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eaten are secured from young pigs; or, to put it in another way, the amount of feed required for a pound of gain is smallest in the case of young pigs, and increases steadily with advancing age (Fig. 72). The fact is brought out in a striking manner by the following compilation by Henry ? of over five hundred feeding trials conducted at American experiment stations with over 2200 pigs

The Relation of Weight of Pigs to Feed Consumed and Rate of Gain

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in all. In compiling the results given in the table, six pounds of skim milk and twelve pounds whey were rated equal to one pound of concentrates (one feed unit). The table shows the average weight of the pigs in each group, the feed eaten daily and per 100 pounds live weight, the daily gains made, and the feed per 100 pounds gain (Fig. 73).

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15-50 50-100 100-150 150-200 200-250 250-300 300-350

Fig. 72.-The amount of feed consumed per 100 pounds of gain for fattening pigs increases

with their live weights. ?" Feeds and Feeding," 10th ed., p. 502.

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The greater economy of young growing pigs as compared with older ones for making gains from a given amount of feed is plainly seen from the table and accompanying chart. While pigs of less than 50 pounds live weight require only 293 pounds of feed per 100 pounds gain, pigs weighing 150 to 200 pounds require 482 pounds, and hogs weighing over 300 pounds require 535 pounds per 100 pounds gain. This difference does not represent one of actual feed value in the products, however, as the carcass of the mature hog contains more dry matter and more fat than that of young animals, but the feeder selling young animals has the benefit of the situation, as he is paid for the total weight furnished, and not only for the dry matter or edible portion of the carcass.

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Fig. 73.-Well-fed, busy youngsters that will grow into good porkers. (Henry.)

Results similar to those shown in the preceding table were obtained in the extensive swine-feeding experiments conducted at the Copenhagen station during the nineties. In these trials it required, on the average, 376 feed units to produce 100 pounds of gain with pigs weighing from 35 to 75 pounds each, and 639 pounds with hogs of 275 to 315 pounds weight, there being a gradual increase from the former to the latter figure with increasing weights of animals fed.

Preparation of Feed for Swine. It has been shown that the digestibility of feeding stuffs is not, as a rule, materially altered by different methods of preparation, like cooking, cutting, grinding, rolling, etc. (p. 67). In view of the special importance of this

p

* Report 30, 1895; Exp. Sta. Record 7, p.

245.

question in feeding swine, we shall give briefly the evidence of experimental work along this line.

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Grinding Grain.-Trials conducted for ten years at the Wisconsin station show that an average saving of 6 per cent was secured by grinding shelled corn for pigs; in 11 out of 18 trials conducted there was a saving and in 7 cases a loss by grinding the corn. If corn is worth 50 cents a bushel, there is, therefore, a saving of 3 cents per bushel by grinding, out of which the labor and cost of grinding must be paid. It is evident from this result that grinding corn for fattening pigs in general does not pay. In these trials the pigs fed ground corn ate more feed and gained more rapidly in a given time than those receiving whole corn. This is doubtless the reason why some farmers believe that pigs do better on ground than on whole corn. According to a summary by Rommel 5 of 19 trials

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FIG. 74. The "hog motor," a device for making pigs grind the corn they eat. (Hog Motor Company, Minneapolis.)

with 297 pigs, it required 524 pounds whole corn or 479 pounds meal to produce 100 pounds gain, a saving of 82 per cent, or a little higher than found in the Wisconsin trials. Similar experiments with small grains and peas have shown that there is a saving of 12.3 per cent in feed by grinding. It is advisable, therefore, to grind these grains in feeding pigs or to soak them before feeding (see below). Swine may grind their own grain, as shown in Fig. 74.

