OCR Text |
Show PRECAUTIONS IN SHIPPING OF SWINE DURING 00T WEATHER J I (Prepared by the United States Department De-partment of Agriculture.) Every hog that is killed in transit due to overcrowding or mishandling means a loss, at present prices, of probably more than ,?30 to thc shipper ship-per as well as a waste of meat needed by the nation. Mortality in transit or after arrival at the central market can be lessened greatly in hot weather by tho practice of the following simple precautions on thc part of shippers and dealers: 1. When hogs aro very hot, during or after a drive, never pour cold water over their backs. 2. Before loading clean out each car and bed it with sand which, during dry hot weather should be wetted down thoroughly. Hogs in transit during the night only are not so likely to be lost from overheating as are the animals ani-mals shipped in tho daytime. With day shipments in hot weather it is highly advisable to suspend burlap sacks in ice from the ceiling in various va-rious parts of thc car in order to reduce re-duce the temperature and, incidentally, incidental-ly, to sprinkle the animals with cool water. The ice sometimes is placed in sacks on the floor, but the animals are likely to pile and crowd around the cakes so that only those close to j the ice are benefited. The ice should be sufficient to last to tho destination. 3. Do not overload. Crowding hogs in a car during warm weather is a prolific source of mortality. i. Tho feeding of corn, because of its heating effect, before and during shipment in hot weather, should be reduced to a minimum. Oaf's are preferable pre-ferable where a grain feed is necessary. neces-sary. The maximum maintenance requirement re-quirement of hogs in trainsit for 24 hours is one pound of grain a hundredweight hun-dredweight or approximately three bushels of corn to a car. In the past thousands of bushels of corn have been wasted in livestock cars. |