Pig Keeping - Housing, Feeding and General Management

W. D. Peck

Description

This book is a complete guide to all aspects of pig keeping. Full of practical advice, instruction, and useful diagrams and photos, it focuses mainly on the three most important aspects of pig keeping - Housing, Feeding and General Management. Contents Include : Policies in Perspective Choosing the System Housing Pig Keeping Equipment Feeding in Theory Feeding In Practice Feeding A Matter of Choice Breeding Better Pigs Management Breeding Stock Management Farrowing Management Rearing Management Fattening Health and Disease Copper or Gold? Grading Standards for Bacon Pigs Price Conversion Table Chemical Analyses of Feeding Stuffs Standard Rations for Home Mixing Useful Addresses Notifiable Diseases of Pigs Pork, Bacon or Heavy Hog? Standards of Performance for Breeding and Fattening Pigs References

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781528761338
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Pig Keeping

PIG KEEPING
W. D. PECK
B.Sc. (Agric), N.D.A.
FABER AND FABER LTD
24 Russell Square
London
First published in mcmlx
by Faber and Faber Limited
24 Russell Square London W.C.1
Printed in Great Britain by
Latimer Trend Co Ltd Plymouth
All rights reserved
W. D. Peck 1960
Contents
P REFACE
1. P OLICIES IN P ERSPECTIVE
2. C HOOSING THE S YSTEM
3. H OUSING
4. P IG K EEPING E QUIPMENT
5. F EEDING I-I N T HEORY
6. F EEDING II-I N P RACTICE
7. F EEDING III-A M ATTER OF C HOICE
8. B REEDING B ETTER P IGS
9. M ANAGEMENT -B REEDING S TOCK
10. M ANAGEMENT -F ARROWING
11. M ANAGEMENT -R EARING
12. M ANAGEMENT -F ATTENING
13. H EALTH AND D ISEASE
14. C OPPER OR G OLD ?
A PPENDIX I.
G RADING S TANDARDS FOR B ACON P IGS
A PPENDIX II.
P RICE C ONVERSION T ABLE
A PPENDIX III.
C HEMICAL A NALYSES OF F EEDING S TUFFS
A PPENDIX IV.
S TANDARD R ATIONS FOR H OME M IXING
A PPENDIX V.
U SEFUL A DDRESSES
A PPENDIX VI.
N OTIFIABLE D ISEASES OF P IGS
A PPENDIX VII.
P ORK , B ACON OR H EAVY H OG ?
A PPENDIX VIII.
S TANDARDS OF P ERFORMANCE FOR B REEDING AND F ATTENING P IGS
R EFERENCES
I NDEX
Illustrations
PLATES

