FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA 
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Standard requirements per 100 pounds for pork production 
Grain pounds- _ 425 
Skim milk ___do 150 
Or tankage do 15 
Pasture: clover, alfalfa, or rape, 7 animal unit days. 
Labor: 
Man hours__ 3. 5 
Horse do 0. 5 
Good-sized litters and low death loses are necessary to the accom- 
plishment of these requirements. Unless at least six pigs per sow 
are raised to maturity, the grain requirement may prove somewhat 
low. 
DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR ON HOGS 
Figure 18 shows the weekly distribution of labor on hogs on a 
farm producing 16,000 pounds of pork in a year. The labor require- 
ment is fairly uniform during most of the year. Less labor is required 
while the hogs are on pasture or in the cornfield than when fed in a 
Distribution of Man Labor on Hogs 
JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT OCT 
Fig. 18. — Hogs require more labor at farrowing time and when they are marketed 
conflicts very little with the field labor on crops 
NOV. DEC. 
. This labor 
dry lot. The occasional high peaks, such as occurred during the 
latter part of November and the middle of December are due to 
marketing hogs, vaccinating for cholera, or similar extra operations 
not occurring regularly. Labor increases as farrowing time ap- 
proaches and the peak is reached during or just after farrowing. 
The pigs on this farm were farrowed during April and the first 10 
days of May. This is also a period of high labor requirements for 
crops, and the hog enterprise competes with them in its demand for 
labor during these months. This competition, however, is not 
important, because the total amount of labor on hogs is compara- 
tively small and the competition may be avoided altogether by 
earlier farrowing. This labor distribution on hogs is quite repre- 
sentative for the area. 
SHEEP 
Sheep are a minor enterprise on most of these farms and receive 
little feed or care. They are pastured in the farmstead, along roads 
and lanes, .in grain fields after harvest, or anywhere there is grass 
or weeds that they will consume. They serve a useful purpose in 
cleaning weeds out of the fields and farmsteads. On only a few farms 
are the flocks large enough to require much feed in addition to what 
they pick up for themselves about the farm. Most of the lambs, 
except those retained in the flock for breeding purposes, are mar- 
keted in September and October. They are sold directly from grass 
and receive no grain. 
