310 



PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



ration is used in a dry lot, a little bran or shorts used in place of 

 part of the corn so as to give the ration more bulk will im- 

 prove it. A greater variety of feeds will probably also make the 

 ration better." 18a 



Fattening Swine. In the corn-belt States, which supply a 

 large proportion of the hogs fattened for market, the common 

 practice is to keep the hogs with fattening steers until three to 

 four weeks before the end of the fattening period, when they are 

 penned and finished for market. As previously shown, the number 

 of hogs put with the steers will vary with the form in which corn 

 is fed to the latter; the extra grain which the hogs receive is 



FIG. 83. Portable hog-houses with'low, flat roof ; if used for housing swine in hot 

 weather, they should be provided with a shade at the rear under which the pigs can lie in 

 comfort. This shade is five feet wide, made of inch stuff placed upon removable supports 

 which rest upon cleats nailed to the ends of the house. (Wisconsin Station.) 



likewise determined by this factor, and the amount of undigested 

 feed in the droppings of the steers (p. 273). If the steers are fed 

 snapped ear corn or whole shelled corn, much more passes through 

 undigested and becomes available to the hogs in the droppings than 

 if soaked corn, ground corn, or corn and cob meal is fed. If the 

 steers are fed protein feeds in addition to corn, they are able to 

 digest the starchy components of the ration better than in case of 

 wide nutritive ratios, and hogs, in that case, can glean less feed 

 from the droppings. 



Fattening Rations. When the ration of the steers consists of 

 whole corn, the hogs are usually fed one-fourth to one-third pound of 

 tankage per head daily ; this will be all they need in addition to the 

 corn in the droppings for about four to five weeks, until they do 



** For amounts of water and grain required for weaned pigs 1 to 18 

 weeks after weaning, s-ee Breeders' Gazette, 1915, 391. 



