Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-06-03
Pigs and Skim MILK.

AS spring Is here it might be we1l
to remind ourselves of the value of
SKIM milk as a feed for growing pigs.
Much as has been said in it's praise. l
sun think that few Of us really appre-
clate how always indispensable it is
as a factor in a ration that is going
&c make pigs grow most rapidly, or
nave ever calculated how much per
hundred the skim milk is worth, says
rror Smith in Country Gentleman.
me record of some experiments tried
DIT TINS station during the past three
years may be of interest to your read
efs on this and related topics. Having
an abundance of milk and relatively
lew pigs, we approached the subject
from a somewhat different point of
view from the average farmers; still
we were enabled to ask questions of
Tue X and obtain from
them that are of interest to every
dalryman at least. The first question
asked of the pss was how much they
would give for sweet kiytsseiuJ lao
other iced were mixed wItElS.S y ne
pen OF seven pigs, averaging 1Ua
POUNDS in weight, gained 279 poundsS
~ nVe weeks, drinking in that time
6,225 pounds of skim milk and receiv-
ing no other food. They gre us there
lore II pound of live pork for 22.31
pounds of skim milk. Reckoning these
! as worth 4 cents per pound on
toot, the skim milk was worth close to
10 cents per hundred. The same thing
was then tried with eight smaller pigs,
Weighing but S1.75 pounds each. They
maze a pound of gain for each 1928
pounds of skim milk. or at 4 cents a
u for live pigs the skim milk was
worth almost 81 cents per hundred.
Now, no one would think for a mo-
nent OF feeding SKINNED milk to pigs
without putting some sort of solid food
with II, and naturally cornmeal comes
nfst on the list as the most common
grain feed for this class of animals.
l"o pens OF pigs were therefore Sc
lected to try what cornmeal and skim
milk were worth as pig feed. One pen
OF pigs averaged SS.7 pounds,
and the other 66.1 pounds when the
feeding began. The milk was fed warm
from the separator, and a pound of
cornmeal added to each tx pounds of
milk. At the end of five weeks the
heavier pigs had gained sixty pounds
each, or twelve pounds per week, and
mad made that gain at an expense of
ten pounds Of skim milk and one and
one-quarter pounds of cornmeal per
pound. The gains of the smaller pigs
were not quite as large in the aggre-
gate, but were made with almost ex-
actiy the same outlay of milk and
meal. Valuing the cornmeal at sis
per ton, and the pork again at 4 cents,
the skim milk was worth with these
fourteen pigs, in five weeks feeding,
almost 40 cents a hundred. This
sounds preposterous, but these are the
tacts-a pound of pork returned by the
pigs for every ten pounds of milk and
one and one-quarter pounds of corn
meal. We have been able in but two
cases out of many to get our pigs to
return us less than 20 cents per hun
dred for skim milk. In these days of
low prices, therefore, it behooves the
factory patron and the dairy farmer
generally to husband well his skim
milk, feed 1t mixed with cornmeal to
well-bred pigs weighing less than 200
pounds, keep them comfortably housed
and expect to get from this source a
return for a good share of the cost of
the labor on his dairy herd.
Long Rows.-The possible gain In
time of cultivation due to the length
ening of rows is greater than any sup
pose who have not tested the matter.
By the watch l find that when rows are
eighty rods long an acre is cultivated
in three-fourths of the time required
for c%ultivating in rows thirty rods long.
Long rows make work easier for man
and team. If we would compete with
the west we must plan for long, mar
row fields instead of the little square
ones usually seen. The tilling of open
bitches and abandonment of useless
fences makes this possible on a major
ity of farms. Experience has taught
me hat the saving of money due to re-
moval of fences was truly not needed,
the gain from cultivation of fence-rows
and the gain in rapidity of cultivation
where rows are long, amount in the ag-
Agregate to a nice sum OF money-a sum
that would materially Increase incomes
for thousands if the &lan suggested
were adopted.-Ex.