EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 



361 



TABLE VII— FEED EATEN. 



Results at the Iowa Experiment Station, Animal Husbandry Section. 

 Average daily feed eaten per gilt. 



*Ground, dry. **Ground, wet. ***In rack. 



There were seven lots in all, and they were fed as follows: Lot 1, 

 hominy feed and tankage; Lot 2, hominy feed plus half as much tank- 

 age as Lot 1, plus enough ground alfalfa mixed with the hominy anc 

 tankage to furnish the same amount of protein as the two-tenths of a 

 pound less tankage fed this group; Lot 3, hominy feed plus dry ground 

 alfalfa, no tankage whatever, approximately the same amount of pro- 

 tein being fed in the ground alfalfa as the gilts would receive in four- 

 tenths of a pound of tankage. It took practically four pounds of the 

 ground alalfa to furnish as much protein as a pound of tankage. The 

 object was to see if ground alfalfa alone would entirely substitute the 

 meat meal. Lot 4 was fed the same as Lot 3, with the exception that 

 an effort was made to get as much ground alfalfa into these gilts au 

 possible. Lot 5 was fed the same as Lot' 4, with the exception that 

 the alfalfa was wet, and as much was fed the gilts a'? possible. By 

 wetting the alfalfa we could induce a larger consumption. Lot 6 was 

 self-fed on a mixture of ground alfalfa and hominy feed. We regu- 

 lated their gains by increasing or decreasing the ground alfalfa in the 

 mixture. On the average it can be seen that they ate practically two- 

 thirds as much ground alfalfa as of hominy feed. With Lot 7, hominy 

 feed was feu in one trough and alfalfa waa allowed in a separate rack. 

 This was the straight, whole, natural alfalfa as it comes out of the 

 stack — in this case, out of the larn. In all cases, rock salt was allowed 

 at free-will. 



We attempted to make the gilts gain as nearly a half a pound daily 

 as possible. You can see that we succeeded; hence the big differences 

 are to be grasped and studied from the feed figures because the gains 

 are practically the same. 



Note carefully that where we fed an extra large amount of ground 

 alfalfa, it took actually more feed to keep the gains up, or 5.66 pounds 

 daily as compared to 8.61 where just corn and tankage were used. This 

 shows clearly and unmistakably that com and meat meal or tankage is 

 a highly concentrated feed, and it takes somewhere artmnd three-fifths 

 as much by weight of that sort of ration, nlamtely, cbVn pTu's mte'at m%al 



