14 FARMER'S BULLETIN 809. 



consumption. The experiments indicate also that a soft pork can be 

 hardened very materially if the grazing crops are supplemented by 

 a small amount of corn (2 pounds per hundredweight live weight), 

 and then for a period of three or four weeks before slaughtering the 

 hogs are finished on a full feed of grain (about 4 per cent of live 

 weight, or 1 pound of grain to 25 pounds live weight of hog) and 

 cottonseed meal in proportions of about 4 pounds of grain to 1 of 

 cottonseed meal. Concerning the finishing period of peanut-fed hogs, 

 the following is quoted from Bulletin 154 of the Alabama Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station : 1 



Cottonseed meal has proved to be an excellent supplement to corn, to be used 

 in the short finishing period. It is good for two reasons first, the gains are 

 made economically when it is used ; and, second, the lard and meat are hardened 

 much more rapidly when cotttonseed meal is used along with the corn than 

 when corn is used alone. Corn and cottonseed meal harden the lard and meat 

 more rapidly than does a mixture of corn and tankage. Cottonseed meal, 

 when fed for long periods of time, is a dangerous feed. However, there is 

 no danger of ill results when the cottonseed meal is used for no more than 28 

 days. If the hogs must be kept in the finishing period for more than 25 to 28 

 days, the cottonseeed meal part of the feed should be eliminated; from this 

 time on the ration should consist of corn alone, corn and shorts, or corn and 

 tankage. 



While rapid progress is being made in the improvement of south- 

 ern hogs, they do not as yet, generally speaking, dress out as high a 

 percentage as do corn-belt hogs, largely because of the type of hog 

 and the feeding methods practiced. Data relative to this were ob- 

 tained from packing houses operating in the Southern States. At 

 one plant which slaughtered 6,039 hogs during the months of March, 

 April, May, and June, 1916, the average live weight was 150.8, while 

 the dressed weight was 101.7 pounds, the average dressing percentage 

 being 67.1. Practically all of these hogs were weighed off the cars, 

 with no " fill," and therefore dressed out a higher percentage than 

 if they had been purchased at stock yards and had received a heavy 

 " fill." At another plant tests on 2,640 Tennessee hogs, averaging 

 140 pounds live weight, showed the dressing percentage to be 71.3, 

 and on 685 Georgia hogs averaging 126 pounds live weight the 

 dressing percentage was 70.1, 



In proportion to live- weight prices, the prices for dressed beef and 

 pork necessary to make the same returns to the farmer are not so 

 high as they may appear. For example, a 600-pound cow worth. 

 6 cents a pound on foot would bring $36. The hide weighs about 

 45 pounds and sells at, say, 20 cents a pound, or $9. Such an animal 

 will dress out about 45 per cent, or a 270- pound carcass. Thus, to 

 give the same return as the live cow at 6 cents a pound the carcass 

 would have to bring $36 less $9, which is $27, or 10 cents a pound. 



1 Gray, D. T., Rldgway, J. W., and Eudaly, E. R., Corn, soy-bean pastures, tankage, 

 and cottonseed meal for fattening hogs. Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station 

 Bulletin 154, 1911. 



