64 



DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



In Nebraska the swine industry has extended itself into the extreme 

 western portion of the state, especially in the valleys, where alfalfa may 

 be raised, and on the uplands, where corn, barley, or emmer is grown as a 

 market crop. This sunshine region, with its dry climate, its freedom from 

 swine disease, and its cheap feeds, has generally shown a good profit on 

 the cost of production. The ease and rapidity with which the small farmer 

 can get started in raising pigs is a great advantage to the man of small 

 means. A brood sow, an acre of forage, a little small grain to fatten the 

 litter, a little attention and the job is done. 



The North Platte Experimental farm, where about three carloads of 

 hogs are raised each year for the market, has shown a greater profit upon 

 the investment in growing pork than in any other farm operation. Grain 

 purchased at the market price has frequently shown a profit of 100 percent 

 by feeding to hogs, either upon alfalfa pasture or with alfalfa fed in racks 

 to supplement the corn ration. Wheat and rye used as a winter pasture 

 with alfalfa hay and a very small grain ration has proved a most economi- 

 cal method of wintering brood sows, and approaches in cost a full year 

 pasture season, but it can only be used where wheat or rye makes a satis- 

 factory growth in the fall months. 



Hogs will consume with profit ground kafir, or sorghum seed where 

 the supply of corn is limited. At the North Platte Experimental Farm, 

 ground cane seed was found to be about one-half as valuable as corn, 

 bushel for bushel. With ground cane seed figured at 50 cents per bushel 

 and alfalfa hay at $8 per ton, pork was produced at a cost of $5.78 per 

 100 pounds. Where the cane seed and corn were fed in equal parts, the 

 cost of pork was reduced to $4.30 per 100. In the latter case, corn was 

 figured at 47 cents per bushel, which was the current market price at the 

 time the experiment was conducted. In this experiment, with hogs selling 

 at $5.90 per 100 pounds, cane seed brought 55 cents per bushel and corn 82 

 cents per bushel. With hogs at the present high values, both corn and 

 cane would show a higher feeding value. 



Milo, where fed experimentally at North Platte with three-fourths corn, 

 proved equally as valuable as barley and nearly as valuable as corn. 



In Kansas experiments reported in 1906 where kafir, mi'o and corn 

 were fed with 25 percent of the ration soybeans, it required 33 percent more 

 grain to produce 100 pounds of gain from cane seed than from kafir, and 

 26 percent more grain than where cornmeal and soybeans were fed. The 

 cost of production, however, was low enough to return a liberal profit at 

 the present market price, and the results are here given to illustrate the 

 fact that swine production need not be limited to the corn belt region but 

 can be developed with profit wherever kafir, milo, the sorghums, or other 

 feeding grains are produced. 



The single crop system brings with it a succession of weeds which 

 follow the plowing, sowing, and harvesting at the same period year after 

 year. In the Red River valley and over much of the spring grain country, 

 sheep are used to clean the land of weeds and act as scavengers on the 

 farm, converting what would otherwise be a menace tof weeds and refuse 



