Pastures for Hogs. l61 



"Mature hogs thin iu flesh may be expected to gain about l^ 

 pound per head daily on alfalfa without grain. 



"The cost of gain is not a reliable criterion of profit. A cheap 

 gain may be so slow as to be unprofitable. Time, labor and investment 

 should be considered when reckoning profits. A full grain ration, 

 though making the gain more costly, usually gives greater profits, 

 because of the larger amount of business transacted in a given time 

 with a given number of hogs." 



Finishing Fall Pigs on Clover and Alfalfa Pasture. — Corn is thei 

 farmer's mainstay for fitting hogs for the market. While many of 

 our correspondents have their fall pigs ready for market before pastur- 

 ing time comes in the spring, a majority keep them late enough to 

 require pasture for them for at least a short time in the early summer. 

 As about 90 per cent, of the summer pastures for fall pigs, as shown 

 in the replies of our correspondents, are either clover or alfalfa, or 

 contain clover of some form, the feeding of fall pigs on grass is almost 

 identical with feeding on clover or alfalfa pasture. Of 145 replies 

 as to what grain was fed on grass to fall pigs in summer, 101 gave corn 

 alone, and 43 gave corn in connection with some other feed; 11 fed 

 corn and shipstuff or shorts ; 5 corn and bran ; 4 corn and milk ; 2 corn 

 and tankage ; 2 corn and meat meal ; 2 corn and linseed oil meal ; 2 

 corn and wheat, and the other 15 fed corn with some combination of 

 the above-mentioned feeds, while one reply was "ground wheat or 

 rye." The number that use the different feeds are as follows: 



Corn 



Shorts or middlings. 



Bran 



Oilmeal 



Meatmeal 



Tankage 



Wheat 



Oats 



Rye 



KafHr Corn 



Milk 



144 

 17 

 7 

 8 

 2 

 2 

 4 

 3 

 1 

 1 

 5 



It will be noted that when a supplement is fed with corn, the 

 most popular feeds are middlings, bran and oilmeal — the latter usually 

 in a mixture with some other feed. When on a clover or alfalfa pas- 

 ture corn usually needs no supplement if pasture is good unless very 

 rapid gains are desired and corn is very high and the supplements can 

 be easily secured. 



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