386 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



to improved lands and to regions where a plentiful supply of grain for 

 feeding is produced. 



Hogs are especially suited to the com belt because corn is the most 

 economical grain feed available for pork production. Gains produced 

 on corn are usually cheaper than those produced on other cereals, and 

 pork made from corn is firm and of good quality. Hogs are also well 

 adapted to other regions of the United States where barley, kafir, milo, 

 soybeans, cowpeas, field peas, peanuts, skim milk, and buttermilk are 

 available for feeding. Pork is profitably produced in the South from 

 corn, peanuts, grain sorghums, and pasture crops, and it is also pro- 

 duced very economically and profitably in dairy districts where dairy 

 by-products are available for feeding in combination with grain. The 

 farmer in the corn belt or elsewhere who combines dairying and hog 

 raising increases the income from his dairy cattle because dairy by- 

 products are most valuable when used as feed for hogs or poultry, and 

 he increases his profits in pork production because of a larger number 

 of pigs saved and raised per litter and because of rapidity and economy 

 of gains. Many farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, and 

 other states have found the dairy cow and the pig to be a most desirable 

 combination for efficiency in the profitable conversion of field crops 

 into animal products. Hogs and beef cattle constitute another ex- 

 cellent combination for the utilization without waste of all grains, 

 roughages, and pastures produced in a general system of farming. 



Corn and hogs. — The uses of corn harvested for grain in the 

 United States, based on estimates by the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, are as follows:^ 



Per cent 



Fed to hogs on farms 40.0 



Fed to horses and mules on farms 20.0 



Fed to cattle 15.0 



Used as human food 10.0 



Fed to stock not on farms 5.5 



Fed to poultry on farms 4.0 



Fed to sheep on farms 1.0 



Export and other uses 4.5 



Total 100.0 



Eighty-five per cent of corn is fed to live stock, and hogs consume 

 twice as much corn as any other class of farm animals. Hogs are more 

 closely allied with corn, and less allied with other crops used as feed 

 (including pastures), than is true of other farm live stock. Dairy 

 cattle approach hogs in this regard, followed by horses, beef cattle, and 

 sheep in the order named. The writer determined the average rank 

 of the various states in corn production for the nine-year period from 



1 Leigh ty, Warburton, Stine, and Baker: The Corn Crop, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 Yearbook, 1921, p. 165. 



