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Show FEEDING PIGS AFTER WEANING Material Furnished by Department of Animal Husbandry. Utah Agricultural Agri-cultural College The critical time in the life of the pig is jus after weaning, especially if it has been weaned early in order to breed the sow for a second litter. If, however, they have learned to -eat while still with their mother the Job is much easier. As the stomuch of young pigs is exceptionally ex-ceptionally small for the size of the animal, they must have a rotation which Is not too bulky. Skim milk may be fed abundantly, but should be supplemented with other feeds. If skim milk is cheap, possibly one pound of grain Bhould be fed with eight or ten pounds of skim milk. If skim milk is scarce, the proportion may be cut down to three or four pounds of milk to one pound of grain. Whether to feed the skim milk warm or cold, sweet or sour, Is a matter mat-ter of convenience. Care should be taken, however, to follow consistantly whichever of these systems is adopted, adopt-ed, as all animals are creatures of regular habits and resent sudden changes In their feed. If a change must be made it should be done gradually grad-ually thus eliminating most of the danger. A change from warm sweet milk to cold sour milk can safely be made by feeding the milk a little cooler each day and substituting a little lit-tle sour milk for some of the sweet until tbe pigs are on a full ration ol cold sour milk. Buttermilk can replace skim milk in pig' ration end can be considered of equal feeding value. Whey from cheese factories is not a very desirable feed for young pigs as nearly all of the muscle building material has been removed in the cheese making process. Neither of these feeds should b fed unless they are thoroughly sterilized, steril-ized, as feeding Infected milk from tubercular cows soon spreads this disease through the pigs. Where cream has been well pasteurized before be-fore being churned, the resulting but termilk can be fed without danger. Semi-solid Buttermilk, a commercial commer-cial product now on the market can be fed as it comes from the barrels in which it Is shipped, though better results might be expected If mixed with water and grain. The chief objection ob-jection to this feed is its high price, but even at a rather high price it may be used successfully in growing purebred pigs or pigs that are being rushed. With neither skim milk or butteT-milk butteT-milk available, a pretty satisfactory ration for young pigs can be made by mixing one part of tankage, a byproduct by-product of the slaughter house which contains about 60 per cent of protein, to seven to ten parts of shorts or finely ground barley. This should be soaked in water enough to make a medium slop. If an alfalfa patch Is available 1d-to 1d-to which tbe old sow and her litter can be turned many troubles are avoided. Alfalfa can hardly be considered con-sidered as more than enough to main-tain main-tain the weight of pigs, so that for growth some additional grain must be allowed. Afternoon or evening Is probably pro-bably the bPst time to feed the grain as tbe pies will be hungry enough in the morning to spend the day to good advantage eating the alfalfa. As the old sow's milk flow decreases decreas-es it may be iesirable to shut off her train supply. This may be done by building in the corner of the pasture" a pig creep which will permit the little lit-tle pigs getting to the grain but will keep out the sow. The young pigs will need an allowance of from one to three pounds of grain for each 100 pounds live weight while on pasture for most economical gains. |