FEEDING SWINE 



313 



unless considerable ground or fine-cut alfalfa or other bulky feed is 

 mixed with the grain. 



A mixture of shelled corn, wheat middlings, and tankage placed 

 in a self-feeder, or preferably in separate self-feeders, will produce 

 excellent results with growing or fattening pigs fed either in a 

 dry -lot or on pasture. If left a free choice the pigs will eat a 

 smaller proportion of tankage as the feeding period progresses, the 

 ration thus gradually changing to a wide nutritive ratio with the 

 increasing age of the animals, as is provided for in the feeding 

 standards for growing or fattening swine (p. 294). 20a 



A patented " hog motor grinder," by which the pigs grind their 

 own corn as wanted, is a special form of self-feeder. In two trials at 

 the Maryland station 21 it produced good results, but not quite as 

 economical grains as hopper feeding. 



According to the forage conditions in different parts of the 



Fig. 85. — The self-feeder saves labor in feeding pigs and other farm animals. Tin 

 large self-feeder is used for different grain feeds, and the small one for feeding charcoal, 

 ashes, and lime. 



country, great variations in the methods of feeding fattening hogs, 

 as well as swine in general, are possible. The preceding sugges- 

 tions will, however, indicate in general the plan of feeding that 

 will be likely to give best results in special cases. 



Summer vs. Winter Feeding. — By far the greater proportion 

 of the pigs in this country are fitted for the market in the summer 

 and early fall, and depend on the summer pasturage, supplemented 

 by grain, for cheap and rapid gains. Hogs fattened during winter, 

 as a rule, require somewhat more feed for making a certain gain 

 in weight than during the summer, at least in the North. No 

 exact information in regard to this point is available for this coun- 



^aProc. Amer. Soc. Animal Prod., 1914 and 1916; Corn-Belt Meat 

 Producers' Asso., Report, 1914; Proe. Iowa Aead. of Sc, 1915, Breeders' 

 Gaz., 1915, p. 156. 



21 Bulletin 150; Day, "Productive Swine Husbandry," p. 208. 



