628 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



Sows will commonly eat plenty of alfalfa hay of good quality if it 

 is fed uncut in a suitable rack where they have access to it at all times. 

 They usually do not like clover hay nearly so well as alfalfa. Young 

 pigs will not eat much long alfalfa from a rack, and often will not take 

 enough to provide a sufficiency of the fat-soluble vitamine. When sows 

 or pigs fed white corn will not eat about 5 per ct. as much legume hay 

 as they do of corn, it may be necessary to chop the hay and mix it with 

 their concentrates to force them to eat it. This may be done at small 

 expense by running it thru a silage cutter, preferably equipped with 

 an alfalfa screen. If one does not have a suitable cutter, he can scrape 

 up the leaves and chaff from the floor where the legume hay is pitched 

 down from the mow, and mix this with the corn and skim milk or other 

 feeds to form a slop. 



940. Soft com. In the northern states when killing frosts come before 

 corn is mature it is a problem to utilize the grain fully. Such soft corn 

 may contain 30 to 50 per ct. water and is unsalable, for it will not keep 

 in storage. It can be utilized best for stock feeding and is excellent for 

 swine. Pound for pound, the dry matter in soft corn is equal to that 

 in mature corn. In a trial by Eward at the Iowa Station, 5 100 Ibs. of 

 dry matter in immature "sample" grade corn containing 21.3 per ct. 

 moisture was worth fully as much as the same amount of dry matter in 

 old corn. Soft corn may usually be used during cold weather without 

 danger, but should not be carried over into spring, as it will spoil and 

 become unfit for use. (205) 



941. Corn-and-cob meal; corn feed meal. The labor involved in grind- 

 ing ear corn to corn-and-cob meal is more than wasted, for in trials 

 at the Iowa Station 6 pigs made larger and more economical gains on ear 

 corn. This seems reasonable, for the pig has a digestive tract that can 

 at best but poorly utilize a hard, fibrous material such as the corn cob, 

 altho it has been ground. Even for brood sows, where a bulky ration 

 is desirable, it is much better to supply the bulk by feeding legume hay 

 than by using corn-and-cob meal, for the hay furnishes not only bulk 

 but also protein and mineral matter. (208) 



Corn feed meal, which is the by-product obtained from the manufacture 

 of cracked corn and table meal, proved equal to ground corn in trials 

 by Skinner and Starr at the Indiana Station. 7 



942. Hogging down corn. In the corn belt many farmers turn pigs 

 into standing corn, in which rape or other supplemental crops have 

 usually been sown, and allow them to do their own harvesting. Instead 

 of this being a wasteful practice, as many have thot, careful experi- 

 ments have shown hogging down to be an economical method of fattening 

 pigs. 



In each of 6 trials which are summarized in the following table, one 



"Information to the authors. 



'Kennedy and Bobbins, Iowa Bui, 106. 



7 Ind. Bui. 219; Smith, Pork Production, p. 304. 



