FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 171 



Mr. Turner said : 



I came here to find out, not only with regard to corn, but what else 

 we should use and how to use the foods that we have on the farm to 

 avoid buying feed. I want to hear the opinions and experiences of the 

 breeders as to the feeding value of rye, oats and barley. We thought 

 a hog would die fed on oats when I was a boy. We are right in the grain 

 country and the hogs followg the cattle and we feed them corn. I would 

 like to know how we can utilize the grains we use on the farm aside from 

 the corn, to avoid buying these feeds. I would like to know and hear 

 fro mthe breeders who have used these other feeds. 



Dr. Hammer expressed some good ideas as follows . 



In what is it that the most people fall down? It is up to you to 

 meet the expectations of other men and improve the hog. It is a mis- 

 take to breed stock too young. You have to make the parent mature 

 if the offspring is to be of any use. A brood sow must be three years 

 old before you can see what there is in her. A man I know is using 

 a sow now which did not show any development until she was three 

 years old. If you breed a sow to a six-months-old male you will get 

 three or four pigs. I would never use breeding sows until they are 

 over a year old, at least, and then breed them right along and give them 

 food that will produce fine stock and develop their bone. I have been 

 interested in breeding hogs for a good many years. This is the corn 

 belt, and we are in the center of it. There are other things as essential 

 'as corn, and if we can raise alfalfa in this country it might mix well 

 with the corn. They say they are raising alfalfa on the hills in the 

 West. If alfalfa will grow there it will surely grow here. I want thio 

 hog association to get some alfalfa seed and try it. It takes two or three 

 years to get started and then you will have it right along. Just think 

 of it and you will find that it is just as essential to have alfalfa to mix 

 with your corn as anything else for a progress, for this association 

 should bring in everything along this line. Breed from a matured ani- 

 mal, and when you get the pigs you have them large enough so that you 

 can breed pigs that at six months old will weigh 250 pounds. You will 

 interest men in that way. 



As a continuation along this line 'Mv. Swallow said : 

 I listened to Mr. Hammer's talk and I think none of the men who 

 heard it and who are interested in hogs can put too small a value ou 

 pasture for your hogs. We want corn, but we want pasture, too. The 

 corn business will grow and build up just as our pig business has. 

 There are just a few who can look into this and teach us all about it. 

 Of course, there is the fault of keeping the hogs in too small lots and 

 feeding them too much corn, and those who do so are not making good 

 hogs. Put all these things together — plenty of pasture, room and corn 

 and plenty of exercise, and your hogs will be good. 



