Digestion trials with swine

Abstract

The carrying out of digestion experiments with swine introduces difficulties of technique which are not encountered in similar work with sheep. The pig is apt to be restive under restraint and does not always take kindly to the wearing of harness. The designing of a suitable harness is not easy on account of the shape of the pig, and when confined in a metabolism cage, the animal frequently spends much of its time rubbing vigorously against the sides, thereby considerably disarranging the harness. Moreover, since the pig increases in size so rapidly, it is necessary that the fit of the harness be capable of adjustment within wide limits. A further difficulty is connected with the voracious appetite and destructiveness of the pig, so that if the experimental ration does not satisfy the hunger of the animal, the latter will often gnaw the wooden parts of the crate and will even devour its own faeces, if the degree of freedom of movement permits it to turn round. The quantitative feeding of a pig is a matter of difficulty, owing to the animal's eagerness and its habit of stepping into the food trough. Swine do not display such hardiness under confinement as do sheep, and it is therefore necessary to maintain an equable temperature in the metabolism room throughout the experiments.

The influence of war-time milling control on the composition, digestibility and nutritive value of the wheaten offals

“…The apparent digestion coefficients of the crude protein in the fine wheatfeed, fine bran and coarse bran are of the same order of magnitude, a finding in agreement with an earlier conclusion by Woodman (1923) that the protein in pre-war bran was almost as digestible as that in pre-war fine wheatfeed and superfine wheatfeed. The lower digestion coefficient of the protein in the coarse millers' offals is to be ascribed to the effect of the presence of the poorly digested barley husk protein in this byproduct.…”

“…The oats included in the rations during periods 5, 6 and 7 were supplied in a rather coarsely ground condition, but despite this were eaten completely by the animals under experiment. The reader is referred to an earlier publication (Wood & Woodman, 1924) for a full description of the technique of carrying out digestion trials with pigs.…”

“…During 1923, at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, a systematic investigation was made of the types of offals being manufactured and marketed at that time (Woodman, 1923). In all, eighty-three samples were collected from thirty-one firms trading in all parts of England and Wales.…”

Studies of grazing of crop forages by sheep

“…for maintenance and for weight gain of each wether. The values obtained are recorded in Table 2, together with those calculated from Wood and Woodman (1930) feeding tables.…”

“…The units of s.e. for maintenance and for weight gain of each sheep were calculated by the use of the feeding tables of Wood and Woodman (1930).…”