GENERAL PROBLEMS IN SWINE HUSBANDRY 611 



cemed. In spite of the time worn joke, ''What is a pig's time worth, 

 an/how ? ' ' this matter is of much economic importance. Almost invari- 

 abjy it will be found that when pigs are not on pasture the more rapidly 

 they can be made to gain by supplying them with an abundance of feed, 

 combined in a properly balanced, economical ration, the cheaper will be 

 their gains and the greater the resulting profit. 



In summer feeding of spring pigs on pasture, the matter is more com- 

 plicated. Pasture is usually cheap compared with grain or other concen- 

 trates. However, if the concentrate allowance is restricted, so as to make 

 the pigs eat a larger proportion of forage, the gains will be much slower, 

 and the pigs will not be ready for market until after the usual fall slump 

 in prices has occurred. Many trials have been carried on at various ex- 

 periment stations to study the economy of limiting the amount of grain 

 for pigs on pasture, but most of the early trials covered only the pasture 

 period. At the end of the experiments the full-fed pigs were ready for 

 market or nearly finished, while those which had received less grain 

 would have required fattening for several weeks in dry lot to get them 

 to market weights. Such comparisons do not furnish a safe basis for 

 conclusions, for as we have seen, much more feed is required per 100 Ibs. 

 gain during the finishing period than previously. (913) Therefore the 

 pigs fed the limited rations still had their most expensive gains to make. 



The following table summarizes the results of 8 trials in each of which 

 one lot of spring pigs, weighing about 50 Ibs. at the start, has-been self- 

 fed or hand-fed a full ration of corn and tankage on good pasture to an 

 average market weight of 212 Ibs., while another lot has been fed a 

 limited allowance of corn and tankage until fall, when they were full-fed 

 until they reached the same weights as the first lot. In one trial mid- 

 dlings was fed to both lots in addition to corn and tankage. 



Limiting the concentrates during the summer for pigs on good pasture 



Time to Concentrates for 100 Ibs. 



reach gain 



Average ration Daily market 



gain weight Corn Supplement 



Lbs. Days Lbs. Lbs. 



Lot I, full-fed entire time* 



Corn, 4.9 Ibs. Supplement, 0.40 Ib 1 . 34 122 361 32 



Lot II, limited ration in summer* 



Corn, 3.9 Ibs. Supplement, 0.33 Ib 1 . 04 156 372 34 



*Av. of 4 trials by Morrison, Bohstedt, and Fargo, Wis. Station (Unpublished data) ; 2 by Eward, Iowa 

 Station (Information to the authors); 1 by Robison (Ohio Bui. 355); and 1 by Weaver, Mo. Station (In- 

 formation to the authors). 



The pigs full-fed from the start gained 1.34 Ibs. a day and reached an 

 average market weight of 212 Ibs. in 122 days. It took the other lot, 

 which received a limited allowance of corn at first, 34 days more to reach 

 the same weight. A fact which will be surprising to many is that in 

 these trials it actually required less corn and supplement to produce each 

 100 Ibs. gain when the pigs were full-fed to market weights on good 

 pasture than it did when the amount of corn was limited during the 

 summer. 



