* 



1920.] Pig Feeding and Pork Production. 347 



The 61 pigs in stock on the 30th March, 1919, weighed at 

 that time 96 cwt., and were valued at £614, which would repre- 

 sent £6 8s. per live-weight cwt., or £1 3s. per live-weight score. 



The total weight of the 92 pigs sold during the year amounted 

 to 160 cwt. 3 qr., and the total receipts from these sales 

 /911 3s. M., an equivalent of £5 14s. per live-weight cwt., or 

 £l OS. 6d. per live-weight score. It would certainly seem as if 

 the values of the pigs in stock, particularly at the end of the 

 year, were over-estimated rather than under-estimated, and 

 that approximately £20 might be struck off the net profits 

 arrived at, as allowance in respect of possible inflated valuations. 



Grain per lb. of Live Weigrht Increase. — Information is also 

 available w^hich will enable a check to be made in one or two 

 ways as to the suitability or otherwise of the feeding of the pigs. 

 Converting the foods consumed by the pigs into their equiva- 

 lents of barley, according to the Danish standards, it can be 

 shown that the pigs have consumed during the 3'ear the 

 equivalent of 661 cwt. of barley, and in return for that food 

 have put on a live-weight increase of over 201 cwt. If the 

 pigs have put on weight at the rate of i lb. for the equivalent 

 of every 3J lb. of barley fed, there can hardly be anything 

 radically wrong with the method of feeding adopted. 



Incidentally, the accounts bring out the great efficiency 

 of the pig as a machine for converting food into flesh, 

 and its great superiority in this respect over any other 

 class of stock. . While on the farm in question the pigs 

 put on I lb. of live -weight increase for the equivalent of 

 every 3 J lb. of barley fed, the bullocks on the same farm 

 only put on i lb. of flesh for the equivalent of every 7 lb. of 

 barley fed. As the carcasses of the pigs have been on an 

 average approximately 78 per cent, of the live weight, and of the 

 buUocks approximately 54 per cent., the pigs have produced 

 one pound of pork for every 4-2 lb. of barley fed, whereas the 

 bullocks have produced only one pound of beef for every ij lb. 

 of barley fed. It follows, therefore, that the efficiency of the 

 pig as a machine for the production of human food in the form 

 of meat is more than three times greater than that of the bullock ; 

 a point which of itself is a very strong argument for the rearing 

 of more pigs on farms at the present time. 



Cost of Foods used. — While, however, as has already been 

 pointed out, there was nothing very radically wrong with the 

 method of feeding the pigs on the farm in question, it does not 

 follow that the best or most economical method had been 

 adopted. The purchased foodstuffs consumed during the year 



