200 RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN SWINE FEEDING 



The chufa is more or less a weed in the South, but it produces 

 small tubers which hogs eat readily. The Alabama Station 

 (Bulletin 122) fed hogs corn and cow-pea meal on a chufa 

 pasture. The average of two tests shows 307 pounds of pork 

 which can be credited to each acre of chufas after making allow- 

 ance for the meal fed. Chufas did not prove as satisfactory as 

 peanuts and soy beans for hog pasture (Ala. Bui. 143). Like 

 other succulent feeds, the chufa is not a substitute for grain, 

 but may often be used to advantage to supplement a grain ration. 



Acorns — In parts of the South, acorns assume considerable 

 importance in feeding hogs. Hogs usually are allowed to run 

 in the woods and gather the fallen nuts, which, being a waste 

 product, help to cheapen production. The Tuskegee Station 

 in Alabama reports feeding 400 pigs successfully on acorns and 

 kitchen slop. The pigs were fed about five pounds of acorns 

 each, per day. Acorns make a very poor quality of pork and pigs 

 should be given several weeks of grain feeding before they are 

 slaughtered, to overcome the bad effect of the acorns. 



Pasture vs. Soiling. — Some experiments at the Ontario 

 Agricultural College indicate that more rapid gains with a 

 smaller consumption of feed per pound of gain can be secured 

 by soiling pigs than by pasturing. This is especially true of 

 young pigs, and the writer's experience leads him to believe 

 that pigs should weigh at least 100 pounds before being turned 

 on pasture, to get best results. There is considerable extra 

 labor in cutting green crops and carrying them to the pigs under 

 the soiling system, which brings the two systems fairly close 

 together from the stand-point of economy. 



Amount of Grain on Pasture. — Growing or fattening pigs 

 cannot be produced satisfactorily on pasture alone, but a grain 

 ration is necessary. The Montana Experiment Station found 

 that hogs fed a full grain ration on pasture gained, on an 

 average, 1.39 pounds per hog per day, and required 412 



