706 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



to a minimum or his profits will be reduced materially. The following 

 advice of Smith 31 will be of service at this time : 



There should be no very radical change in the ration of the hogs two 

 or three days before loading, but if they have been fed largely on slop, 

 they should be changed gradually to dry feed, preferably corn for the 

 most part. Hogs which have been on pasture will shrink less if confined 

 to a dry lot for a week before shipping. The regular feed should be 

 omitted just before hauling to the shipping point and the advisability 

 of feeding before loading or while in transit should be determined by 

 the distance to market. If the hogs will arrive at the market within 24 

 hours of shipment, it is doubtful whether much feed should be given the 

 day of loading. 



The cars should be thoroly cleaned before loading. In winter clean 

 straw should be used for bedding and in summer, sand, if available. 

 Overloading in hot weather is fatal. The hogs will ride best if the car 

 is just comfortably full when the hogs are lying down. In driving and 

 loading, the hogs should not be hurried or excited, and they must not 

 be beaten. Crippled hogs sell at a discount of $1.00 per cwt. and bruises 

 also affect the selling price, as they spoil the appearance of the carcass. 

 In hot weather the hogs should be sprayed with a hose before loading 

 and also when possible at stopping points in transit. Suspending from 

 the roof of the car two or three sacks containing large cakes of ice helps 

 prevent overheating, if it is very hot. In extreme winter weather it is a 

 good plan to protect the hogs from cold winds by nailing a few strips 

 of building paper on the inside of the car. 



1041. Cost of pork production. In spite of the importance of having 

 accurate data on the average cost of producing pork under farm con- 

 ditions, but little information has yet been published on the matter. 

 The approximate feed cost of growing and fattening pigs under good 

 conditions may be readily estimated from the data secured in the 

 numerous trials summarized in the preceding chapter. To this must be 

 added the cost of the pigs at weaning time, and the other costs, in 

 addition to feed, of carrying them from weaning time to market weights. 

 These costs include labor, interest, depreciation, and insurance on build- 

 ings and equipment ; interest on money invested in the pigs ; mortality 

 risk ; veterinary expenses, such as vaccination against hog cholera ; and 

 any other miscellaneous charges. 



For simplicity the total cost of producing each 100 Ibs. of pork is 

 often estimated in terms of the price of a bushel of corn, all other costs 

 being reduced to this equivalent. From a study of the available data. 

 Smith 32 gives the following as the representative cost of producing a 

 225-lb. finished pig in the corn belt under various systems of manage- 

 ment. The last column of the table shows the estimated total cost of 

 producing 100 Ibs. of live pig, expressed in terms of the price of a bushel 

 of corn : 



^Pork Production, pp. 362-6. 32 Pork Production, pp. 350-61. 



