Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-02-05
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T DIGESY ]
I OF EXPERIMENT STATION 4
+ BULLETINS. !
+ Prepared Weekly for I
B THE KEOWEE COURIER
/ BY J. Linn Ladd. \
Observation-Disclosures
Forage Crops for Swine.

mine the best crops to furnish green
grazing for swine. The steadily in
creasing price Of grain and concen-
t"ated feed stuffs make gra ling crops
of growing Importance. Besides, it
Is well known that grazed swine are
much less liable to disease than swine
raised in confinement and restricted
to dry feed. These were the consid-
erations which moved the station to
enter upon these studies.
The pigs used were pure Duroc-
Jerseys, bred at the station, and the
various lots Of pigs selected for the
comparative tests were made as near
ly uniform in age, weight and thrift
as possible. They weighed 95 pounds
each at the beginning.
The concentrates used were
ground corn, soy bean meal and di-
gester tankage, guaranteed to con-
tain 60 per cent Of protein, fed night
and morning in the form of a thick
slop.
Some lots had skim milk, and in
every case these made rapid gains,
confirming results Of previous exper-
iments at this station showing the
high value of skim milk for growing
pigs. All feed stuffs were proper
toned by weight.
In the first experiment Lot 1 was
fed corn and skim milk in dry lot;
Lot had corn and soy bean meal in
dry lot; Lot 8 had corn alone in
dry lot; Lot 4 had corn and ran on
a mixed pasture of timothy and blue
grass; Lot 5 had corn and ran on
red clover pasture.
Rating the corn at Sc cents per
bushel, skim milk at Is cents per
100 pounds, soy beans at $3.50 per
100 pounds and pasturage at 81 per
acre for the 62 days of the test, the
following results figured out:
1. For every 100 pounds gain in
weight the mixed pasturage took the
place Of 103 II pounds OF corn, and
the clover pasture was equal to 142
pounds of corn, as compared with
the gains Of the lots having no pas
turage.
2. Calculated in money value, the
mixed pasturage was equal to 142
pounds OF corn, as compared with
the gains OF the lots having no pas
turage.
A second experiment, lasting 76
days, was a test OF the value of SOY
bean pasturase, rape pasturage, red
clover pasturage and a mixed pastur-
age OF blue grass and white clover
Though an extreme drouth prevailed,
greatly damaging the pasturage
crops, it was found that, valuing
corn at sc cents a bushel, each acre
OF pasturage was equal to the follow
ing values in corn, to wit: Blue
grass and white clover, $5.S2; red
clover, $11.O6; soy bean pasture,
Sl3.O6; rape pasture, $16.95.
The high value shown by the rape
pasturage is partly due to the fact
that the lot Of pigs grazed on this
pasturage had tankage in their grain
feed; so that the large content pro-
tein in the tankage made up what
rape lacks in protein. Where corn
is the only dry feed given, the soy
bean pasturage would make a better
showing than rape, as the soy bean
is rich in protein.
Three other forage crops were
used in another test, namely: Sowed
corn, sorghum and a mixture Of Can
ada field peas and oats sown to-
gether. Results OF this test, how
ever, indicated that neither OF these
crops was as valuable for grazing
swine as either red clover, rape or
soy bean paSturage. When grazed
off once, these crops did not send up
a new growth from the same roots
as do clover, rape and soy beans, and
herein lies their chief defect.
Among the lessons learned in the
course OF these experiments are the
following:
Spring sown forage crops should
be used to supplement those that
come over from the winter and be-
come available much earlier, such
as red clover, rape, barley, alfalfa,
and so forth
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