PORTABLE SELF-FEEDER ON BERNARD 



MATTHEWS FARM 

 The calves get to it through a creep. 



^' 



♦ 4v ^ .OU'LL never be satisfied out 

 there on the farm, son. It's 



hard work and a lonesome 



business at best. Take my advice and 

 stay where you are." 



So spoke a father to his son, a clerk 

 in a grocery store, some 20 years ago. 



"I'd like to try it, anyway. Dad. Farm- 

 ing looks better to me than weighing up 

 sugar and flour," replied the young man. 



"All right, if you must, " argued the 

 parent, "but go in easy. Get a few 

 horses and some second-hand machinery 

 to start. Then if you don't like it, you 

 won't be out much. You'll probably be 

 back in town after the year is out." 



The young grocery clerk was Frank 

 Hubert of Saybrook in McLean county. 

 Today he is vice-president of the Mc- 

 Lean County Farm Bureau, has won a 

 master farmer medal, state-wide recogni- 

 tion as a successful large-scale hog raiser, 

 and a reputation as a top-notcher among 

 the 400 Farm Bureau members in the 

 farm management project in north cen- 

 tral Illinois. 



Better Business Farming 



See Results Of Practical Methods On Farm Bureau—Fann 

 Management Tour In Knox County 



A crowd of some 200 enthusiastic rec- 

 ord keepers, farm advisers and others 

 from eight or 10 western Illinois counties 

 recently sat in wrapt attention as Hubert 

 and Bert Kellogg, big cattle feeder from 

 Kendall county, dramatically unfolded 

 their stories of profitable livestock farm- 

 ing. The setting was a farm manage- 

 ment tour in Knox county led by M. L. 

 Mosher, Burton King and their associ- 

 ates, topped off by an afternoon program 

 in the city park at the edge of Galesburg. 



These men supervise record keeping 

 on the farms of some 400 cooperators 

 who study their business as carefully as 

 a sea captain charting his course through 

 new and dangerous waters. 



"We rent 440 acres of mostly rolling 

 land on which we produce between 900 

 and 1000 market hogs annually," Hubert 

 began, speaking rapidly from notes. 

 "We grow medium type hogs, usually 

 Chester White sows crossed with a Po- 

 land China boar. We follow the Mc- 

 Lean county swine sanitation system, ro- 

 tate our alfalfa and clover pastures, dis- 

 infect the sows three days before farrow- 

 ing, and use individual, portable houses 

 placed on clean ground. We bank the 

 houses with straw in cold weather." 



Hubert keeps the sows and pigs sepa- 

 rate until they are two weeks old, then 

 he puts two together, later four or more 

 and gradually increases the number of 

 sows and pigs in any one field as they 

 grow older. 



The pigs have access to self-feeders, 

 water and shade. They get corn, ground 

 oats, and a mixture of tankage and soy- 

 bean oilmeal. The supplement, ground 

 feed, and ear corn are all self-fed. In 

 the early spring, rye pasture is available, 

 then sweet clover, and later alfalfa pas- 

 ture. The male pigs are castrated when 

 a few days old. Fall pigs get sweet 

 clover and rape pasture, mostly. 



The shoats are sold at from six to 

 seven months old. At that time they 

 weigh 225 to 275 pounds. The spring 

 pigs are farrowed in February, March and 

 April, the fall pigs in July, August, Sep- 

 tember and October. Breeding stock is 

 selected from the April pigs. 



Two movable cribs constructed of 

 woven wire fence, poles, wire cables, and 

 roof boards and battens are a new wrinkle 

 on the Hubert farm. One crib holds 3500 

 bushels of earn corn, the other 6500 

 bushels. The big crib is 100 ft. long, 

 13 ft. high in the back, 16 ft. in front 

 and about 9 ft. wide. These self-feeder 

 cribs are set up in convenient spots in the 

 field. They are taken apart ejth year 

 and set up on new sites and used as self- 

 feeders in the summer when the ground 

 is generally dry. The ear com rolls out 

 on the ground where the pigs clean it up. 

 The crib self-feeders save a tremendous 

 amount of labor. 



Hubert employs two men the year 

 'round, a third man in the crop season. 

 He uses two tractors and four horses. 



WOMEN WERE AS INTERESTED AS THE MEN 

 Part of crowd halting in field on Matthews farm to 

 hear analysis of fanning operations. 



PROF. M. L. MOSHER, LEFT 

 The chart shows how the Matthews and Sullivan forms 

 rate well above overage in such vital things os crop yield, 

 returns per $100 of feed fed, prices secured, labor hors* 

 power and efficiency, returns per acre, etc. 



NOVEMBER. 1938 



U 



