272 Pork Production 



As a class, these by-products contain much smaller 

 proportions of protein to carbohydrates and fats than 

 does skim-milk or buttermilk, tankage, or linseed-oil 

 meal. They occupy an intermediate position between 

 the carbonaceous grains on the one hand and the more 

 concentrated and richer protein or nitrogenous feeds 

 on the other. The quantity of these which it is neces- 

 sary to feed, consequently, in order successfully to balance 

 corn is considerably greater than when the richer protein 

 feeds are used. Bran and middlings or shorts are high 

 in their content of ash or mineral matter. The particular 

 kinds of mineral elements supplied, however, are not the 

 ones most needed to make up for the mineral deficiencies 

 of corn. They are not so valuable as bone-making feeds, 

 therefore, as their composition might suggest. 



Standard wheat middlings or shorts are the most exten- 

 sively employed of any of these by-products for fattening 

 pigs. It is a feed which the successful swine grower is 

 rarely without. Wheat bran is better suited to breeding 

 stock than to growing or fattening pigs. Its bulk and 

 laxative properties make it especially valuable when used 

 as a part of the winter rations for the brood sows and boars. 

 For young pigs and fattening shotes, it is too bulky to be 

 economical or productive of rapid gains. Screenings also 

 contain more fiber than pigs can accommodate successfully. 



The practical value of wheat shorts or middlings as a 

 furnisher of protein with which to balance corn for fatten- 

 ing pigs is shown by the results of six experiments 

 summarized in Table CXVI. In each test one lot of pigs 

 was fed corn alone, and a second similar lot shorts or 

 middlings in the average proportion of 1 pound of the 

 supplement to 1.39 pounds of corn. The feeding periods 

 lasted an average of 81 days. 



