184 SWINE 



significance and is the cause of a great many of the trou- 

 bles encountered in swine feeding. 



COOKING FEEDS. 



Experiment stations have long ago determined that 

 cooked feed in general is no more valuable for swine than 

 feed in the raw state. If anything, cooking renders some 

 of the nutrients more undigestible. Cooking, however, 

 has some advantages as follows : 



Effect in Compounding the Ration. Many times 

 cooked feed can be mixed more thoroughly into slop with 

 other feeds, hence will be better, not because it is cooked, 

 but because more uniform slop is obtained in which the 

 protein is more evenly distributed. For instance, if ground 

 corn is used raw to be mixed into slop with various other 

 constituents, the corn, if it is not ground into a fine meal, 

 will soon settle to the bottom, and the nitrogenous feeds 

 may be distributed through the other part of the ration. 

 If great care is not taken in feeding such slop, some of 

 the pigs will get too much protein and others too much 

 carbohydrate, which will have detrimental results. By 

 cooking the ground corn, the particles will more nearly 

 float and the slop as a whole will have a much more uni- 

 form consistency. 



Cooking also may apply to small and hard seeds the 

 same as soaking. Furthermore, cooked feed has the ad- 

 vantage that it does not sour so readily and does not take 

 as long for the grains or particles of feed to become 

 thoroughly softened. 



Effect on Variety and Protein. Another advantage in 

 cooking which is especially true in the case of practical 

 feeders throughout the corn belt is in furnishing greater 

 variety of feeds as well as supplying more protein in the 



