Forage For Pigs.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 150, 26 April 1909, Page 4

Forage For Pigs.

A bulletin has been issued from the Missouri Experiment Station, giving the results of some of the experiments to determine the value of different forage crops for pigs. Thirty-six pigs, weighing about 501bs each, were fed in lots, on different forage crops, in connection with maize, until they were ready for makret, accurate account being kept of the cost of gains made. In cheapness of gains the feeds ranked as follows: —Maize and skim milk, cheapest; maize and clover, lucerne, second; maize and red clover, third; maize and blue grass, fourth; maize and rape, fifth; maize and schip stuff, sixth. A saving of about 75 cents in the hundred, in the cost of grain, was effected by using green clover instead of fresh blue grass. When it is realised that lucerne comes on early, and when properly clipped stays green all the summer, and until the very hard freezes of early winter, its importance as a hog pasture is apparent. Clover yields more forage per acre than bluegass, and, as shown by these experiments, has a much higher feeding value. It is of the utmost importance therefore to provide this sort of pasture for hogs, rather than require them to run on bluegrass, a timothy pasture, or, even far worse than this, to confine them in a dry lot, in'_the summer time.