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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 68

Pig-feeding

Pig-feeding.

There are few factories where the whole of the skim-milk is taken back by the farmers, and, as the manufacture of skim-milk cheese is not a business which can be recommended for extension in the colony, it appears to me to be necessary that a piggery should be established in connection with each factory, and it may ultimately become a question whether it may not be advisable to establish bacon-factories, which are most successful in Ireland, and which are extending in the dairy districts of Denmark and in the north of Germany, whatever may be done in the future, there is little doubt that it will be found most advantageous to employ the best breeds of British pigs, such as the Large and Middle White Yorkshire, the Berkshire, and the Tamworth, for the improvement of the swine of the colony. I have endeavoured to show in "The Book of the Pig" how pigs may be bred and fed with economy, and, as there can be little doubt that for conversion into bacon the half-bred pig is one of the best, if not the best, animals which can be employed, it will be found necessary to select one or more of the pure breeds for the purpose of regular crossing. The whey obtained from a cheese-factory is a valuable food for swine, and in England is estimated to be worth at the rate of £1 per cow per annum. Skim-milk is of much greater value, and in pork-production is probably worth from 1d. to 1¼d. per gallon, in England. Combined with maize it is one of the best foods which can be given to pigs. I must not, however, omit to mention that page 34 the whey which has passed from the cheese-vats usually furnishes a large percentage of butter, which should be extracted as early as possible. If the whey is allowed to become sour before the butter-fat is removed from it, the butter will not be worth so much per pound, hence the necessity of extracting it while the whey is sweet. I have made some experiments in this direction by passing the whey through a centrifugal machine, and the results have been sufficiently good to warrant further and more extended tests being made. It is possible to make whey-butter almost equal in delicacy of flavour to that obtained in the ordinary way.