The Handbook of Modern Pig Farming

H. M. Rikard-Bell

Description

This book contains a classic guide to pig farming that presents the reader with all the fundamental information they would need to know abut keeping and breeding pigs for pleasure or profit. It covers every aspect of the subject from stock selection to common ailments and how they can be avoided, making it ideal for novice breeders and owners alike. “The Handbook of Modern Pig Farming” is not to be missed by collectors of vintage agricultural literature. Contents include: “Type And Breed”, “Laying The Foundations Of The Herd”, “Systems Of Running”, “Breeding Sows”, “The Sow And Litter To Weaning”, “Housing”, “Feeding Stuffs”, “Elastic Rations”, “Feeding Home-Grown Produce”, “Hygiene”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on pig farming.

Sujets

• Agronomie
• Agronomy for Sustainable Development
• Agriculture
• Engineering
• Technology
• Sciences et techniques
• Animal Husbandry

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 19 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781447493068
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE HANDBOOK OF MODERN PIG FARMING
BY
H. M. RIKARD-BELL
( Member of the National Pig-Breeders Association )
INTENSIVE FATTENING HOUSES
INTRODUCTION
THE war years and those of the aftermath showed the belligerent countries that to be self-supporting was an essential to victory, and to reasonable prosperity.
Just what would have happened to Germany had her troops, during 1917 and 1918, been well fed and well clothed, is but a matter for fruitless conjecture. The Allies had vast resources of agricultural produce on which to draw: the men in the trenches, the sailors in the ships, the civilians at home never felt the pinch of actual starvation; their colonies were able to fill the needs.
After the war the big primary producing countries suffered a great deal less than any others. Then, in the financial depression of 1929 onwards, countries like Australia, Africa, and New Zealand were the last to be affected, just as they have been the first to round the corner on the way back to a normal condition of trade.
The moral, apparently, is to go all agricultural, but this is hardly so. What we do need is that those of us who are engaged in winning our living from the land should be able to do so with the least wastage and greatest margin of profit. It is not the object of this book to point the way to some fantastic Utopia, but rather to show that in its own particular branch of livestock production-namely, pigs-efficiency of management, the careful selection of foundation stock, the culling of passengers, and an assiduous attention to details of housing and feeding will prove that, despite almost unfair fluctuations of prices, there is still money in pigs.
Countries like Denmark and Sweden have long eschewed haphazard, hit-or-miss methods of producing bacon, just as New Zealand has specialised in her export lamb. The Dane, in particular, has used our pigs, allied to a carefully selected and cultivated native type, to produce the ironically named Wiltshire baconer. He has, by keeping to one cross, bred to a uniformity of type which to the ordinary Britisher is almost symbolic of that perfection to which he can never attain.
This is not so. Our bacon contest classes at Smithfield, Peterborough, etc., are at least equal to those of the foreigner. Where he scores is in the all-round standard of the ordinary farmer. The counterpart in Denmark of our Mr. Giles could exhibit his bacon pigs in our show rings and be among the money, whereas poor Mr. Giles himself couldn t breed an A grade pig from his stock for love or money.
Our Large Whites, and to a lesser extent our Saddlebacks, Welsh, Large Blacks, Tamworths and Berkshires, can produce first-class bacon either within their pure breeds or by their crosses, but a short tour of some of our farms and even a casual glance at the animals thereon called pigs will show why it is they do not. Runts are kept for breeding purposes; third and fourth crosses are bred from; swill, refuse, and rubbish is fed to them; they sleep in wet, dank, and ill-ventilated hovels; they plough, belly-deep, through self-fouled mire. We wonder why they don t produce bacon at a profit!
Could a cow, in like circumstances, record a thousand gallons of milk? Or a mare so rear a Derby winner? Or a lamb fatten for market? Of course not. Then why on earth ask a pig to achieve the impossible?
The same old story obtains in pork production. Here the Middle White and Berkshire, with the Large White, come into their own. Properly kept and fed they will produce succulent porkers more readily, more speedily, and more economically than the pigs of any other country are able to do. And yet we still hear complaints that the pork last week from the butcher was too fat, too tough, or too something.
Why is it that the most prolific of our domestic animals, the most economical eater, and the most contented doer is just stuck somewhere and casually told she can t make money?
Admittedly to most farmers the pig is a side line to be taken up or dropped as the varying market indicates. To be sold now for pork, now for bacon, or again as a fat sow, or a sucker. Bred from sows whose chief recommendation was that they looked cheap when they were bought, and sired by boars which should have been castrated and fattened for bacon in their youth.
