112 HOW TO FEED YOUR HOGS 



Without making this discussion too technical, it is well to present 

 the representative chemical analyses which will give the swine 

 feeder an idea as to the amount of water, protein (muscle, bone, 

 hide, hair, hoof, and nerve-builders) ; carbohydrates, fibre excluded 

 (a material that furnishes the energy that is converted into work 

 and fat) ; crude fibre (the stuff that is not very valuable for swine 

 feeding, in truth, only a little of it is needed, excepting perhaps in 

 satisfying the appetite or capacity of the brood sow, and it is easy 

 to even overdo with her) ; fat, called sometimes ether extract (a 

 material that is. converted into animal fat In the body or may be 

 used to furnish heat or to furnish energy for work) ; and mineral 

 matter (ash) (the stuff that makes up bone, that furnishes the stim- 

 ulants that keep the heart beating and the blood moving and all of 

 that sort of thing) . Of course in this table no attempt is made to 

 distinguish between the different kinds of proteins, or fats, or to 

 show just how the mineral matter is made up, but in general the 

 analyses as given are those customarily presented in standard works 

 on feeding and are helpful in teaching one to appreciate in general 

 how feeds are made up chemically. 



Carbohydrate Equivalent. In addition to these constituents 

 there is given the carbohydrates or starch equivalent which is se- 

 cured by adding together the carbohydrates, fibre and fat (multi- 

 plying the fat, however, by 2.25). This summation is known as 

 the carbohydrate or starch equivalent. This represents in a way 

 the gross possible fattening materials present, although it gives 

 but little indication as to how much energy is needed to con- 

 vert these into growth and fat. The protein of a feed may be 

 used, when an excess is present, in the making of fat, or for furnish- 

 ing energy, but in practice protein, being quite expensive relatively, 

 had best not be purposely fed in great excess, although plenty 

 for normal use should be present. There is also given the ratio or 

 number of pounds of fattening material present with every pound 

 of protein. This is quite useful in that it shows which feeds are of 

 a narrow ratio, and which may be used in balancing the grain ra- 

 tions that have wide ratio. For instance, corn has a wide ratio of 

 7.9, according to these round figures. Now to balance it for young 

 growing pigs one would need to feed with it such feeds as tankage 

 with a narrow ratio of .53, or skimmilk, with a ratio of 1.3, or 

 buttermilk,' with a ratio of 1.3, or bloodmeal, with a ratio of .04. 



This table can be used as reference, and should be particularly 

 studied from the standpoint of the water content of feeds because 

 the more water a feed has in it, other things being equal, the less its 

 net value. Remember, it is the dry matter that counts. A feed 

 which is marked 7 percent water, such as meatmeal tankage, has 

 93 pounds of dry matter in every 100, whereas skimmilk, which has 

 90 percent water, has only 10 pounds of dry matter in 100. Of 

 course we would not expect 100 pounds of skimmilk to be as valuable 

 with only 10 pounds of dry matter in it as 100 pounds of meatmeal 

 tankage, with 93 pounds of dry matter in the same weight. Man- 

 gels, for instance, contain 91 percent water or only 9 pounds of dry 



