160 HOW TO FEED YOUR HOGS 



erably soaked in order to get the most good out of them, and then 

 when they are soaked and the hulks come to the top they can be 

 skimmed off and fed to dry cows or horses. Grinding pays big 

 returns if oats are to be fed. As a fattening ration oats are a dis- 

 appointment. They are not so valuable as corn, being for fatten- 

 ing from 60 to 80 percent as good; hence it can readily be seen 

 that oats can seldom be used as a finishing substitute for corn. 

 Oats are much better for horses and calves than for pigs. In lim- 

 ited quantity they can be fed to brood sows particularly. They can 

 be scattered about so as to induce exercise, but if allowed at the 

 rate of more than 1 pound daily the practice of feeding ordinary 

 oats is somewhat wasteful, particularly when corn can be bought, 

 .pound for pound, at the same price or even at a 10 percent greater 

 price. With our broodsows we have found that oats only added to 

 a corn ration caused the litters to come weak, as when corn alone 

 is fed, and the sows did not do well. When fed along with a little 

 tankage and the major portion of the ration made up of corn it 

 was a splendid feed. It must be fed in limited quantities and pre- 

 sumably ground, although in practice whole oats are splendid 

 when scattered about in the feedlots to induce exercise. It has an 

 indirect advantage in this respect. Oats and tankage fed without 

 any other feeds excepting salt have been disappointing to us for 

 brood sows. This ration has not produced good, strong litters. 



Hull-less Oatmeal. This is a good feed. It is surprising what 

 a difference it makes to take the hulls off oats and leave a by-pro- 

 duct such as this. We compared hull-less oatmeal and tankage 

 with corn and tankage and found that about 110 pounds of oat- 

 meal were required to equal 100 pounds of corn on bluegrass pas- 

 ture. The gains were a little slower, but the pigs did well. We 

 think it best, however, fed as a partial feed in conjunction with 

 corn and tankage or. corn and milk. On rape pasture where we 

 made the same comparisons we found that hull-less oatmeal had 

 a value a little higher than corn, pound for pound. Thus it made 

 a splendid showing, and rape made the difference. It is surpris- 

 ing to know just what a big difference the addition of one feed to 

 a ration will make. It emphasizes how little we really know about 

 the actions and reactions of specific feeds. At present oatmeal 

 cannot be bought from the cereal manufacturers because it is be- 

 ing converted into human food. 



Wheat Middlings. This is a very good feed. It is hardly 

 worth while to discuss it because its value is known by practically 

 everyone. Used as a part of the ration it is splendid. We prefer 

 the floury sorts of middlings to those that have considerable bran 

 in them. In truth, the more bran there is in them the less palatable 

 they are, and the less efficient, pound for pound. As a substitute 

 for corn wheat middlings are a disappointment. We have found 

 in some of our tests where we compared, for instance, wheat mid- 

 dlings and tankage with corn and tankage on bluegrass pasture, 

 that it took 159 pounds of standard wheat middlings to equal 100 



