Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1900-01-12
WlNTERlNG HOGS.

Theory and Practice as Applied TO
Shelter and Feed.
If every feeder could follow his hogs
through the packing house, he would
probably find that some of his pet
theories received d rather rude shak-
ing up, writes g. E. Day in The Farm
ers' Advocate. Some members Of
packing houses have given farmers
very explicit instruction as to how
they should feed their hogs, but dur
ing the past summer a very successful
breeder and feeder of swine Sent to.
the packing house a batch of hogs
which had been fed according to meth
DDS approved by the firm to which he
sent them and was astonished when
he received word that his hogs had
been improperly fed, some of them be-
ing decidedly soft and few of them
absolutely firm. This incident is re-
lated merely to show that. while the
packer has NJ doubt mastered ali the
intricacies of his end of the business.
there are evidently a few things which
he does not know regarding the APP
parently simple operation Of feeding
a pig. It is true that Investigations
are in progress, but Investigating is
necessarily slow work, and SO there is
still a large field to be explored. This
long Introduction is intended to x
plain why it is not possible to deal
with the question Of wintering pigs as
fully as is desirable.
The winter housing of hogs is not an
easy problem to deal with. The main
difficulty is encountered in getting
enough exercise for the animals. When
q man has comparatively few hogs,
he can master this part of the diticul-
ty fairly well, but when the numbers
are large and comprise all ages, sexes
question is appreciated. Our buildings
are not well adapted to provide exer-
else, and in the winter we are COM
PEELED to confne animals more closely
than we would desire. We have been
able to obtain very satisfactory
growth, but have not yet convinced
ourselves that we are producing bacon
of the best quality. A piggery, above
all things, should be dry and warm.
We have had best satisfaction from
wooden buildings andAprefer wood to
anything else for the walls of the
building. We have some cement floors,
with planked sleeping places, which
are giving very fair satisfaction, but
our narrowing pens are foored with
plank.
For pigs just after weaving we find
nothing better than wheat middlings
and skimmilk. Sometimes we cannot
get all the skimmilk we want md
have to divide the limited supply
among those most needing it. We.
have used ground oilcake and ground
1axseed In very small quantities,
stepped with the middlings; but,
though they are better than nothing,
they do not equal milk. OF the two
probably the ground daxseed is the
better. but it should not constitute
more than about 5 per cen OF the total
food. BY the time the pigs are about
3 months old little ground grain is
usually, added. We like barley for
this purpose and often add a few oats
ground as finely as possible.
Soon after this a few roots are add
ed to the ration. We have fed roots
cooked and raw and have very little
preference. except that sometimes
cooked roots are eaten d little more
readily. We prefer sugar beets, but
furnips and mangels are also good.
When potatoes are fed, they are al
ways cooked. When fed raw, the
roots are pulped and mixed with the
meal ration, after which the whole
mass ~ moiatened.