PRINCIPAL SWINE FEEDS AND THEIR USE 159 



Peanut Meal. Generally speaking, peanut meal is a splendid 

 feed and we would emphasize that for swine production it be as low 

 in fibre as possible ; in other words, that peanut meals that contain a 

 minimum of hull be used. We prefer the peanut meal that runs 

 upwards of 38 percent protein and less than 15 percent fibre; in 

 truth, we would like to have it with much less fibre than that if we 

 could get it. Good peanut meal is described as containing not less 

 than 48 percent protein, nor more than 9 percent crude fibre. It is 

 merely a question of the difference in the amount of hulls and vines 

 present. Peanut shells have practically no feeding value because 

 it takes as much energy to digest and absorb them as is present in 

 their make-up. A test with a peanutmeal that ran a little less than 

 40 percent protein at the Iowa station recently showed that, as 

 compared to corn and tankage, peanut meal in this case being fed 

 with corn, all feeds being fed free-choice style, the daily gains were 

 slightly less or 1.33 as compared to 1.41 pounds. These rations 

 were fed on bluegrass pasture. Figuring the peanutmeal against 

 the corn and tankage we find that 100 pounds of it saved 48 

 pounds of corn and 45 pounds of tankage, a total of 93 pounds of 

 feed. If the corn is worth 3 cents a pound or $1.68 a bushel and 

 the tankage 5 cents a pound in this test, the peanut meal had a 

 value of $3.69 per 100 pounds, which is a rather high value and 

 perhaps more thai! it is worth. It does show, however, that it can 

 be used to advantage in swine husbandry. We have before indi- 

 cated that peanut meal which has the oil pressed out produces a 

 satisfactory fat pork, and this is of great moment. However, the 

 raw peanuts with their high percentage (as high as 40 percent 

 sometimes) of fat or oil produce a very oily and undesirable fat 

 pork known as "oily or soft" pork. Peanut meal clearly excels 

 linseed oilmeal when used as a lone supplement to corn on blue- 

 grass pasture, but then in this case if a little tankage had been 

 added to both the rations, the one containing linseed oilmeal and 

 the one containing peanut meal along with corn, or even a little 

 milk, we think much better actual as well as more favorable com- 

 parative results would have been secured. Generally speaking, we 

 find that with every 100 pounds of corn pigs eat from two and one- 

 half to three times as much peanut meal in proportion as they do 

 of meatmeal tankage. A happy mixture of the two should work 

 well in practice. 



Oats. Oats are too fibrous to be used to marked advantage. 

 There is a big difference in the amount of hull present in oats of the 

 different varities and grown under different conditions. Northern 

 oats are best because they are more plump, and weigh heavier to 

 the bushel. One should always prefer the heaviest oats for swine 

 production. Hull-less oatmeal or hull-less oats are much more 

 valuable, pound for pound, than whole oats. For very young, 

 growing pigs some prefer to take the hulls from the oats, and 

 this is good practice. Oats are not very palatable for pigs 

 when fed in large quantities. Oats must be ground and pref- 



