Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1911-07-28
NECESSITY TO feed PIGS
Young Hogs Should Not Be Turned
Loose to Shift for Themselves.

By August all pigs on we'll
managed farm are Weaned and sepa-
rated from the dams, and each is
receiving the feed and care suited
to it's age and uses intended. If the
pigs 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 di-
gestive organs, says a writer in the
Indiana Farmer, Ii, 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 a 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.
1t is probable that after a 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
ging 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
tax the strength of the shoats and
delay growth and thrift. II 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
yet make lot Of late feeders that
will hide away loads of corn before
they go to market.
If pigs are properly weaned and
fed after being weaned, there will
growth that means loss. A pig needs
a 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
ting stronger digestive powers by
semistarvation; they have no surplus
of material to add to increases of
tissue. The excuse given for short
keep of shoats during the summer
is, that they are making bone and
getting ready for the corn at it's ma
turity.
Possibly the farm furnishes such
unfortunates sufficient amount of
grazing and roots and grubs and
pick-ups to keep up life and little
more. AS the materials they have
utilized are not fat formers or It's
sue builders, possibly there is
enough ash or phosphates in their
pickings to build bone. Possibly,
too the stomach has enough to do
to keep it active, and the kidneys
are not overtaxed in the effort of
nature to eliminate waste and keep
the blood pure. Possibly, but not
probably. 1t is an unwise attempt
to make something out of nothing
A 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
pigs. She has a greater reserve of
energy than the young shoats and
she has more power to expend in the
hunt for food. Her ability to utilize
so many things that no other animal
could use make for her value, but
only as basis of greater value in
conversion of liberal amounts of
feed into pigs and pork.
When l see a bunch of hogs, old
and young, shifting for themselves,
as 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 haen Those shOatS