The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1916-06-29
PIG CLUB RESULTS
Arouses Interest in Live stock and
Provides Profitable and Instruc-
tive Work for Members


Provides Profitable and Instruc-
tive Work for Members
The pig-club work has been car
ried on by the Bureau OF Animal In
dustry Of this department during
the past year in cooperation with the
State Agricultural Colleges Of Alaba-
ma, Arkansas, California, Georgia,
Indiana, Kentucky. Louisiana, Mas
sachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas. Pig
clubs were organized among the farm
children and proved a means OF
arousing further interest in live
stock. and at the same time, furnish
ed profitable and instructive work
TO the members.
The economic objects Of the pig
clubs are: To teach the members
how TO raise better swine cheaply;
20 give the members a means OF earn
ing profits: and TO afford the men,
bers a practical insight into the
business side Of farming. Indirect
ly, the Improvement Of the swine OF
the country and the general intro
duction OF better and cheaper swine
raising methods are proposed.
Each pig-club member is required
10 keep a record Of his pig-feeding
work and report this at the end OF
the State contest. Many unusually
successful records have been made.
These are not typical OF the work
but rather represent its possibili-
ties. A summary and the average OF
the work of many members give a
better indication of the value Of the
pig-club work.
In the thirteen states named, II,
632 members were enrolled last year
in the pig clubs. Not all were &C
tive members, but most Of these
raised pigs. While a great many re-
ported more or less completely on
their work, 1903 members from II
states, with a membership of 1902,
reported completely on weights,
values, gains in weight, costs Of
gains and profits. No figures are
available from California and oregon
except as to the number of members.
The figures following are compil-
ed from the complete reports. Seven
teen hundred and eighty-three pigs
were reported, or an average Of fl
pigs per member. The majority OF
members took weanling pigs TO feed
in the spring and reported their re-
suits in the fall. The average weight
per pig beginning of the feeding
period was 1872 pounds. At the
end Of the feeding period, which
averaged 1861 days, the pigs
weighed Fairgrounds. This was an
average daily gain in weight of O.93
pound, at a cost of sOO44 per pound.
This low cost OF gain can be at
tributed, it is believed, to the better
feeding methods practiced and the
wide use OF forage crops by the
members.
The original value OF the pigs
averaged $5.24. The average final
value was $2i.43, a gain in value Of
$i6i9. This gain in value cost $6.9f,
giving an average net profit per pig
OF $9-37 and an average net profit per
member of 1929.
These figures are a strong indica-
ton that improved swine, raised in
the right way, are profitable even
when pork values are as low as they
were in 1915. The vast majority Of
members had good high-grade and
pure-bred hogs, and TO this i'm
proved blood, as well as the better
feeding methods, can be attributed
the large difference in favor of the
average final value of pig-club hogs
in the fall-s2i.i3, as compared with
the estimated average value OF all