The nutrition of the bacon pig; IX. The lehmann method of pig feeding, with particular reference to the balance of the basal meal and the use of cooked potatoes and molassed beet pulp as the supplemental foods

Abstract

The main findings of the present trials may be. summarized as follows:(1) When ‘mineralized’, cooked potatoes are fed as the bulky supplemental food in the Lehmann system of pig-feeding, and the basal meal allowance is restricted to 3 lb. per head per day, bacon pigs are able to make as good progress, in respect both of rate of live-weight increase and economy of food conversion, and at every stage from 60 to 200 lb. live weight, as they would if kept on a diet composed wholly of balanced meal. In the present trials, pigs of about 200 lb. live weight were able to consume 15–17 lb. of cooked potatoes per day in addition to the daily allowance of 3 lb. of meal. It required, on an average, about 1030 lb. of cooked potatoes and 311 lb. of balanced meal per pig to fatten the animals from 60 to 200 lb. live weight. The cooked potatoes, when assessed on the air-dry standard of 13 % moisture, were able to replace the balanced meal on a lb. for lb. basis without detriment to the progress of the pigs, and the average saving of meal thus made possible amounted to about 225 lb. per pig, or 38·2 % of the total meal consumed per pig on the control, all-meal diet.(2) Cooked potatoes should be introduced into the ration gradually and the allowance should be scaled according to live weight in the manner adopted in the present trials. When the amount to be fed is large, it is best to feed ‘mineralized’, cooked potatoes only during the morning and to place the basal meal in the trough towards the end of the afternoon.