150 Pork Production 



obtainable, a succession of forage crops during the summer 

 makes it possible, with the minimum of grain, to maintain 

 thrift and fair gains until the next crop is harvested. 

 Without these crops, the farmer is frequently forced to 

 the necessity of sacrificing his pig crop by marketing 

 them at very immature weights, or of carrying them 

 through under conditions injurious to health and fatal 

 to profits. The value of an acre of good forage in such 

 a situation as this, which is not uncommon, is very much 

 greater than that shown by the usual method of calcula- 

 tion. 



4. Forage crops reduce the amount of grain required 

 to produce 100 pounds of gain. As indicated by the aver- 

 age of the experimental results shown in Table XXXIII, 

 one may expect, even when the pigs on forage are full fed 

 and those in the dry lot are given balanced rations, a 

 saving of 15 per cent, approximately, in the amount of 

 grain required to produce a given amount of pork. When 

 corn alone was full fed in both forage and dry lots, the 

 saving effected, as shown in Table XXXVI, was more than 

 48 per cent. With good forage crops, this saving alone 

 is usually sufficient to pay all the costs of providing the 

 crops. Under given conditions, the higher the price 

 of grain the more important does this saving become. 

 With higher prices for pork and the increased use of corn 

 and other grains for human consumption, any method of 

 pork production which will save grain becomes increas- 

 ingly important. 



5. Another very inportant advantage resulting from 

 the growing of forage crops, especially in the corn-belt, 

 is due to the fact that a smaller quantity of commercial 

 protein feeds need be purchased in order to insure balanced 

 rations for the growing pigs. This is because these crops, 



