The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-07-18
Management OF Pigs In Summer.

L
very strong preaching upon this sub
ject. They seem to think the favorable
summer season just the time to keep
pigs cheaply, without any expenditure
for food except the Stops from the
kitchen and poor pasture. Their idea
seems TO be to increase the age without
any regard to increasing the weight.
They seem only DESTROYS of pig frames
to build on in the fall. This custom,
almost universal until lately, of doing
all the fattening in fall and winter, can
only be accounted for by the fact that
corn and the grain crops are ripened
and ready for use in the fail, hence fall
feeding was adopted for convenience or
supposed necessity, without consider
ing the strong objections to the system.
The cost Of keeping up animal heat
depends upon the temperature. Dur
ing the six months from May to Octo-
Der, both inclusive, the average tenn
perature ranges from So to rs degs.,
and for the other six months from 20
to So degs., leaving difference of tenn
perature between the two seasons of
about 80 dogs. and the animal heat re-
mains throughout the year the same, or
100 dees. The animal must thus eat
extra food sufficient, in the cold season,
to overcome this large difference in
temperature before any gain can he
produced. Now, it will be seen that
the difference between the average tenn
perature of the air and blood-heat is
twice as great in the cold as in the
warm half of the year, and it will
therefore require twice the food of res
piration or heat production in the cold
as in the warm season.
Experiments have shown that in very
cold weather hogs would gain nothing
upon the best feeding, if exposed to the
open air. And this extra food required
to keep up the animal heat is all
thrown away as compared with feeding
in the warm season. 1t is quite below
the fact to say that it takes Is per cent.
more food, as general rule, to produce
100 pounds gain in winter than in sum-
mer, unless the winter feeding is done in
warm, we'll ventilated pens. 1t is most
important that farmers should make
the most of all their resources, and
now, more especially, when farm pro-
ducts are SO low. A farmer of the bet
ter class, who can make ten pounds of
pork from bushel of corn when the
temperature averages 60 to 20 degs.,
will find it more difficult to make q
pounds when the temperature is at
an average of 40 dogs. From these
facts it must be evident that the prin-
cipal feeding should be done in the
warm season. 1 would not advise feed
ing wholly upon grain, for the hog is q
grass-eating animal, and it is doing vio-
1ence to its nature to keep it wholly up
on concentrated food. Many Of the ills
that swine "flesn is heir to- think
are caused by neglecting to feed suf-
ticient fibrous food. Pigs should either
have a good pasture or be fed clover
and other green food in the pen.
When a pasture is not convenient,
pigs may be soiledvery profitably. An
excellent way of feeding them in sum-
mer is to run green clover through a
straw-cutter and mix an equal bulk OF
clover and corn-meal together and allow
it to lie for twelve to twenty-fOur hours.
The meal will absorb the moisture OF
the clover, swell and become softened,
while both will so adhere as to be eaten
together. From considerable expert
ence in feeding after this method, I find
the pigs uniformly healthy and more
thrifty than when fed on grain alone.
Good clover will do with half this guam
tity of meal, and sometimes produce
equally good results. I have found
even 40 per cent. difference in favor Of
the clover and meal over the meal
alone; and this, when dividing litter
of pigs and feeding one-half on corn
meal soaked in water, and the other
half on clover and meal, giving each
lot all they would eat. The pigs fed on
corn meal alone were often feverish
and mincing in appetite, while those on
clover and meal we're always lively and
ready for q feed.