SWINE PRODUCTION 



225 



The Care of Brood Sows. A lack of exercise and a proper variety of 

 feeds are undoubtedly the two greatest failures in the management of brood 

 sows. An abundance of exercise is necessary for growing animals and brood 

 sows and especially should this be kept in mind during the winter months 

 when there is likely to be no inducement for hogs to get far away from 

 their nest and feeding place. Pregnant sows should be encouraged or compelled 

 to take exercise. Having them travel about and root for their feed by having 

 the feeding place some distance from their sleeping quarters and more or 

 less of the grain scattered in litter on a feeding floor, accomplishes the end 

 of making them exercise. 



The sleeping quarters should be kept clean and dry. Several sows kept 

 together with a good nest will keep comfortably warm in winter which is a 

 saving of feed, a kindness to animals and advantageous in other respects. 

 Sows should be free from lice and treatment to rid them of lice during 

 winter should be given before the weather becomes cold'. Avoid entrances to 

 pens or yards over which heavy pregnant sows have to drag their bellies over 

 a sill or cross piece. 



The Feeding of Pregnant Sows. A variety of feeds should be supplied 

 pregnant sows in quantities that enables the sows to gain or retain a thrifty 

 condition. A ration of equal parts ground corn or barley, wheat middlings 

 and wheat bran or alfalfa, fed as a thick slop, provides a good ration. 



Feeding alfalfa hay in racks in the yard if it is not practical to grind 

 it will answer very well. Ear or shelled corn scattered about and a thin slop 

 of middlings in addition to alfalfa, clover, soy bean or pea vine hay, pro- 

 vide an excellent and economical ration. A few sugar beets or sugar mangels 

 keep sows in a suitable laxative condition and take the place of bran that 

 may be used in the ration. 



The Sow at Farrowing Time. Sows 

 that farrow late in the season are often 

 left to make their own nests and farrow 

 without attention on the part of the 

 owner. This does not insure the best re- 

 sults and a better plan is to have a clean, 

 roomy pen in the hog house or a sepa- 

 rate hog cot arranged and bedded prop- 

 erly for farrowing quarters. The sow 

 should be put into the farrowing pen sev- 

 eral days before she is due to farrow to be- 

 come accustomed to the new quarters. 

 The bedding should be fine, free from 

 dust to prevent coughing and pneumonia, 



CORNER OP FARROWING and supplied in amounts that the sow 

 PEN EQUIPPED WITH FENDER w jj| ma ke best use of in making her nest. 



Careless or indifferent sows will be less likely to injure or kill their pigs if 

 little bedding is used. The farrowing pen should be provided with a rail 



