Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-12-28
Market Weight for Pigs.


The style of market pig has under
gone great change within few Years.
The large 400 to 500-pound hog is now
seldom found The overgrown hog is
no longer sought after. and pig feeding
has Teen more carefully studied of late
years. Shrewd feeders have found that
the older the hog the more its carcass
costs per pound. 1t is also found that
the flesh of the large hog is coalser and
stronger, and not as sweet and fine
favored as ten to twelve-months' pig.
1t is true the older and over-fatteneG
hog yields more lard, but this does not
carry profit with it, as lard often brings
no higher price than the side pork. The
inducemert, therefore, to grow these
large hogs no longer exists, and the 800
pound pig has displaced the 5O0-pound
hog. The time was when pigs were
raised by a slow growth to be fattened
afterwards. Farmers often kent a lot
OF shoats over winter, without expect
ing them to increase in weight much,
so that they might have them ready to
fatten the following fall. These were
pastured. and given house slops throuob
the summer. making growth during
the eight to ten months of forty to sixty
pounds. This was what was called a
healthy growth. 1t was healthy for the
pig. 1t was very unhealthy for the
farmers pocket, as the amount of gain
was not one-half the cost of keep. = h.
But the farmer did not then figure
the cost of keep as closely as he does
now; in fact, he probably never took
an accurate account of the cost of win
tering a pig without any material gain
in weight. But when he examines the
question. he finds that the store pig has
often cost more than he need to have
cost, to have weighed 800 pounds, by
proper system of feeding. He finds that
to keep the balance on the right side of
the ledger the pig must always be kept
gaining, for it is only out of gain in
weight that he gets pay for his feed,
and when the pig stops gaining then
the loss begins. But saws one,
why not let the pig keep on gaining
till he is two years old, when he will
weigh 500 or more pounds and bring a
price worth having?" This is lust the
question that should be asked and an
swered, and every feeder should fully
comprehend the answer. The answer
Is that it takes less food to put q pound
growth upon fifteen or twenty pound
pig four weeks old than upon a fifty-
pound pig two months old, and less 10
put a pound upon ffty-pound pig
than on lCC-pound pig; or, in other
words. the younger the animal the less
it costs in food to add pound to its
weight. AS a general .Tropusit on, it
takes more aud more food TO add a
pound, live weight, to an animal the
older it becomes until it reaches ma
turity. 1t taxi from 80 to 40 per cent.
more food TO full feed pig the second
year than the first, and the Gain is only
about two thirds rs much as the first
year. This shows clearly that il costs
double TO grow 100 pounds of pork on
the pig the second year that it does the
first-a pretty good reason why the pig
should be sold at the end of the first
year. BeS dies, the market. rs a gen
eral rule, offers no inducement for keep
ing beyond the first year. well-fed
pig that ways 800 pounds will bring as
good price per pound as when kept
longer; so there is nothing to be gained
in price, but much if not all the profit
Is lost by keeping the second year. The
market has fixed upon 300 pounds as
profitable weight, and the farmers in
terest wholly agrees with this. Ten
months good feeding will often reach
that weight. Skiliful feeding consists
in growing the largest amount of meat
at given cost, and such feeder is not
afraid OF throwing away food by giving
pigs all they will eat with a good ape
tite. He thoroughly understan IS the
element of time in the feeding problem,
and that when he can shorten the time
for the pig to reach 800 pounds he has
increased the profit. Our system of pig
feeding is not forcing. but iud ciously
giving the pig what 1t can digest and
yet keep agood appetite. Boston Globe