2 BULLETIN 4SS, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Many of the farmers on irrigated projects are financially unable 

 at present to secure dairy cows or to get cattle or sheep to feed. 

 There are very few, however, who can not get into the hog business 

 in a very short time. Less capital and time are required in getting 

 into the hog business than in any other live-stock industry. With 

 $25 with which to buy small pigs and with very little grain and good 

 alfalfa pasture, the farmer can get well started in the hog business in 

 two years. Horses and cattle increase annually 60 to 80 per cent, 

 sheep a little more than 100 per cent, while hogs should increase 600 

 per cent or better. The buildings necessary for the housing of hogs 

 are also relatively inexpensive. The hog is a very economical feeder. 

 It takes less feed to produce a pound of pork than any other kind of 

 meat produced on the farm. The hog has the ability quickly to trans- 

 form the products of the farm into a readily marketable commodit}\ 



In the irrigated sections of the West, where alfalfa is the principal 

 crop and where grain crops occupy a secondary position, the farmer 

 needs information on the following points: (1) The practicability 

 of using alfalfa as hog pasture; (2) the value of different quantities 

 of grain when fed to hogs on alfalfa pasture; (3) the comparative 

 values of corn and ground barley when fed to hogs on alfalfa pasture ; 

 and (4) the practicability of hogging down corn. 



In order to secure information on these points, experiments were 

 inaugurated at the Scottsbluff Experiment Farm on the Xorth Platte 

 Reclamation Project in 1912 and continued with some modifications 

 in 1913, 1914, and 1915. The results of these experiments are re- 

 ported in this bulletin. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS FOLLOWED. 



It has been the aim in this bulletin to use average prices and to re- 

 port sufficient fundamental data to enable anyone to apply different 

 prices to the results. The prices used, except where otherwise stated, 

 are as follows: Gains made by hogs, $7 per hundredweight; corn, 

 $1.07 per hundredweight (or 60 cents a bushel) ; ground barley, $1 

 per hundredweight : alfalfa hay, $8 a ton; tankage, $64 a ton. The 

 data, which usually have been calculated to an acre basis, show the 

 results that were obtained from quarter-acre plats of alfalfa pasture, 

 which, if cut for hay, would have yielded from 4 to 6 tons per acre ; 

 and in the case of corn hogged, from one-third or one-quarter acre 

 plats that yield as high as 80 bushels of corn per acre. It must be 

 remembered by farmers who attempt to follow these methods of 

 crop utilization that the higher the } T ield of the crop the larger will 

 be the returns. 



The term " per cent," when referring to rations, indicates the num- 

 ber of pounds fed daily per 100 pounds of live weight. The cost, of 