Frontispiece
I.
Floor insulation with hollow clay tiles
II.
Sleeping kennels
III.
Horse box converted to farrowing pen
IV.
Cattle yard adapted for pigs
V.
The Ruakura round farrowing house
VI.
Modified Ruakura farrowing house
VII.
Cattle hovel used for dry sows and gilts
VIII.
Cheap straw and tarpaulin shelter
IX.
Wooden silo converted for pigs
X.
An inexpensive rearing hut
XI.
Portable pig hut
XII.
Piped water in the fattening house
XIII.
Water for pigs at pasture
XIV.
Electric fencing for pigs
XV.
Temporary fencing with pig wire
XVI.
Use of sow harness and tether
XVII.
Field storage of feedingstuffs
XVIII.
Breeding pigs at pasture
XIX.
Castrating boar pigs
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
Restraining an adult pig
XXIV.
Ringing a sow
XXV.
Ear notching
XXVI.
Dangerous eye teeth, best removed at birth
XXVII.
Washing sow s udder to remove worm eggs
XXVIII.
Driving pigs
XXIX.
Preventing anaemia
XXX.
Catching a young pig
XXXI.
Controlled feeding
XXXII.
Weighing bacon pigs
DIAGRAMS
1.
Insulating materials for new flooring
2.
Cheap insulation with egg trays
3.
Overhanging eaves to give protection from rain
4.
Cavity wall construction
5.
Roof insulation with straw
6.
False ceiling insulation in lofty building
7.
Ventilation stream in properly insulated piggery
8.
Ground floor ventilation of two-storey building
9.
Inlet ventilator
10.
Outlet ventilator
11.
Temporary creep for use in farrowing house
12.
Wooden panel over feeding trough
13.
Tubular pen front
14.
Swinging panel to restrain pigs when filling trough
15.
Pig-proof door fasteners
16.
17.
Temporary shelter for breeding pigs
18.
Creep feeder in farrowing ark
19.
Layout of milling and mixing equipment
20.
Tethering-position of anchoring stake
21.
Useful farrowing crate
22.
Wild boar
23.
Early domesticated sow
24.
The principles of inheritance in diagrammatic form
25.
26.
27.
Ear notching plan
28.
Safety in farrowing rails
29.
Creep feeders for outdoor use
30.
31.
32.
Weighing young pigs
33.
Drenching bottle and mouth gag
PIGGERY PLANS
NEW BUILDINGS
1. Improved Scandinavian Piggery
2. Deep-Straw Pig House
3. General Purpose Piggery
4. Improved Cottager s Pig House
5. Single span Farrowing House
BUILDING CONVERSIONS
6. Single Range Cowhouse converted for fattening pigs
7. Universal Hut adapted as a fattening or farrowing house
8. Double Row Cowhouse converted for fattening pigs
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Plans 1 and 2 are reproduced by permission of the Controller, H.M.S.O. from Bulletin No. 160 The Housing of Pigs; plan 5 is reproduced by permission of Messrs. Alexander and Angell Ltd., plans 3 and 4 by permission of the Farm Buildings Dept., North of Scotland College of Agric, and plans 6 and 7 by permission of Pig Farming . Plates V and VI are reproduced by permission of the Director, The Ruakura Animal Research Station, New Zealand.
Preface
There are some aspects of pig keeping that bear more directly than others upon the profitability of the enterprise and I have given special mention in this book to housing, feeding and general management.
I am indebted to many people for help in the preparation of the book and I should like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Cooper and Mr. and Mrs. Dibble for the photographs taken on their farms; also, my thanks are due to Mr. John L. Jones and Mr. V. Wiltshire for preparing the photographs and line-drawings. I am grateful to Mr. F. J. Fullbrook who has read the manuscript and to Mr. Derek Barber and Mr. F. J. Hill for their many suggestions, and above all to my wife for her encouragement and patience.
W. D. P ECK
Chipping Sodbury
Bristol
September 1960
CHAPTER 1
Policies in Perspective
Looking back on the past, the prospect for pigs has often appeared in doubt, for though there have been times when the future has looked extremely bright it has always seemed to lose some of this early brilliance. Today, the pig keeper is faced with the difficult task of choosing the best market. Should he train his sights on the specialist bacon market or have we worshipped at the altar of the Wiltshire cure for too long, and do the heavy hog and the new techniques of curing and pre-packaging portend a radical change in our views about bacon? All in all, there is a good deal of confusion and the decision is not an easy one to make.
After the war, there was no doubt what was wanted; home production of meat of all kinds was little more than a token of our needs and our ability to supplement this by large-scale purchases from abroad was limited by meagre reserves of foreign exchange. An expansion in pigs offered the quickest way to an increase in meat supplies and as a policy was both politically and economically desirable; it was markedly successful too, culminating in the end of meat rationing in 1954. But if our expansion policy had been a success, so had that of our overseas competitors, and notably Denmark, who began to send us an increasing tonnage of top quality bacon. This coincided with a further expansion in output at home as the production cycle moved into top gear, and the Exchequer became increasingly involved in price guarantee payments.
A Changing Pattern
To discourage any further increase in production the guaranteed price was substantially reduced at the 1954 Price Review and the policy was changed to encourage greater competitive strength through a progressive improvement of quality and reduction of production costs. At about the same time, marketing was returned to private traders and the Fatstock Guarantee Scheme introduced to protect the right of producers to a guaranteed price by providing a price safety-net, while leaving the market free to reward efficiency and penalize poor quality and inefficient production methods.
Naturally, producers were anxious that the ordered conditions of marketing enjoyed during the era of Ministry of Food trading should continue and there should be a modicum of protection against foreign competition while the industry was in process of re-organization. Consultation with the interested parties, however, revealed a division of opinion on how best to deal with the complex problems of pigs and bacon marketing and this was not entirely reconciled by the Howitt 1 and Bosanquet 2 reports, nor the Government s decision to replace import quotas on bacon by a 10 per cent ad valorem tariff, repeal the pre-war Pigs and Bacon Marketing Boards and set up the Pig Industry Development Authority with responsibility for planning, co-ordinating and carrying out developments both in pig production and marketing of pig products .
A relatively short time has passed since these changes took effect, but if first signs are a reliable indication they have not provided the hoped for stability in the market and have failed to prevent a return of the notorious pig cycle. In fact, the fluctuation in price has been much wider and more frequent than in the years before the war. What is the remedy?
A Different Pig
The root of the trouble lies in the competition which exists between the fresh pork and manufacturing market and the bacon market. This might be removed by a marketing board able to control all pigs as well as bacon imports, but the Government seems unlikely to favour this suggestion. An alternative suggestion is to introduce separate price guarantees for pork and bacon pigs and so insulate the specialist bacon producer against both foreign competition and the pork market. This is an attractive proposition, but it can be little more than a temporary solution for it ignores the fact th