The Nevada County picayune., 1916-02-17
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB WORK.
No. 4. Growing Strong Pigs.
By H. K. Sanders. Specialist for Pig
 Club Work


 Club Work.
 Good, sound, thrifty pigs, weighing from 35 to 40 pounds each when eight weeks old do not come by luck" To be lucky with pigs simply means hard persistent work, good judgment and being on the job night and day To produce good strong, healthy pigs, they must be looked after before they are born. The mother must be cared for and we'll fed if she is to give birth to strong litter
 The Shelter: In the spring or sum- mer season the SOW is quite able to take care of herself She will steal away in the pasture and in a day or two will come up with a nice litter of pigs. But for the SOW that far, rows in the winter months some pro- lection must be given her and her lit ter. 4Iothing is better for this than a warm shed open to the south to get the sunshine. The cold winds come from the north, northeast and north west, hence any shed enclosed on those three sides is sufficient To pre- vent the SOW from crushing the pigs at farrowing time a scantling should be nailed to the inside of the house about eight inches above the ground and projecting toward the center of the pen.
 Feed for the Sow Before Farrowing: Sows fed on corn alone will not bring strong and heavy pigs. Feed some pea nuts, wheat shorts, tankage or sweet milk with the corn in the following proportion: Corn three parts and shorts one part; corn nine parts and tankage one part; corn two parts and peanuts one part in hull: corn three parts and bran one part; corn six parts and Cowpeas one part
 A 250 pound SOW should have from five to seven pounds per day of one of the above mixtures if she is fed in dry lot and plenty of fresh water The brood SOW when carrying her lit ter has to be fed with a view of feed ing the growing pigs, and to lay the foundation for their future strength, size and constitution. One of the drains upon the SOW at this time is furnishing bone making material. She therefore requires an extra amount of bone making feed. Provide a trough with wood ashes, charred corn cobs, charcoal and lime
 If she is oyerfed at first the pigs are likely to take the SCOUTS or thumps. No feed at all should be given for the first 24 hours, and very little for several days When on a full feed in a dry lot, she Nill eat about four pounds of grain per day for each 100 pounds she weighs. If she weighs 250 pounds she will need about 10 pounds per day. If she has the run of good pasture at least one half of the grain will be saved If no pasture can be provided, she will need to be fed about the same as be- fore farrowing, except that she will need more grain When the pasture is composed of Bermuda grass. grain ration equivalent 10 three per cent of her live weight should be fed and the grain part of the ration should be shorts, tangage and peas.
 Feed for the Pig Before Weaning: If given an opportunity the pigs will begin to eat when about three weeks old For these young animals moth. ing is superior to skim milk with shorts. Many farmers have no sklm milk and in this case Q thin slop or water and shorts will be the beae thing to feed until the pigs are from four to five weeks old after which time the ration should be made up of equal parts of corn meal and shorts These young animals should not be fed on corn alone. They should rather be given such feeds as skim milk, shorts, pasture, cowpeas, soy bean meal pod peanuts
 Weaning the Pigs: Don't wean un- der eight weeks of age. It is better not to wean until ten or twelve weeks of age The mothers feed at Wean. ing time should be greatly reduced so that the flow of milE will be checked Feed the pigs what they will readily clean up of five parts of corn meal. five parts of shorts and one part ot ankage, or nine parts ol corn meal 10 one part of tankage or middlings for your pigs; and Tor adult pigs one part tankage 10 eleven parts of corn will balance the rations in the proper proportion to-buid up bone and muscle Of the pig