Pig Husbandry

By Anon Anon

This volume contains a collection of interesting and helpful articles on pig keeping, covering topics such as feeding, breeding, ailments, and more. Containing a wealth of information that will be of value to the modern pig farmer, this text constitutes a must-read for those with an interest in the subject, and makes for a worthy addition to collections of farming literature. The articles contained herein include: 'Breeding, Housing, and Management of Pigs'; 'Recent Developments in Feeding'; 'Diseases of Pigs in Relation to Management'; 'Special Problems of Pig-Keeping on the Smallholding'; and 'Bacon Factory Requirements'. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly rare and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are proudly republishing this volume, now in an affordable modern edition complete with a new introduction on pig farming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473354944

Book preview

THE BREEDING, HOUSING AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF PIGS

H. R. DAVIDSON

BECAUSE one cannot well discuss the management of pigs without knowing the aim of the producer, we might first consider the two chief lines of policy, each of which has its protagonists. The one is the declared policy of the Government, a few pigs on every farm, the other a rapid and complete return to specialization in the production of Wiltshire baconer pigs.

The reason for the first policy is that it would enable a considerable number of pigs to be kept in the country without having recourse to any imported feedingstuffs, because the pigs could feed on the wastes and surpluses which are to be found on most farms. The explanation given for the second policy is that the customer will demand more bacon and will insist that this bacon must be supplied in one form only—namely, that of the Wiltshire cure. Denmark and Canada are supplying the type of pigs which the customer is said to demand, and these two countries, it is claimed, will soon be competing very strongly with home producers. This policy is supported by the slogan The customer is always right, but it ignores three fundamental facts.

First, it clashes with the other policy of a few pigs on every farm, because the experience from 1933 to 1939 of the working of the Pigs Marketing Board was that under specialization on Wiltshire bacon, more and more pigs were, in fact, produced on fewer and fewer farms. That is just the result of that kind of specialization.

Secondly, the production of such light-weight pigs as those required for sizable Wiltshire bacon is at variance with the economics of production. Pigs weighing no more than 200 lb. alive cost more to produce than heavier pigs. Evidence is available from animal husbandry experiments and from the agricultural economists that the cost of production per pound of carcass weight is greater in the small than in a heavier pig, up to a quite considerable weight of pig. There are several reasons for this, but one of the most important is that the on-cost of breeding the pig, when spread over a larger number of pounds of carcass, becomes smaller per pound than when it has to be spread over a smaller number of pounds.

Thirdly, the whims of the consuming purchaser are no longer law. In, say, 1908, when there were no currency difficulties and there was, in effect, a peaceful condition throughout the world, the merchants of this country could go to any part of the world to obtain any kind of food which the consumer thought he wanted. Now the situation is entirely different. The economic situation has changed completely. It is no longer a situation where the customer is always right because, in fact, the customer has to take what is given him. The customer might say that he demanded a sirloin of beef, a steak, several pounds of butter, a new family car, chocolate biscuits, and so on.

Thirty years ago the shopkeeper and the merchant would have had to go to the ends of the earth to get these things if the customer asked for them. Now the shopkeeper and the merchant have no say in the matter. The Ministry of Food distributes to us what it can obtain for us. Apart from that, we have, as a country, to produce either what is nutritionally most efficient, as in the case of milk, or what we can most efficiently produce with the raw material available to us. The nineteenth century was a period when the merchants flourished because there was an increasing number of people who wanted to buy all sorts of things, and the object of the merchant was to sell anything which was in demand. That period has