Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-02-03
NECESSITY TO FEED PIGS
Young Hogs Should Not Be Turned
Loose to Shift for Themselves.


Young Hogs Should Not Be Turned
Loose to Shift for Themselves.
By August all pigs on well
managed farm are weaned and sepa-
waited from the dams, and each is
. eceiving the feed and care suited
= its age and uses intended. If the
pags have been taught to eat corn,
mill feed and grass or clover before
they are weaned, they are ready to
leave the mothers milk and go on
to these feeds without any check in
growth or arrangement of their d.
gestive organs. says writer in the
Indiana Farmer. If, on the other
hand, the sows have been fed moth
ing but corn during their sucking
period and have been turned off in
some remote field to shift for them
selves and the pigs put on dry corn
or picking from a stubble field, with
out shade and plentiful supply OF
water. trouble is almost sure to en-
sue. The coats of the shoats will
begin to shave and present dead
like appearance and the growth be
checked for a while.
It is probable that after q few
weeks the pigs that looked plump
and thrifty and of good form when
they were weaned will begin to look
tucked up in flank, the belly grow
faster than the quarters, and even
shrinkage in girth measure or sag
cling back of shoulder, and these
undesirable points increase as the
hot weather, internal and external
parasites, shortage of water and
abundance of dust, along with the
toughening and drying of the weeds
and clover or grass, all combine to
lax the strength of the shoats and
delay growth and thrift. If pigs
thus cared for pull through until
The fall rains freshen up the pastures
and the water supply improves and
the heat is less oppressive, they may
begin to show better condition, and
vet make a lot of late feeders that
VIII hide away loads of corn before
they go to market.
If pigs are properly weaned and
ted after being weaned, there will
be- no shrinkage and no check of
growth that means loss. A pig needs
. certain amount of digestible food
to sustain life, and this we call food
Of support. As long as they are
kept on such limited ration they re-
turn nothing but feed consumed dur
Ing that period. They are not get
ling stronger digestive powers by
semistarvation; they have no surplus
" material to add to increases of
tissue. The excuse given for short
keep of shoats during the summer
ID, that they are making bone and
getting ready for the corn at it's ma
!urity.
Possibly the farm furnishes such
anfortunates a sufficient amount of
grazing and roots and grubs and
piek-ups to keep up life and little
more. As the materials they have
atilized are not fat formers or It's
yue builders, possibly there is
enough ash or phosphates in their
pickings to build bone. Possibly,
700 the stomach has enough to do
70 keep it active, and the kidneys
are not overtaxed in the effort of
nature to eliminate waste and keep
he blood pure. Possibly, but not
probably. It is an unwise attempt
20 make something out of nothing.
healthy old sow can come nearer
TO that than any other domestic ami
nal, but even she needs more than
food of support, to help her store up
Energy for the coming hitler of
Digs. She has greater reserve of
spergy than the young shoats and
she has more power to expend in the
hunt for food. Her ability to utilize
70 many things that no other animal
could use make for her value, but
enly as basis of greater value in
conversion of liberal amounts of
Iced into pigs and pork.
When I see a bunch of hogs, old
and young, shifting for themselves,
~ they do on some farms, or, at
best, getting only a taste of corn to
help them keep up the struggle until
the corn crop is made, think of
Maud Muller signing over what
might have been. Those shoats
might have been farther on the road
to market and worth SO much more
II they had been given chance to
convert each day few more pounds
of corn feed into growth. They
would most willingly have returned
double and possibly triple value for
the few pounds of extra feed. 1t
takes very little more above the food
Of support to make market growth,
and in that little more lies the profit
In growing shoats.
The profit is not in the food of
support, as We may find by feeding
q pig as long as we like just enough
to keep it holding it's own. At the
end OF the period it is no heavier
than when we began this unprofit-
able test, and possibly its growth is
90 checked that we will have expend-
ed more time and feed for the future
gains than those gains could have
been made for before this long
suspense of growth. 1t takes an
amount of good feed to fill out the
lines Of a shoat that has long been
on such short feed, and get him
back to the form of thrift that he
showed when he left his mother to
shift for himself. No one ever saw
pig making improbable growth
or doing a fraction of what he is
capable when his hair is dry and
standing every way, his belly girth
double that of heart and flank as
many q shoat shows to-day, and all
because Of lack Of little more feed.
What She Might Do.
Mot dressed yeti" he cried. in
mild surprise. as he entered his
Wife's boudoir.
No." she snapped. They've new
nv eant INV drAaa opd Two literally