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Cooking Feed.-Cooking feed has now been abandoned for all classes of farm animals except occasionally for swine. The question of the advisability of cooking grain for fattening hogs was studied by a number of stations in the eighties. Henry gives a summary of 17 trials at five different stations with cooked and uncooked grain (corn, barley, peas, rye, or shorts, fed separately or in mixtures) for swine, showing that in all but one trial there was a marked increase in the feed required per 100 pounds gain when this

* Report 1906. Bureau of Animal Industry Bulletin 47. Loc cit.

was cooked (steamed); it required, on the average, 490 pounds of uncooked feed per 100 pounds gain and 561 pounds of cooked feed— a loss of nearly 15 per cent in the efficiency of the feed, not considering the expense of cooking. This practice has now been generally abandoned, except in the case of a few feeds, like potatoes, field peas, roots, chopped musty hay, etc., which are occasionally steamed by some feeders to induce a larger consumption or improve the palatability of the feed (p. 67).

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ILLINOIS

IOWA

KANSAS

NEBRASKA

MISSOURI

OKLAHOMA.

TEXAS

INDIANA

OHIO

GEORGIA

MINNESOTA

WISCONSIN

IMILLION ACRES OF INDIAN CORN
WWW NUMBER OF SWINE, MILLIONS

NUMBER OF CATTLE, MILLIONS

FIG. 75.-Diagram showing the acreage of corn and the number of swine and cattle listed in the twelve leading corn-growing States in the Union, according to the census of 1910.

Soaking Feed.-Soaking or wetting feed for swine is practised by some feeders who believe they obtain better results thereby. It has been shown, however, that no decided advantage is secured by this method. The average results of twelve trials conducted at eight different stations, as shown by Rommel (loc. cit.), came as follows: Feed required per 100 pounds gain, dry feed 444 pounds, wet feed 434 pounds, a difference of 2 per cent in favor of the latter feed. The pigs, in general, ate more soaked or wet feed than dry feed, and often made slightly better gains on the former feed, but the returns per unit of feed eaten were not, as we have seen, appre

ciably improved by the method of preparation; nor has it been shown that the amount of water fed in the slop of pigs has any material effect on the gains made or on the utilization of the feed.'

Swine Feeds.—The various feeds used in feeding swine have been previously discussed, and we shall consider here only a few of the main swine feeds, especially with reference to feeding problems in different sections of the country.

Indian corn is by far the most important single swine feed in this country. The States in the corn belt are growing more pigs than any other section, and there is, in general, a parallelism in the different States between the two industries, corn growing and pork production (Fig. 75). The corn is mostly fed on the cob, and the labor and expense of shelling and grinding are thus saved. Trials at a large number of stations have shown that it requires, on the average, about 555 pounds of shelled corn per 100 pounds gain, or that a bushel of shelled corn (56 pounds) will make very nearly 10 pounds of pork. The pigs made an average daily gain of 0.98 pound in these trials, which were conducted in more than a dozen different States and included thirty different series of experiments.

Corn is, above all, a fattening feed, and stands at the head of desirable concentrates for finishing fattening swine.

Both on account of its relatively low protein content and high starch content (N. R., 1: 9.5) and its low content of mineral matter, it is not well adapted for feeding alone to young growing pigs, and much damage has been done to our swine industry through the abuse of this grain as an exclusive feed for such pigs. The studies of this problem by Sanborn and Henry in the eighties were some of the earliest contributions of the Missouri and Wisconsin stations to the science of animal nutrition and have been of the greatest importance to American swine-breeders.

Feeding for Fat and for Lean.-Henry's striking experiments on “feeding for fat and for lean” 8 were especially adapted to bring the attention of farmers to the danger of using corn as a sole feed for young pigs (Figs. 75 and 76). In these trials one lot of pigs was fed corn meal only, and the other received skim milk, wheat middlings, and dried blood, or other combinations of protein feeds. The method of feeding followed greatly influenced both the gains made by the pigs and the composition of their bodies. The corn

* Indiana Bulletin 86; see also Copenhagen Station Report 10, 1887.

* Wisconsin Report, 1886–1890; also Mo. Bul. 10, 14, 19; Kan. Bul. 9; Vt. Bul. 201; Ind. Bul. 108; Cornell Univ. Bul. 2, etc.

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