, or market garden waste ; on the other, some saving of concentrates may be achieved by the proper use of pastures, by the production of catch—crops such as rape, by using pigs to glean stubbles, and by the use of foods such as swedes that are commonly reserved for other classes of stock. The various substitute foods may be grouped in three categories. Firstly are those that can be used to provide a substantial part of the ration without any slowing-down of the rate of progress of the animal, or any loss of efiiciency. These include light and small grain, steamed or ensiled potatoes, and the better sort of household swill; the latter, of course, should be cooked or steamed. These foods are, indeed, often used under normal circumstances, and the only point about their use in war is that more care and trouble should be taken to avoid waste. The second class——foods that are satisfactory if used in moderate amounts—include sugar-beet tops, carrots, swedes, and mangolds. The third includes such relatively fibrous materials as kale, cabbage, waste greenstuff from market gardens, cut green clover and grass, and grass silage. Under ordinary circumstances these are put to better use by other classes of stock, and they cannot constitute any large part of the pig’s ration (except in the case of the in—pig sow) without slowing down, very considerably, the rate of progress. A little food of this sort is, of course, a valuable supplement to a pig’s ordinary meal ration, since it supplies vitamins. But a useful supplement may be a poor substitute. Apart from the nature of the substitute that is available, the extent to which it can be used with success varies with the age of the pig and the rate of progress aimed at. The scope for saving concentrates is greatest in the case of the in-pig sow; it is less, but still considerable, in the case of the breeding gilt from the age of three or four months upwards. A smaller economy, but one that is worth making, is possible in the case of a pork or bacon animal from about the same age. With the nursing sow, or with the young animal up till |
| Title | Transactions of RHASS Volume 1940 - Page 020 |
