Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-06-03

AS spring IL here It might be wen
TO remind ourselves Of the value OF
skim milk as feed for growing pigs.
Much as has been said In Its praise.
still think that few Of US really appre-
cate how always indispensable 1t Is
as a factor in a ration that is going
to make pigs grow most rapidly, or
have ever calculated how much per
hundred the skim milk is worth, says
Prof. Smith In Country Gentleman.
The record Of some experiments tried
at this station during the past three
years may be Of interest to your read
ers on this and related topics. Having
an abundance Of milk and relatively
few pigs, we approached the subJec'
from somewhat different point o.
view from the average farmers; still
we were enabled to ask questions
the porkers and obtain answers from
them that are Of interest to every
dairyman at least. The first question
asked Of the pigs was how much they
would give for sweet skim milk II no
other feed were mixed with 1t. One
pen Of seven pigs, averaging lob
pounds in weight, gained 279 poundi
in five weeks, drinking in that tins
6,225 pounds of skim milk and receiV-
ing no other food. They give us there
fore one pound of live pork for 22.S4
pounds of skim milk Reckoning these
pigs as worth 4 cents per pound or
foot, the skim milk was worth close to
IL cents per hundred. The same thing
was then tried with eight smaller pigs,
weighing but 31.75 pounds each. They
made pound of gain for each 1923
pounds Of skim milk, or at cents a
pound for live pigs the skim milk was
worth almost 81 cents per hundred.
Now, no one would think for mo-
ment Of feeding SKINNED milk to pigs
without putting some sort of solid food
with 1t, and naturally cornmeal comes
first ON the list as the most common
grain feed for this class Of animals.
Two pens of pigs were therefore Sc
lected to try what cornmeal and skim
milk were worth as pig feed. One pen
OF seven pigs averaged 1877 pounds,
and the other 661 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
mr. de mi
had 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-
actly the same outlay of milk and
meal. Valuing the cornmeal at $16
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
facts-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 it 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 good share Of the cost Of
the labor on his dairy herd.