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VOL. LXX
INDIANAPOLIS, OCT. 30, 1915.
NO. 44
Securing Profitable Returns From Hogs
It Is largely through the hog that
the Indiana farmer of today converts
corn, certain of the forage crops, and
the waste products of the farm, such
as kitchen refuse, dairy by-products,
inferior or surplus products of the garden and orchard and light or damaged
grain and grain which is not secured
by the harvester, into cash. Without
hogs on the farm to manufacture into
pork these waste products of different
kinds, the latter possess little value
and will bring no revenue to the farmer in the absence of their utilization
by swine. The market value of damaged grains is usually so
little that it hardly pays
to take the time to market them. Some are really unmarketable. Yet
nearly all of these waste
products may be marketed, so to speak, at good
prices right on the farm
by feeding them to hogs.
But while utilizing large
quantities of waste products, hogs also consume
even larger quantities of
farm products which possess a good value if hauled directly to market.
Hence, in the end, the net
returns from hogs depend to a large extent
upon the kind of hogs the
feeder keeps and how he
cares for and feeds them.
There is no stock kept
by farmers that has improved more during the
last twenty-five or thirty-
years than hogs. Thirty
years ago if a hog gained
three or four pounds on a
bushel of corn the farmer
was satisfied; today the
scientific feeder expects,
and is getting, about three
times that gain from his bushel of
corn. The increase of gain secured
by modern feeders comes from two
sources, viz.: ' Better breeding, and
better care and feed. Today the
power of the improved hog to eat and
assimilate food is almost marvelous.
Scientists assert that the Intestinal canal of the lard hog has been more
than doubled in length in the last
three decades. Breeding and feeding has accomplished this result. But
if the modern hog is a more complicated machine than was the hog that
our forefathers knew, it must have a
better man behind it if it is to come
up to its limit as a pork maker. The
greatest measure of success comes
only to those feeders of today who
understand every detail of their business, and who keep the imlproved
hog under improved conditions.
Economical Production.
The, present day method of pork
production, as practiced by numerous
feeders, is similar in one respect only
to the old time method. Corn is still
depended upon to a great extent in
growing and fattening hogs. Twenty-
five or thirty years ago the farmer
thought corn was all it was ever intended he should feed his hogs, when
Improved Hogs Give Best Results Only When Kept
and Fed Under Improved Conditions.
By W. F. Purdue.
he fed them at all, unless it was milk
and the kitchen slops. He had never
been informed otherwise. At that
time few farmers knew the difference
between growing and fattening feeds.
If the average man had heard or read
of certain feeds being rich in protein,
quite conclusively by the experiment
stations as well as by practical feeders that by employing a variety pf
feeds—a balanced ration, in other
words—and giving the growing shoats
access to good pasture in season, more
rapid   growth   is   made   ,and   at   less
A. B. Patterson Feeding a Bunch of Thrifty Hogs on His Farm in Clay County.
and others rich in fat, he would have
wondereid what was meant by protein.
Even yet the difference in feeds is not
well understood by all farmers who
are engaged in pork production,
though this matter has repeatedly
been explained in intelligible terms
through the medium of bulletins and
in articles in the agricultural press.
But If those men who do understand
the difference existing between the
various kinds of feeds, do not take
advantage of that Knowledge it is
largely due to the fact that corn is so
plentiful on their farms that the
temptation to feed it exclusively,
making it the main reliance in growing the little pigs as well as in fitting
the developed shoats for market, cannot be overcome even though it is suspected that the modern method of
feeding gives better results. If corn
was less abundant, perhaps more men
would seek for a way of producing
just as many fat porkers as they now
do, but on a less quantity of corn. Certain it is that those feeders who have
the courage to break away from the
antiquated method of feeding and
adopt the more modern one are the
men who are securing the greatest net
returns  from   pork   production.
It    was    long    since    demonstrated
cost, than when corn is fed exclusively. With a balanced ration the animals are developed more uniformly,
bone, muscle and vital organs all being constructed at the same time, and
therefore, greater weights can be attained than when the frames are neglected by using only fattening feeds.
The balanced ration also affords an
opportunity for utilizing numerous
cheap feeds most profitably, thereby
lessening the feed bill materially but
at the same time securing just as rapid gains in the animals. There have
been many times during the last few
years when fat hogs commanded a
high price in the markets, but at tho
same time corn and other grain feeds
also possessed a high market value,
hence the margin between the cost of
production of the hogs and their selling price was slight at the best, and if
the high priced feeds were employed
altogether an actual loss may have
been sustained. But if at such times
an effort is made to diminish the cost
of production by using, as much as
possible, cheap feeds which can be
grown on the farm, paying returns can
generally be secured.
Value of Forage Crops.
It Is  now   generally  conceded  that
the cheapest as well as the easiest way
of growing pork animals is to feed
grain while the pigs have the run of
good pasture. Any gain made from,
pasture or forage crops is the cheapest gain possible to make, and at the
same time the pasture keeps.the hog's
system in fine shape. Forage crops
answer a triple purpose In pork production. First,, while the hog ia primarily adapted to concentrated feeds,
at the same time it requires some
roughage. Grain-feeds do-not bulk
up well in the stomach and are not
easily penetrated by the gastric juices
of the stomach, and for
this reason the appetite is
better maintained and digestion is improved by the
use of some bulky feeds
at all times of the year.
Secondly, most forage
crops supply sufficient
protein to balance a corn,
ration nicely; and finally,
they furnish the pigs with
exercise while securing
the forage', and exercise is
essential for active and
healthy vital organs in
the growing animals.
Even during the finishing
process, it is considered
advisable to allow the
shoats as much exercise
as they care to take. The '
more concentrated their
feed, the greater the necessity for some exercise
every day.
There are all kinds of'
pasture suitable for hogs'
—clover, alfalfa, rye, blue-"
grass,, rape, soy beans and
cow peas. They may be"
sown at various times
during the growing season, so that some of them'
will be available at all'
times from early spring until late fall.
Fall-sown rye and bluegrass rnake^
pasture earlier than the others. Clover
and alfalfa make very desirable sum-;
mer pasturage, and they are more
beneficial to the land than any of the
other crops. Clover is rich in protein and It balances a corn ration
nicely. It has been variously determined that when hogs have the run of
good clover pasture, they require or
should have from one-half to two-
thirds as much corn as when corn'
alone is fed. Rape is almost as good
as clover in a way; what it lacks in
quality as compared to clover, it
makes up for in quantity of forage
produced. As rape is frost proof and
is a vigorous grower, it can be sown
at any time after spring weather has
arrived, as early as any of the grain
crops, and thereafter until the end of
the summer. Under favorable conditions rape is ready for pasturing in
six weeks from date of seeding.
Substantial fences around the ho=r
lots and pasture fields are essential if
the hogs are to be kept under modern conditions. A pig never outgrows
the hole in the fence, it is said, therefore it should never be allowed to acquire the habit of breaking out of its
enclosure.      A bunch of pigs that are