SYSTF.MS OF FEEDTKG. 21 



SYSTEMS OF HOG FEEDING. 



Nearly every faniicr who has succeeded \\itli h()<;s has a feediiifi: 

 system of his own, yet there are some features common to all. A 

 good illustration of the successful handlin*]; of hogs on a small farm 

 is that emi)loyed by a man in northern Oklahoma on an 80-acre farm, 

 lie has his whole farm fenced hog-tight and turns off annually from 

 it an average of 100 head of hogs. All these are of his own raising 

 and are grown and fitted for market with (he crops raided on his 

 farm, with the exception that a little corn is occasionally hought. 

 lie has 5 acres of alfalfa and each autunm sows 5 acres of wheat for 

 late fall and winter pasture, tn the spring he sows oats to supple- 

 ment the wheat and alfalfa. The wheat is kowu at the rate of li 

 bushels to the acre, about September 1, and furnishes pasture in the 

 fall, when alfalfa i)asture is getting short, and for a i)art of the 

 winter. The wheat will also furnish some pasture for the hogs in 

 the spring. The oats tide over until the alfalfa is ready for pasture. 

 Thus, green feed is furnished for the greater part of the year. The 

 rest of his 80 acres this farmer plants to corn. A part of this corn 

 is fenced off and " hogged down '' in the fall. As fast as the hogs 

 need it the fence is moved over, and fresh corn is taken in. This 

 pasturing is begun at the same time that corn is usually cut up green 

 and fed to hogs, i. e., Avhen it is in the roasting-ear stage. Spring 

 •pigs are turned on this. This plan of feeding is kept up until the 

 remainder of the corn is all husked from the field. Then the hogs 

 are turned in to clean up the waste corn in the field. Last summer 

 cowqieas were drilled in the corn when plowing the last time. These 

 furnished nuicli valuable feed in addition to the corn. 



In April this man had '20 head of fall pigs averaging about 125 

 pounds. These shoats had had no feed except wheat and alfalfa 

 pasture and the waste grain they gathered from the field except a 

 little corn that was thrown to them each day in the late winter and 

 early spring. In April they w^ere put on ground corn for thirty days. 

 During this time each ate an average of one-fourth bushel daily. At 

 the end of thirty days they averaged 225 pounds. This makes an 

 average gain of 3^ pounds per day, or a little more than 13 pounds 

 of gain for each bushel of corn fed. The market price of corn was 

 50 cents a bushel. The hogs sold at $5.50 per hundred, thus bringing 

 73^ cents a bushel for the corn fed. 



This farmer raises two litters of pigs a year, farrowed in March 

 and September, turning off fall pigs in the spring and spring pigs in 

 the fall, selling at G to 8 months old. From March 15 to November 

 1, 1906, he turned off $720.50 worth of hogs and had 22 head in the 

 fattening pens, all of his owm raising and all grown and fattened 

 on the products of his own farm. 



Ill— IV 



