488 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



After farrowing increase the food of the sow, giving her all 

 she will eat of a ration of mixed grains, with skim milk if available. 

 A shady pasture in summer, and a warm, dry, sunny pen in win- 

 ter mean health and thrift for the young pigs. Probably no other 

 farm animals gain as rapidly as young pigs. Weighing from two 

 and one-half to three and one-half pounds when farrowed, they will 

 nearly double their weight in a week, and, if the sow is generously 

 fed, will weigh from fourteen to eighteen pounds at a month old, and 

 will double it at two months old. When one month old, the 

 young pigs should receive food in addition to the milk of the dam. 

 (Utah B. 94.) 



The sow should be fed light for a few days after farrowing. 

 If she does not eat anything for a day or two after farrowing, it is 

 so much the better. For a few days she should be fed small quan- 

 tities of thin slop made of middlings and water. Increase the sup- 

 ply gradually from day to day until she gets on full feed at the end 

 of a week or ten days. If the sow has a large litter, she will require 

 liberal feeding, but if the litter is small, it may be necessary to feed 

 more sparingly. (N. D. B. 83.) 



Feed for Pigs Before Weaning. Here, again, the most im- 

 portant point of all, as far as economy of gains is concerned, is to 

 have a pasture for the pigs to run upon as soon as they begin to eat. 

 When a good pasture is available and the mother is fed liberally of 

 the proper feeds, the little pigs will need little in addition to what 

 they obtain from the pasture and the mother. But the pigs will 

 make use of some additional feed, especially if the litter is a large 

 one. The pigs will begin to eat when they are about 3 \veeks old if 

 they be given the opportunity. For these young animals nothing 

 is superior to skim milk mixed with shorts. Many farmers have no 

 skim milk, though, so something else must be used. In such case 

 probably the best thing to feed is a thin slop of shorts up to the time 

 that the pigs are from 4 to 6 weeks old, after which the ration should 

 be made up of equal parts of corn meal and shorts. These young 

 animals should never be fed corn alone. The feed for the pigs must 

 be fed in separate troughs, around which a fence has been built to 

 keep the sow r s away. 



There is no advantage to be gained by pushing the pigs too 

 rapidly with supplementary feeds. They should not be fed much 

 fattening feeds, as corn; they should rather be given feeds which 

 tend to make bone and muscle, as skim milk, shorts', pasture, cow- 

 peas, soy-bean meal, etc., so that when the time arrives to finish them 

 for the market they will have a well-developed body upon which to 

 put the fat. They should, while young, be given just enough feed 

 to keep them in a good healthy growing condition. 



Oftentimes when the litter is small and the mother is a good 

 milker the little pigs will need no feed at all in addition to the pas- 

 ture and the mother's milk. The Wisconsin station has done some 

 experimental work which seems to show that gains on young pigs 

 can be made as economically by feeding a given amount of feed to 

 the mother as by feeding directly to the pigs. To be able to keep 



