PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 477 



Dean Curtiss : Yes, I think it can. We are doing something 

 right along that line. I believe we can take the entire plant and 

 put it through a mill something like the mills they use for grind- 

 ing alfalfa, and that soy bean meal, including the plant as well 

 as the bean, will be far better than the ground alfalfa, because it 

 will be richer and more potent and more effective. As I stated, 

 our experiments indicated the value of soy beans for feeding 

 swine to be 80 per cent that of tankage. In that we used the 

 meal alone. 



A Member: Eighty per cent where it is used without grind- 

 ing? 



Dean Curtiss: No, that was ground. When we had high 

 prices we had $17.50 more profit from using standard supple- 

 ments, cottonseed meal and linseed oil meal, than we had from 

 using prepared commercial feeds to supplement corn. 



Mr. Gunn: Have you used phosphorus? 



Dean Curtiss : We have used phosphorus at Ames. We have 

 had about as good results from a simple mixture like that men- 

 tioned, and the phosphorus is a more expensive product unless 

 you use ground phosphate. If you use ground limestone — 



Mr. Gunn: Ground rock phosphate? 



Dean Curtiss : If you use ground rock phosphate ; if you buy 

 phosphorus in some simple form. 



A good many farmers in filling silos each year put soy beans 

 in with the corn. They let the soy bean grow in the corn to 

 maturity, so that the bean in the pod goes into the silo with the 

 corn, and that does make a marked improvement in the food 

 value ; and it makes a marked improvement when you turn the 

 hogs in in the fall when the beans are hardening, which is just 

 the time when the corn is in the best state. 



There is a tremendous difference in the varieties and yield from 

 different varieties of soy beans, and we probably will put out 

 some publications on that. There are hundreds of varieties of 

 soy beans. Some of them will yield three or four times as much 

 as others, and we find that it is well to have the varieties that 

 will give the best returns in this climate. In other climates it 

 might be different. But some of you, if you get hold of the 

 wrong variety or some of the poorer varieties, might be disap- 

 pointed in the results you would get from soy beans. We are 

 testing out a great number of varieties each year. 



The President : We would like to continue this discussion. I 

 know it is yery interesting. But you understand, gentlemen. 



