6 BULLETIN 488, U. S. DEPARTMENT OK AdRKT LTV KK. 



From a farmer's standpoint a very significant fact shown in Table 

 I is the high return per acre of alfalfa pasture after the value of 

 the corn fed is deducted from the value of the gains. With the first 

 lot this was $61.88 and with the second lot $115.72, or a total of 

 si 77.60 per acre for the season. If it is assumed that the value of 

 the labor necessary to care for the pigs is equal to the cost of harvest- 

 ing the hay crop, the hogs paid an equivalent of $33.63 a ton for the 

 first cutting and $32.07 a ton for the second and third cuttings. This 

 estimate is based on the assumption that the pastured plat would 

 have produced hay at the same rate as the average of 11 similar plats 

 in the same field. On the North Platte project $6 a ton in the stack 

 is considered a good price for alfalfa hay. Considering these facts, 

 the high value of hogs as a means of marketing alfalfa is clearly ap- 

 parent. It required 2.75 pounds of corn for the first lot and 2.09 

 pounds for the second lot for each pound of gain made. With al- 

 falfa pasture valued at $15 per acre for the season ($5 for the first 

 period and $10 for the second) and corn at $1.07 per hundredweight, 

 each 100 pounds of gain in the first lot cost $3.25 and in the second 

 lot $2.64, or an average of $2.88 for the two lots. This emphasizes 

 the value of alfalfa pasture as a hog feed. 



AVERAGE OF THREE YEARS' RESULTS. 



Substantially the same methods were followed in 1914 and 1915 

 as in 1913, as outlined above. Each year, fall-farrowed pigs were 

 used in the first period and spring-farrowed pigs in the second 

 period, except in 1914, when, because of losses from cholera, it was 

 necessar} 7 to use fall pigs during the entire season. In 1915 there 

 were two lots receiving the 2 per cent corn ration, so that during the 

 three j 7 ears there have been eight lots in all, four in each pasturing 

 period. The results of the three years' tests with these eight lots 

 are summarized in Table II, in which the data have been calculated 

 to an acre basis. 



Table II. — Results obtained by feeding eight lots of pigs on alfalfa pasture, 

 supplemented with approximately a 2 per cent om ration, at the Scottsblwff 

 Experiment /'arm in 1018, 1914, and 1915. 



Items of comparison. 



Number of lots averaged 



Tot :il gain per acre pounds.. 



Corn fed do 



<!rain per pound of gain do 



( iain per 100 pounds of grain do 



Financial statement: 



Net returns j>cr acre of pasture 



Cost per 100 pounds of gain fpasturcat $15 per acre) 



Equivalent paid for hay, per ton 



First 



Second 



period. - 



period. 



4 



4 



1,271 



1,910 



3,671 



4,173 



2.8S 



2.18 



34.7 



45.9 



$19.70 



$89. 05 



3.36 



2.86 



22.19 



27.13 



Entire 

 season. 



3,181 

 7,844 

 2.47 

 40.5 



$138. 75 

 3.11 

 25.13 



