DIVISION OF ANIMAL Hi'SBAXDIiY 461 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



LXPERIMENT ON THE EFFECTS OF FEEDING RICE-MEAL TO FATTEN- 

 ING HOGS. 



In the annual report for the year ending ^lareh 31, 1913, some preliminary experi- 

 ments were described on the value of rice-meal as a food for swine. 



This work was undertaken in response to numerous inquiries received from this 

 section of the province concerning this food, it being evidoiit that large quantities of 

 rice-nical were being sold to farmers. The work done was of a preliminary nature and 

 was necessarily not conclusive; but it indicated that further careful experiment was 

 both desirable and necesi?ary in order to prove: Firstly, whether this food was a profit- 

 able one for farmers to feed to pigs; and secondly, what was its effect on animal 

 nutrition. 



With these two main objects in view, a number of experiments have been carried 

 on for the past twelve months. Twenty-five pens of four pigs each, a total of one 

 hundred pigs, have been fed. The feeding period varied from fifty-seven days to one 

 hundred days, but the majority of the pens were fed for the last-named period. Tlie 

 pigs used were, as nearly as possible, of uniform size, age, and condition for oiu.-li 

 experiment. In every case the best pigs were put on the rice-meal or mixture and the 

 poorer ones used for controls. 



All the pigs on the experiment were given every attention that our condition 

 would permit. They were kept in rough, but light, clean, well-bedded, and well- 

 ventilated pens. The pens were cleaned out every day and fresh straw was put in. 

 They were fed three times a day, and were given clean water to drink at will. Green 

 food, such as mangels, peas, oats and vetches, and green clover, was supplied every day. 

 Three times each week, every pen was supplied with a liberal, quantity of a mixture 

 of soil, wood-ashes, charcoal, and salt. This mixture was greatly enjoyed by all the 

 pigs. 



The pigs used were very ordinary in breeding and condition. Grade and cross- 

 bred pigs were bought and these were supplemented from our own litters by pure-bred 

 ones that were not first-class breeding stock. They were always so arranged as to 

 make the x^^ns as uniform as possible. 



In all the work now reported, rice-meal when fed in mixtures was used half and 

 half with other meals, except alfaKa and dried blood. These last named foods were 

 used in an endeavour to replace skim-milk. Dried blood at $60 per ton, and ground 

 alfalfa at $28 per ton were both very expensive substitutes for skim-milk. 



Thirteen pens were fed rice-meal and rice-meal mixtures. Twelve pens were used 

 as controls and fed on wheat shorts, or shorts and the same mixtures as in the case 

 of rice-meal. The ditierent lots contain both summer- and winter-fed hOgs. 



In looking over the various lots of pens, one will notice quite a variation in the 

 different points, but in every case the rice-meal fed hogs were less profitable than 

 were the ones fed on the other grains. Not only were they less profitable but their 

 general condition was not to be compared to the control pens. In some cases a 

 definite disease developed, and when the hogs were slaughtered they were condemned 

 on account of lack of condition. 



Dr. Seymour Hadwen of the Health of Animals Branch inspected, both before and 

 after slaughter, every hog put through the pens. As will be noted in a paragraph by 

 Dr. Hadwen, this m.alady caused by the rice-meal resembles very closely the disease 

 Beri-leri in man. When this trouble first occurred, it appeared due to some faulty 

 method of housing or feeding; but, when experience proved that this malady could be 

 produced or checked at will by changing the ration, this idea was given up. In every 

 case where rice-meal has been fed, symptoms were produced of a like nature. This 

 has been done with various classes of hogs at all seasons of the year, and with various 



foods mixed with rice-meal. 



Agassiz 