I think it is admitted that, for him who can afford it, Danish fattening houses, elaborate farrowing pens on the Scandinavian principle, and so on, will pay dividends, but they are expensive, which precludes them from the reach of many. It is not true that such luxuries, although desirable and a goal at which to be aimed, are necessary for a profit-and a genuine profit at that.
The object of this book is to show the average man, with his varying degrees of financial equipment, the better methods of keeping pigs, of breeding them, and of fattening them, in such a way that, whether one becomes an exclusive pig farmer or continues with swine as a side line, or whether one has quantities of home-grown produce on which to feed them or not, this animal can be made to show a greater percentage of profit for capital and land tied up in it than any other branch of livestock production.
CONTENTS
I NTRODUCTION
PART I
BREED AND MANAGEMENT
I. T YPE AND B REED
II. L AYING THE F OUNDATIONS OF THE H ERD
III. S YSTEMS OF R UNNING B REEDING S OWS
IV. T HE S OW AND L ITTER TO W EANING
V. H OUSING
PART II
FEEDING
VI. F EEDING S TUFFS
VII. E LASTIC R ATIONS
VIII. F EEDING H OME-GROWN P RODUCE
PART III
HYGIENE AND DISEASE
IX. H YGIENE
X. T HE M ORE C OMMON D ISEASES
C ONCLUSION
A PPENDIX : F ACTS AND F IGURES
I NDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
S IRE OF THE W ORLD S B EST B ACON
S UMMER C OMFORT
B ACON WITH P EDIGREE
A P RETTY T RIO
F OR E ARLY M ATURING P ORKERS
C OMPACT M EAT
P ERFECT P ORKERS
B EFORE THE C ROSS
T HE R ESULT OF THE M ATING
A N E FFICIENT F OLDING U NIT
A G ROUP OF L ARGE W HITE /B ERKSHIRES
R EADY FOR THE S ECOND C ROSS
M IDDLE W HITE P ERFECTION
R EADY FOR P ORK P RODUCTION
T HE B EST F IRST C ROSS FOR B ACON
T HE W AY TO E XTRA L EAN B ACON
A P ROLIFIC B REEDER FOR C ROSSING P URPOSES
W HY D ON T P IGS P AY ?
T HE C OMING C ROSS ?
L ARGE W HITE /L ARGE B LACK
A T THE E ND OF AN E NGLISH W INTER
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE author wishes to extend his thanks to all those who, by their co-operation and kindness, have made possible the production of this work.
Particular thanks are due to Mr. Alec Hobson, Secretary of the National Pig Breeders Association, for the loan of various photos and for his general encouragement; to Mr. W. T. Price, Wilts Agricultural Organiser, for hints and introductions which have proved invaluable; to Mr. A. W. Ling, Agricultural Officer of Bristol University, for permission to quote from Bulletin 17 issued by his department; to Mr. Bruce Smith for drawings done to scale.
For photographs, figures, and general assistance my thanks go to the following:-
The Right Hon. The Earl of Radnor.
Frank Swanton, Esq., Overton, Marlborough, Wilts.
Rear-Admiral F. Clifton Brown, Stanford Place, Faringdon, Berks.
Herbert Shepherd, Esq., Walronds Farm, Baydon, Wilts.
Mrs. K. Hollas, Parsonage Farm, Highworth, Wilts.
H. Wilton Davies, Esq., Baydon, Marlborough, Wilts.
E. W. Brooks, Esq., Nettlebed House, Nettlebed, Oxon.
A. W. Gray, Esq., Hawkesbury Agricultural College, Sydney, Australia.
A. N. D. Others.
PART I-BREED AND MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER ONE
TYPE AND BREED
THE barren lands, high and rocky, are not the only portions of the farm suitable for pig breeding. Admittedly it is better for one s housing to be established on rising ground, but any site on which water does not lie after rain will do. In other countries where there is not such diversity of terrain, quite flat ground is drained and utilised with success.
In countries in the Northern Hemisphere it is preferable that buildings should face the south, while, in southern climes, a northern aspect is desirable, the important thing being that as much sunlight as possible will penetrate as far as possible into the piggery itself, as this is the best of all disinfectants, as well as being the great provider of life and health. Should one feel any doubt of the beneficial effect on all forms of life of the direct rays of the sun, it should be enough to state that in cold, dark winters bottled sunlight in the form of cod-liver oil will clear up, and eradicate, many of those worrying but undiagnosable ailments so loosely grouped under the heading of cramp.
Take it, then, that a piggery should be placed on land as well drained as possible, where it will receive the maximum of sunlight, and I think one is quite justified in omitting all the finicky details with which the over-conscientious adviser would burden us.
In a later portion of this book the question of housing, yarding, etc., will be dealt with fully, but one must not forget the old adage about first catch your bird. Let us then deal with the animals themselves.
In America and in Australia the Tamworth is still favoured as a sire, but even in these two countries prejudice and preference are giving place to the proven value of the Large White as the begetter of bacon pigs.
England, Denmark, Scandinavia, Jugo-Slavia, Germany, and the rest advocate the exclusive use of the Large White as the top cross for the economical production of bacon.
Although bacon competitions, carcass cups, and other trophies have been won by such extremes of breed as pure Tamworth, pure Berkshire, and pure Large Black, a casual glance would show that an overwhelming percentage of the winners have had the Large White as the sire, either winning with pure breds or crosses. The time will come here, as in Denmark, when any other sire for the production of bacon will be illegal, and until that time has come let us take a leaf from their book and take this one big step towards uniformity in the carcass we turn out, and let