﻿DRY-LAND PASTURE CROPS FOR HOGS. 3 



The annual crops used were arranged in the form of a rotation and 



frown as follows: Winter rye seeded in disked pea stubble, followed 

 y corn on spring plowing, followed by beardless barley (Success 

 variety) on disked corn ground, followed by peas on fall-plowed 

 barley stubble. To obtain estimates of yield and for the ultimate 

 determination of the effect of pasturing on. yield this rotation was 

 duplicated. The crops in the duplicate rotation were grown by the 

 same cultural methods but allowed to mature and were harvested 

 by machinery in the ordinary manner. 



In this rotation pasturing began with the winter rye. Usually 10 

 fall pigs were used on this pasture. They were placed on the rye 

 in the spring at as early a date as the conditions of season and pasture 

 would permit. This was usually early in May when the rye was from 5 

 to 8 inches high. The crop was pastured until it was either exhausted, 

 had become unpalatable, or had to be abandoned in order that 

 the pigs could be turned into the acre of peas at a time when they 

 might receive the greatest benefit from this crop. While on the 

 rye plat the hogs were fed once daily a ration of corn equal to 2 per 

 cent of the live weight of the animals. 



The plat of peas was grazed off in the same manner as the rye. 

 Theoretically, peas are a grain crop, and pigs should require no corn 

 supplement, but under conditions as actually experienced in the 

 field it seemed advisable for one reason or another to continue the 2 

 per cent corn ration. 



From the plat of peas the hogs were moved to the plat of Success 

 barley. This crop was usually headed out and the grain either 

 matured or approaching maturity. The barley is supposed to con- 

 stitute a straight grain ration, on which hogs should approach a 

 finished condition. 



A small lot of spring pigs was used to harvest the standing corn 

 on the fourth plat in the rotation. 



The perennial crops pastured were alfalfa and brome-grass. Two 

 1-acre plats of each crop were grazed off in these experiments. On 

 one plat of each crop the forage was grown in rows 2 feet apart, while 

 in the second plat the forage was sown broadcast. With the excep- 

 tion of brome-grass in rows each of the perennial pasture plats was 

 duplicated by plats from which the crop was harvested as hay by 

 machinery. 



Plats of sweet clover for pasture and harvest were seeded in 1916 

 and 1919, but on account of dry seasons there was no stand, and con- 

 sequently this crop has not been used as pasture. 



The perennial pastures were seeded in 1916, and pasturing began 

 in 1917. The first year both fall and spring pigs were used to harvest 

 these crops, but since then the grazing has been done by fall pigs 

 only. These were placed on the fields as early in the spring as prac- 

 ticable and maintained there as long as the conditions of the forage 

 and animals would permit. While on pasture the hogs were fed a 2 

 per cent supplementary ration of corn and were weighed about every 

 two weeks. At the end of the pasture period they were removed to 

 the feed lot for fattening. 



RESULTS IN 1915. 



Seasonal conditions affect dry-land crop production so profoundly 

 as to materially affect both the conduct of the experiment and its 



