632 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



944. Barley. Tho corn is the mainstay of pork production in the 

 greater part of the United States, in Canada and Europe barley is the 

 most common grain for swine. It has there gained a high reputation 

 for the production of bacon of prime quality. In this country barley is 

 widely used, as a hog feed in the northern states, where this cereal 

 commonly excels oats in the weight of grain yielded per acre on fertile 

 soil. (226) Since barley is considerably richer than corn in protein, 

 less protein-rich supplement is needed to balance the ration when barley 

 is fed. Just as in the case of corn, however, the proteins of barley are 

 unbalanced in composition, and also the grain is low in calcium. There- 

 fore for pigs not on pasture, such rations as barley and only wheat 

 middlings or linseed meal do not usually give as large or as economical 

 gains as where some feed of animal origin or else some legume hay is 

 added to the ration. For example in 2 trials by Morrison and Bohstedt 

 at the Wisconsin Station 14 pigs weighing 125 to 150 Ibs. at the start, 

 which were self-fed barley and standard wheat middlings, gained only 

 1.21 Ibs. on the average. On barley and skim milk other lots gained 

 1.89 Ibs.; on barley and whey, 2.22 Ibs.; and on barley and tankage, 

 1.64 Ibs. Poor results were also secured when linseed meal alone was 

 used as the supplement to barley, even when a mineral supplement was 

 added to supply additional calcium. 



Because it carries the hull, ordinary brewing or feed barley is a less 

 concentrated feed than corn, and consequently is not quite equal to 

 corn, pound for pound, for swine feeding. However, plump, heavy 

 barley, when ground, closely approaches corn in feeding value for fatten- 

 ing pigs, as the following table shows. This gives the results of 8 trials 

 at northern stations in which pigs, averaging 109 Ibs. in weight, have 

 been self -fed ground barley and tankage in dry lots in comparison with 

 others fed corn and tankage, for an average of 66 days: 



Average ration gain Grain Tankage 



Lbs. 



Ground barley vs. corn for fattening pigs 



Daily Feed for 100 Ibs. gain 



Grain Tanka 



Lbs. Lbs. 



Lot I* Barley, 6.3 Ibs. Tankage, 0.43 Ib ........ 1 . 44 439 30 



Lot II * Corn, 6.4 Ibs. Tankage, 0.64 Ib ........ 1. 64 389 39 



* Average of 5 trials by Brown, Mich. Station (Information to the authors) ; 2 by Morrison and Bohstedt, 

 Wis. Station (Wis. Bui. 319, pp. 67-8); and 1 by Ferrin and Carnes, Minn. Station (Duroc Digest, Nov. 1, 

 1921). 



In these trials the pigs fed barley made gains which were very satis- 

 factory, but not quite as rapid as those fed corn. For 100 Ibs. gain 

 they required 50 Ibs. more grain than the corn-fed pigs, but consumed 

 9 Ibs. less tankage. "With corn at 56 cents a bushel and tankage at $60 

 a ton, ground barley was actually worth about 95 per ct. as much as corn 

 in these trials, so far as feed required for 100 Ibs. gain was concerned. 

 In 3 similar experiments 15 in which ground barley and tankage were 



"Wis. Bills. 319, pp. 70-71; 323, pp. 8-10. 



"Evvard, Iowa Station, information to the authors; Ferrin and Winchester, 

 Kan. Cir. 89; Morrison and Bohstedt, Wis. Station, unpublished data. 



