FATTENING 257 



" For permanent pasture, it is doubtful whether we can get 

 anything better than Bermuda and Johnson grass." 



Pasture Supplemented with Grain — Professor Good, in Bul- 

 letin 175 of the Kentucky Station, gives results of carefully con- 

 ducted experiments with several forage crops for swine. Follow- 

 ing is a summary of the principal points brought out in the expe- 

 riments : 



To obtain best results young green rye, barley, wheat, and 

 oats should be grazed by hogs when the plants are between 6 

 inches and 15 inches in height. 



There is no time that grain can be so profitably fed to a hog 

 as when he is young and running on pasture. Some experiments 

 showed as high as 18 pounds gain in weight for each bushel of 

 grain fed. 



It is a mistake to run young pigs on forage crops without 

 a grain ration. Breeding sows, when not nursing pigs, can be 

 maintained on pasture alone, but young pigs are apt to become 

 stunted. 



During the spring, summer, and early fall months, from one- 

 half to three-fourths of a full feed of grain was fed to hogs 

 running on pasture. During the late fall, winter, and early 

 spring, when the pastures were short, nearly a full ration of grain 

 was fed. 



Corn meal should be supplemented with soy beans, tankage, 

 middlings, or with some other nitrogenous supplement, when fed 

 to pigs running on young rye or barley during the winter months. 



Pigs averaging 66 pounds per head, receiving corn meal 

 alone, but allowed the run of a clover pasture until it was killed 

 by frost, and then turned on a pasture of young rye, averaged 

 215 pounds in 124 days, making a gain of 14.65 pounds of pork 

 for every bushel of corn meal fed. 



Eighteen pigs, averaging 51 pounds per head, averaged 222 

 pounds at the end of 166 days, from receiving a ration of a 

 mixture of corn meal 9 parts, and soy bean meal, 1 part, and 

 17 



