146 HOW TO FEED YOUR HOGS' 



it is the main basal feed. Barley together with alfalfa makes an 

 especially good combination, although not so good as corn and 

 alfalfa. Barley ranks next to corn as an all-around basal feed. 

 Corn in the cornbelt outyields it, and that is an important consider- 

 ation. Barley is quite palatable and good for all classes of swine, 

 but it is a little too fibrous for taking hogs to a heavy finish. Swine 

 can be pretty well finished on barley, but not so well as on corn, and, 

 furthermore, it takes longer to finish them, hence the tendency in 

 the barley-producing countries is to produce hogs of relatively 

 lighter weights than in the cornbelt, and in some barley sections the 

 bacon type of swine is particularly favorable because of the fact 

 that necessarily good bacon hogs should go to market at around 175 

 to 200 pounds, and thus barley does not reach the period of its 

 handicap, the high finishing period from 200 up to 300 pounds. 

 Barley has practically the same deficiencies as corn, and the same 

 supplements may be used for it as have been recommended for corn. 

 Barley is healthful, relatively speaking, and produces an excellent 

 quality of pork. The fat is hard and white, and the quality of 

 bacon made from barley, particularly when it is combined with 

 milk, very good. The preparation of barley is more complex than 

 that of corn, because it must be ground or rolled, if best results are 

 to be secured ; in truth, it is not profitable to feed barley whole to 

 swine. In practically all cases it should be ground, and preferably 

 wet or better still soaked for 24 hours before feeding. The labor 

 and time spent in correct preparation of barley yield big returns. 

 In the matter of preparation corn grain has a big advantage over 

 barley, because labor and time are saved, inasmuch as the corn does 

 not have to be prepared, while barley does. 



Barley is about 85 to 90 percent as valuable, pound for pound, 

 as good dry corn or wheat, though dry barley is more valuable than 

 30 percent moisture corn. Keep in mind in these comparisons that 

 we refer to a good No. 2 corn, containing not more than 14 percent 

 moisture. One pound of barley dry matter is hardly so good as 

 a pound of corn dry matter. 



Wheat. Because of the great value of wheat for human con- 

 sumption in ordinary times it cannot be used to a large extent for 

 swine feeding purposes, except in a minor way. Of course there is 

 a great tendency even in war times to feed considerable wheat to 

 swine, but this is because wheat in many sections is really worth 

 less cents per 100 pounds than corn, and, hence is used when such 

 conditions prevail. Being used for human consumption, the price 

 of wheat usually puts it out of the reach of swine. The fact that 

 wheat is used in poultry feeding to good advantage also means that 

 swine have a stiff competitor. 



People and poultry can outbid swine for products that are equal- 

 ly well-adapted to all three. As a result, wheat feeding with swine is 

 largely confined to the feeding of its by-products. Wheat is quite 

 palatable, praticularly when ground and soaked. It produces a 

 good quality of pork, the fat being firm and of good color. The 



