542 



FARMER' 8 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



one-third soy beans. The average daily- 

 gains for 10 weeks on corn alone was 0.7 

 pound and on the corn and soy beans 

 1.16 pounds. The addition of soy beans 

 to a corn ration at the Wisconsin sta- 

 tion has also resulted in increased gains 

 over that made on corn and middlings. 

 Sunflower seed — These are seldom fed 

 to swine. The cake made after the oil 

 has been expressed from the seed was 

 used in some Danish feeding tests and 

 proved about equal to rye or barley. The 

 whole seed is readily eaten by swine and 

 possesses considerable feeding value, as 

 is shown in the table of analyses. 



Wheat i s seldom fed to hogs except 

 when the price is less than 50 cents a 

 bushel. The grain, however, is relished 

 by hogs and they make rapid gains on 

 it, producing pork of good quality. A 

 large number of experiments have been 

 reported with this grain. 



In a feeding test extending over 105 

 days, at the Indiana station, the average 

 daily gain on corn was 1.16 pounds, on 

 wheat 1.02 pounds and on corn and wheat 

 1.12 pounds, while on soaked wheat alone 

 it was 1.05 pounds. The vital organs of 

 the hogs did not appear to be developed 

 to any greater extent on the wheat diet 

 than on the corn diet, but the bones 

 were appreciably stronger. In this ex- 

 periment the excrement was so rich in 

 grain that the pigs ate it as fast as 

 voided. In one instance a five-ounce 

 sample of dung contained 1167 unbroken 

 grains and when soaked wheat was fed 

 1003 grains. 



It is concluded that whole wheat is 

 fed at an unjustifiable loss and that it 

 should be well broken or crushed before 

 feeding to pigs. At the Michigan sta- 

 tion, pigs fed ground wheat with skim 

 milk made 7 per cent better gains than 

 on whole soaked wheat and skim milk. 

 The Missouri station reports results of 

 experiments made to test the value of 

 wheat as follows: 



One bushel of wheat chop soaked in 

 water, produced 13.2 pounds of pork; 1 

 bushel of wheat chop dry, produced 12.6 

 pounds of pork ; 1 pound of whole wheat, 

 produced 11.2 pounds of pork; 1 pound 

 of corn chop, produced 10.3 pounds of 

 pork. These gains were made with 

 growing pigs and the conclusion is 

 drawn that wheat is superior to corn for 

 producing gain in growing pigs. 



The New York station at Cornell fed 

 wheat ration in comparison with a corn 



ration mixed with gluten meal in such 

 proportion as would give both rations 

 the same nutritive ratio. The wheat 

 was fed ground. About 10 per cent bet- 

 ter gains were made on the corn meal 

 and gluten ration. 



The Oregon station reports a gain of 

 from 12 to 14 pounds for a bushel of 

 wheat fed to hogs. The lean meat from 

 the wheat fed hogs was characterized by 

 light color and juiciness, the quality 

 was excellent and there was a good thick- 

 ness of fat laid on. The same station 

 compared the relative merits of wheat in 

 the sheaf with mixed grain for hogs. 

 The wheat was cut high and yielded 35 

 per cent of grain. The pigs did not 

 relish the sheaf wheat. They worked 

 three to four hours daily in getting out 

 the grain and their appetites appeared 

 never to be satisfied. During a feeding 

 period of two months the hogs fed a 

 soaked and mixed grain ration required 

 but 4 pounds of grain to produce a 

 pound of gain, while the hogs fed sheaf 

 wheat required 7.4 pounds and made only 

 one-fourth as large a total gain. With 

 pork at 3 cents a pound, 60 pounds of the 

 ground mixed grain was worth 31 cents 

 more for pork production than 60 pounds 

 of sheaf wheat. This is more than 

 enough to pay for the threshing of the 

 wheat. In another like test where wheat 

 chop was fed against sheaf wheat, a 

 bushel of the wheat chop was worth 15 

 cents more than a bushel of wheat in the 

 sheaf. The average of the experiments 

 at that station show that 4.5 pounds of 

 grain were required to make a pound 

 of gain. In the beginning of the feed- 

 ing only 3.8 pounds were required; in 

 later stages 5.1 pounds, showing that it 

 required 34 per cent more grain the 

 last half of the test than the first 

 half for a pound of gain. These re- 

 sults indicate that wheat is better 

 adapted for producing butcher or bacon 

 hogs than lard hogs. 



The South Dakota station has shown 

 that when hogs weighing about 100 

 pounds can be bought for $4.50 per hun- 

 dredweight and fed wheat for three 

 months and then sold at $5.50 per hun- 

 dredweight, the wheat would return 

 from 56 to 58 cents per bushel. At that 

 station it required 4.8 pounds of ground 

 wheat or 4.9 pounds of whole wheat to 

 produce a pound of gain. The gains 

 were more rapid and uniform on the 

 ground grain. At the Utah station, 



