FEEDS FOE SWINE 679 



Since the tubers are low in protein, pigs grazing sweet potatoes should 

 be given such nitrogenous feeds as soybeans or cowpeas. Dodson states 

 that an acre of sweet potatoes should carry 8 to 10 year-old pigs for 

 60 days, when they are given a limited concentrate allowance in addition. 

 Duggar of the Alabama Station, 161 allowing pigs to harvest sweet po- 

 tatoes at will, secured 100 Ibs. of gain by feeding 313 Ibs. of grain 

 additional, thereby saving about 200 Ibs. of grain for each 100 Ibs. of 

 increase while fattening. (376) 



1005. Peanuts. For the season in the fall when they are available pea- 

 nuts provide one of the best forage crops for pigs in the South. (258, 362) 

 Generally pigs are turned into the peanuts and allowed to gather the 

 crop by rooting out the nuts. Usually Spanish peanuts have given larger 

 yields of pork per acre than common or Virginia peanuts, which have 

 larger nuts. Four trials by Hostetler in North Carolina 162 afford an 

 example of the economical gains secured on peanut pasture. In these 

 trials pigs fed corn alone or corn and shorts in addition to peanut pasture 

 gained 1.25 Ibs. a day on the average, and required only 104 Ibs. corn and 

 shorts plus 0.45 acre of peanuts for 100 Ibs. gain. Compared with this, 

 pigs fed similarly on soybean pasture gained only 0.74 Ib. a day and re- 

 quired 187 Ibs. corn and shorts plus 0.55 acre soybeans for 100 Ibs. gain. 

 The feed cost for 100 Ibs. gain was less than three-fourths as much on 

 peanuts as on soybeans. 



In 2 trials by Templeton in Alabama 163 when pigs harvested a crop of 

 peanuts they returned a net additional profit of $24.90 per acre over 

 what the nuts and the hay would have brought on the market. In ad- 

 dition the labor of harvesting was saved. In one trial a crop yielding 

 39.5 bushels of peanuts per acre produced 668.2 Ibs. pork, and in the 

 other test a crop of 30.2 bushels per acre produced 416 Ibs. of pork. On 

 the average. 184 Ibs. of peanuts, plus the forage furnished by the peanuts 

 and any other vegetation in the field, produced 100 Ibs. of pork. Peanuts 

 can be grazed during only a relatively short season, for after a time 

 the nuts will sprout or rot if left in the ground, especially in wet weather. 



The only difficulty with peanuts for pork production, and that is a 

 serious one, is that they produce a soft pork, which is discounted by the 

 packers. This is due to the large proportion of olein, a liquid fat, in 

 peanut oil. (126) By finishing the pigs on such concentrates as corn 

 with tankage, fish meal, cottonseed meal, or shorts, after taking them 

 from peanut pasture, the fat may be hardened, so the carcasses will 

 be firm when chilled. 164 Statements have previously been made that 

 the pork can be hardened satisfactorily by 4 to 6 weeks of such feed- 

 ing, but recent investigations carried on by the United States Depart - 



161 Ala. Bui. 122. 

 ^Information to the authors. 

 163 Ala. Bui. 206. 



184 Ewing, Burk, et al., Tex. Buls. 224, 226, 242; Scott, Fla, Bute. 157, 160; 

 Templeton, Ala. Bui. 213. 



