In the good old times it was considered to be the height of folly to make a change in the food on which the pigs were being fattened, yet our forbears would have been horrified had they been informed that it was imperative that they themselves should have no variety of food, that day after day the food at their various meals should be exactly similar; surely what is good for one animal should be good for another animal whose organs are of an exactly similar character. There is not the slightest doubt that advantage is derived from the variation in the food on which the pigs are being fattened. By this, it is not intended to suggest that a complete change of food should be made at stated times in the fatting pigs' food, as this would certainly result in a loss of time and food, but that a slight variation in the proportions of the different kinds of food is beneficial, or in the case where several different kinds of food are being fed as a mixture, another kind of food may be substituted so that the change made secures a variation which has the effect of whetting or enticing the appetite. A long continuance of the same kind of food has the effect of dulling the appetite. In addition to this, it is considered that a variation in the food tends to stimulate the digestive organs.
It is a mistake to allow too long a time to pass between feeding times; the pig is not endowed by nature with a capacious paunch which enables it to stow away a large quantity of food. Even the old system of feeding twice a day might be improved upon, and the fatting pig fed three times per day would make greater thrift, even should the actual daily quantity of food be not increased.
Again, so many persons are apt to give to the fatting pig a greater quantity of food than it requires or can eat with comfort to itself at one meal. Should this be pointed out to them, their usual reply would be that what the pig did not eat for their breakfast would be there in readiness for the evening meal unless they ate it during the day, as they frequently would do. This sounds plausible until the argument be closely examined. What would the pigman think if he were treated in a similar manner and an excessive quantity of food placed on his plate, and then at the next meals the stale food be again placed before him until it was finished? This certainly would not increase his appetite nor aid his digestion. Yet the most successful pigman is he who succeeds in so feeding his charges that they daily eat and thoroughly digest the greatest amount of food possible. In pig fattening, as in many other things, time is money. Further it is just as much a mistake for fatting pigs as for human beings to be continually eating, or at irregular intervals, small quantities of food. The two most certain indications that a lot of fatting pigs are thriving is to find that they are asleep and that their feeding troughs are empty. When pigs are fed a greater quantity of food than they can eat at once they will be frequently getting up to eat a little more of the surplus, and each time they rise from their bed they will evacuate their bowels, and in most cases before the major portion of the nutriment has been extracted.
Still another of the fallacies of our forbears was that the fatting pig made the greatest increase from a given quantity of food when it was at least approaching maturity and ripeness, or complete fatness. It was useless to argue with them, since anyone could see that it was so. If you suggested the use of the scales, the idea was scouted, since a person of any experience in pig fatting must be able to notice the increase in bulk of the pig. It is true that apparently the pig would be making a greater increase of weight as it approached the completion of its fatting process, since the addition to its weight and bulk would be almost entirely composed of fat which could only be deposited on the outside of the carcase. All the vacant space in the interior of the pig would have been occupied, the pig would have stored fat away in its muscles, around its kidneys, on its stomach, its bowels, and wherever it was possible to stow it away, but these additions to the weight of the carcase which had been proceeding in the early stages of the fatting could not be observed, nevertheless they were proceeding, and in this was the pig enabled in its early stage of fatting to make a profitable return for the food consumed.
Fortunately we are not left on this point to mere conjecture; many experiments have clearly proved that in the early stages of the life of a pig it is enabled to manufacture pork at a far less cost than in its later stages of life. The young pig also possesses over its older companion the great advantage of being able to eat and utilise a greater quantity of food in proportion to its weight or, in other words, the young pig can convert a greater quantity of raw material into the manufactured article than the more matured pig, in proportion to the amount of food required for the mere upkeep of the machinery. Experiments which most clearly prove this have been duplicated in Denmark, in the United States, etc. At Copenhagen nearly seventy different experiments were carried out with pigs of varying weights, with the result that pigs weighing about 275 lbs. live weight were found to require nearly twice as much food to make an increase in their live weight as did pigs weighing from 35 to 75 lbs. That this was not an exceptional case is clearly proved by the fact that the increase in the amount of food required to enable them to make an increase in their live weight was gradual, and shown in every stage; thus pigs of from 35 to 75 lbs. consumed 376 lbs. of food for each 100 lbs. increase; pigs of 75 to 115 lbs., 435 lbs.; pigs of 115 to 155 lbs., 466 lbs.; pigs of 155 lbs. to 195 lbs., 513 lbs.; pigs of 195 lbs. to 235 lbs., 540 lbs.; pigs of 235 lbs. to 275 lbs., 614 lbs.; and pigs of 275 lbs. to 315 lbs., 639 lbs.
Even if this series of experiments stood alone they surely would prove most conclusively that the common belief in old and nearly fat pigs giving the best return from the food consumed is founded on fiction, but similar tests were made at many of the American Experiment Stations, these tests together numbering some hundred. The results are given in tabulated form in Henry's Feeds and Feeding, where the various points are so clearly brought out that we have taken the liberty of lifting the whole of the notes relating to "weight, gain, and feed consumed" by pigs. "At many of our stations, records of weights and gains of pigs and feed consumed by them have been so reported as to permit of studies concerning the influence of increased size and weight of the animal on the consumption of food.
"All of the available data from trials of this character conducted in this country" (the United States) "up to the time of going to press, enter into the composition of the table given below. In compiling this table, six pounds of skim milk or twelve pounds of whey are calculated as equal to one pound of grain, according to the Danish valuation of these articles. For convenience of study, the data are presented for each period covering fifty pounds of growth, the actual average weight of the pigs, however, being given for each division.
DATA RELATIVE TO FEED, WEIGHT, AND GAIN OF PIGS—MANY AMERICAN STATIONS
| Weight of pigs in pounds. | Actual Average weight. | No. of stations reporting. | Total No. of trials. | No. of animals fed. | Average feed eaten per day. | Feed eaten per 100 lbs. weight. | Average gain per day. | Feed for 100 lbs. gain. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | ||||
| 15 to 50 | 38 | 9 | 41 | 174 | 2.23 | 5.95 | .76 | 293 |
| 50 to 100 | 78 | 13 | 100 | 417 | 3.35 | 4.32 | .83 | 400 |
| 100 to 150 | 128 | 13 | 119 | 495 | 4.79 | 3.75 | 1.10 | 437 |
| 150 to 200 | 174 | 11 | 107 | 489 | 5.91 | 3.43 | 1.24 | 482 |
| 200 to 250 | 226 | 12 | 72 | 300 | 6.57 | 2.91 | 1.33 | 498 |
| 250 to 300 | 271 | 8 | 46 | 223 | 7.40 | 2.74 | 1.46 | 511 |
| 300 to 350 | 320 | 3 | 19 | 105 | 7.50 | 2.35 | 1.40 | 535 |
| 350 to 400 | 378 | 1 | 5 | 36 | 8.52 | 2.25 | 1.98 | 431 |
| 400 to 450 | 429 | 1 | 5 | 36 | 8.18 | 1.91 | 1.71 | 479 |
| 450 to 500 | 471 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 10.00 | 2.12 | 1.77 | 562 |