Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-27
EXPERTS STUDYING
MARKET QUALITIES
OF PEANUT FED HOG

The Georgia experiment station,
department . Of. animal husbandry,
has issued the following bulletin on
peanuts and soft pork
The use of peanuts as a feed for
| hogs has been one of the most in
| teresting problems confronting
| southern swine growers for many
years. Considering the economy of
gains from the use of this feed, it
has been very promising, but when
| the packers object to handling pea
nut-fed hogs except at heavy dis
counts, there is discourag cement,
There has been such a variation in
price discrimination at different
mo~kets and on similar hogs at the
same markets that much dissatis-
| faction has been created. Vigorous
protests have been made against
| such practices by the swine grow
| ers affected.
In this connection, the Georgia
experiment station, in cooperation
with other southern experiment. sta
| tons and the bureau of animal in
| dustry of the U. S. department of
agriculture, has undertaken an ex-
| tensive study of the relation of pea
nuts, when fed to hogs, to softness
and other changes in the pork. Eff
| fort is being made to find the funda-
mental causes of soft pork and meth
DDS by which the softness may be
avoided or overcome. This work has
been underway for some time, but
on account of the nature of the in
vestigation it will be several months
before results can be published.
However, results already obtained
show conclusively that when hogs
starting at a weight of 100 pounds,
are fed on peanuts alone in dry
lots or Craze peanuts in field for
| a period of so days or more, soft
| carcass is produced, and that it is
| impossible to produce a hard car.
cass by feeding corn and tankage
or corn and cottonseed meal to these
soft hogs for a subsequent period of
so days or less. Hogs are being
fed this year to determine if the eff
fects of peanuts alone for only one
month can be overcome by a finish
ing period of two months. Addi-
tional hogs are being fed to see if
longer finishing period will cor
rect the effects of peanuts for so
days.
In an effort to determine the JUS
tice of the penaliZing market prac-
| tees, the federal bureau of markets
has made an investigation of some
of the leading live stock markets
where southern hogs are shipped.
This work was done on a CONNER
| cial scale and the results have been
| n HOE of 1,o
United States department of agrl-
| culture. A part of the summary
| is as follows:
Investigation revealed that dis
counts ranging from 1 IL to cents
made at the different livestock mar
kets for soft and oily hogs.
Hogs producing soft and oily car
| casses can not be distinguished he.
! fore slaughter from those yielding
| firm meat.
"These tests did not show a dis
| tinct difference in the dressing per-
| centages of soft, oily or firm hogs.
"Shrinkage in the chill room was
relatively the same for all classes of
pork. '.
"Oily ham and shoulder cuts, at
the end of the retaining period Q9
days after coming out of smoke),
were just as firm to the touch as
those that were classed as firm in the
cooler. The appearance, however,
| was more glossy. The bellies Cba-
com not only appeared more glossy
and yellowish, but still remained soft
and some of them seemed to be
spongy.
mo difference was detected be-
tween oily, soft and firm meats. rela-
tive to their keeping qualities, at
the close of the retaining periods.
'The results of the tests showed
| the same percentage .shrinkage for
! oily and firm pork or 1885 per cent
The shrinkage for the soft meat was
1892 per cent, or 2.07 per cent OF
the total weight, more than the
shrinkage of either the oily or firm
meat. This is significant, since the
opinion has been widely held that
during the curing and retaining
periods oily meat shrinks more than
soft or firm meat.
Further investigations will be
necessary before conclusions can be
drawn regarding the justif1able dis.
count that should be made on live
hogs that dress out oily"
D. G. SULLINS,
Animal Husbandry.