Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-07-05

The pig-club work has been carried
on by the Bureau of Animal Industry
of this department during the past
year. in cooperation with the State
Agricultural Colleges of Alabama,
Arkansas, California, Georgia, In
diana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massa-
chusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. Pig
clubs We're organized among the farm
children proved means of arousing
further interest in live stock, and at
the same furnished 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; to give
the members means of earning pro-
fits; and to afford the members a
practical insight into the business side
of farming. Indirectly, the improve
ment of the swine of the country and
the general introduction of better and
cheaper methods of swine-raising are
proposed.
Each pig-club member is required to
keep 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 possibilities. A sum-
mary and the averages of the work of
many members give a better indica-
ton of the value of the pig-club work.
In the 13 States named IL ,632 mem
bers We're enrolled last year in the pig
clubs. Not all were active members,
but most of these raised pigs. While
a great many reported more or less
completely on their work, 1908 mem
berS from IL states, with a member
ship of 1882, 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 compiled
from the complete reports, Seventeen
hundred and eighty-three pigs were
reported, or an average of IL pigs per
member. The majority of members
took weanling pigs to feed in the
spring and reported their results in
the fall. The average weight per pig
at the beginning of the feeding period
was 1872 pounds. At the end of the
feeding period, which averaged 1861
days, the pigs weighed 1941s pounds.
This was an average daily gain in
weight of 0.93 pound, at a cost Of
S0.0044 per pound. This low cost Of
gain can be attributed, it is believed,
to the better feeding methods practic-
ed and the wide use of forage crops
by the members.
The original value of the pigs aver
aged 1924. The average final value
was $21.43, a gain in value of $16.19.
This gain in value cost $6.91, giving
an average net profit per pig of 1887
and an average net profit per member
of $10.29.
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 carefully selected high-grade and
pure-bred hogs, and to this improved
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
$21.43, as compared with the estim-
ated average value of all hogs on
farms in the United States on Janu-
l, 1916, $40. The pig-club members
have shown their ability as body to
raise pigs successfully. They have
raised good pigs, cheap pigs, and pro-
ftable pigs.