Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1901-04-18
Milking Capacity OF Sows,

Milking Capacity OF Sows.
Mr.. Sanders Spencer, an English
writer. says: 1.-THE quality Of milk
giving is not sufficiently studied by
many pig breeders, who take it for
granted that well-nigh every SOW
which will produce pigs will. as mat
ter of course. furnish them with good
supply Of tactical food" This ia very
far from being the case, and there is
nearly as much difference in the milk
ing qualities Of sows as in those Of
cows. Very little care Is taken in the
selection of sows as mothers on the
ground Of their probable milking pro-
pensities, although the points Of a good
sucking sow are in many respects sim
liar to those Of good milking cow,
and generally the discovery Of def
ciencies in this respect is made when
the little pigs are found to be doing
badly. Even then there is generally a
disposition to give the sow another
chance, in the hope that she will do
better next time" and she is retained,
on the ground that she is a valuable"
animal, until the owners patience is
exhausted, and he becomes reluctantly
convinced that such sow cannot be
profitably kept. No SOW is valuable"
no matter how highly bred, how long
her pedigree, or how high her cost,
that is not good mixer, and able to
feed her pigs in such way that they
grow with ordinary and reasonable
rapidly. Complaints of young pigs
doing badly while with the sow are
very common. Occasionally the COM
plainant recognizes that the sow is
poor mixer, or "a bad mother" as the
general run of pig breeders express 1t;
but in the majority of cases it is not
even dreamed of that the pigs are
doing badly because they do not get
sufficient milk Of proper quality to sat
isfy their growing requirements. A
large number of pigs die young from
no other cause than that they are
starved-unable to get sufficient sus-
tenance from their mother. Young
pigs are difficult to rear by hand; they
do not take kindly to cows milk, or
rather it does not suit them because it
is deficient in fixed constituents, par
ticularly in fat, and they do not pay
for the new milk received. There is
no greater nuisance on farm than
litter Of motherless pigs, or lot that
are practically orphaned because their
mother has not enough milk for them.
1t is said that pedigree pig stock, like
the pedigree cows above mentioned,
are the worst offenders in the matter
if the herd has been inbred; but bad
mixers and poor mothers are to be
found among all breeds and classes OF
pigs, and require to be looked after in
selecting breeders, and to be ruthless
iy welded out if the discovery OF their
imperfections is delayed until litter
of pigs has been spoiled or starved.
In general way, when engaged In
breeding ordinary stock no second
chance should be given sow that has
proved herself unable to bring up her
pigs in thoroughly satisfactory man
ner. There may be some hesitation in
sacrificing a pedigree animal that has
cost lot Of money, but if she does
not look like a good sucker, or if she
fails at second try, she should at once
be fatted for the butcher. She may
have excellent points in other ways,
but they cannot compensate for the
loss which results from the dying off
Of half or perhaps three-fourths Of
each farrow. It is also advisable, at
least where the progeny is to be kept
to strengthen the herd, to select boars
from dams which show thorough ma
ternal capacity.