27 
Raising Hogs in Colorado. 
San Luis Valley in November under eight inches of snow. 
Rape is an annual, and can be sown as early in the spring as 
oats. It may be sown at any time from March to September. 
When planted in rows two feet apart and cultivated, from three 
to five pounds of seed are required per acre. Sown broadcast and 
irrigated, from five to six pounds of seed are needed per acre. 
Oats, or a mixture of oats, wheat and barley, may be drilled in 
deeply and rape sown broadcast afterward and covered lightly. 
Hogs should be turned on rape when it is from eight to ten 
inches high. If the hogs do not keep the rape eaten down, it 
should be clipped with a mower occasionally. Where hogs run in 
tall rape it is likely to make sores on their backs. 
At the Wisconsin Experiment Station, where shotes were fed 
grain and pastured on Dwarf Essex Rape, one acre of rape was 
equivalent to 2,600 pounds of grain. 
Grain Pasture .—In the San Luis Valley and on the plains 
grain is often sown for hog pasture, using double the amount of 
seed necessary for a crop of grain. Rye is hardy, makes the earliest 
pasture, but soon becomes tough and bitter. Winter wheat pasture 
lasts longer than rye pasture. Good results have been obtained by 
sowing in the spring, a mixture of winter wheat, oats and barley, 
and reseeding once or twice during the summer. 
Sorghum, sown in narrow rows and thoroughly cultivated 
until a foot high makes a good hog pasture in the dry land section 
of the Plains. 
Sweet Clover makes a good hog pasture on dry lands and on 
alkali land in irrigated sections. Especially good profits have been 
made pasturing hogs on sweet clover with a little grain on alkalied 
land in the San Luis Valley. 
hay For hogs. 
Alfalfa Hay .—A Colorado hog should have alfalfa every day 
in the year. When pasture is not available, the hog should have 
bright, early cut alfalfa hay. At the Kansas Experiment Station 
the writer fattened one lot of hogs on all the grain they would eat, 
and another lot on all the grain and all the dry alfalfa hay they 
would eat. The alfalfa was cut early and was fed just as it came 
from the stack, forkfuls of whole hay being thrown in shallow 
troughs, the pigs being allowed to eat the leaves, and the waste 
stems being thrown out. The hogs on grain alone gained 524 
pounds, while the hogs fed grain and hay gained 909 pounds. One 
ton of alfalfa hay took the place of 868 pounds of grain. 
Professor G. E. Morton reported a test made at the Colorado 
Experiment Station in which one ton of alfalfa hay had a feeding 
equivalent of 233 pounds of shorts, of 1,000 pounds of peas, and 
