When Feedings Hogs

Making corn go farther this year means food for a lot of people who need it

More Pigs with Alfalfa Meal

Alfalfa meal or ground alfalfa hay can help keep down little pig costs in feeding sows this winter and spring

Corn Silage for Sows

Experiments with more than 2,000 pigs farrowed at Iowa State College show that corn silage- properly supplemented- makes an excellent and low-cost base ration for sows during pre-gestation and gestation

Your Pigs May Need More Water

For fast gains, pigs need more water available to them at all times- in winter as well as summer. One of the least expensive ways in both money amd labor is to supply water with electrically heated waterers

Pig production feeding and management of the brood sow and litter

Successful pork production depends first upon selection of good breeding stock. The breeding stock selected should have the inherent ability to produce and nurse a large litter that will use feed efficiently. Equally important are proper feeding and management of the brood sow and her litter. It is a good plan to separate the gilts from the fattening hogs at 4 to 5 months of age and feed them a growing ration. Whole oats or a mixture of one-half oats and barley or wheat coarsely ground, self-fed, constitute a good foundation for a ration. Enough corn should be fed, probably a couple of ears daily, to each gilt to keep her gaining. One-half gallon of skimmilk daily or 1/2 pound of protein concentrate will furnish sufficient protein for one gilt in addition to what she obtains from grain and pasture. (The protein concentrate may be hand-fed or mixed with the grain on the basis of 5 pounds to each 100 pounds of grain.

Heading for Greater Hog Profits

Here is the second in a series of articles prepared by research worekers in farm management and animal nutrition to furnish guideposts to help you in making decisions regarding rations, market weights and timing in feeding growing-fattening swine

Fastest or Cheapest Gains for Hogs?

The hog ration that will give the greatest average daily gains may or may not be the same one that will give you the lowest cost of gains. It depends on the relative prices of the feeds that go into the ration. Research workers in animal nutrition and farm management at Iowa State are developing some guideposts for choosing the most profitable ration

Iodinated Casein for Sows Boosts Early Baby Pig Gains

Experiments to date show considerable promise for the feeding of small amounts of iodinated casein to nursing sows. Its use has boosted baby pig gains 27 percent in the first week. This article is a progress report on the results of the three separate experiments so far completed

New procedures in estimating feed substitution rates and in determining economic efficiency in pork production II. Replacement rates of corn and soybean oilmeal in fortified rations for growing-fattening swine on pasture

A previous bulletin reported results from an experiment designed to predict substitution rates and economic optima in corn/soybean oilmeal rations for growing and fattening hogs in drylot.2 Principles and analytical models were included which illustrate that the least-cost ration depends both on (1) the marginal rate of substitution between feeds and (2) the ratio of feed prices. These basic concepts will not be repeated in this bulletin. Since more hogs are farrowed in spring than in fall, the research reported in this study was conducted for growing and fattening hogs raised on pasture. Like the drylot study, the objectives of the pasture experiment were to estimate: (1) the production function, (2) the substitution rate between corn and soybean oilmeal at different points on the production surface, (3) the least-cost ration for different soybean oilmeal/corn price ratios, (4) the relationship between the rate of hog gains and the input of corn and soybean oilmeal and (5) the proportion of the years in which a least-cost feeding system results in greater profits than a least-time feeding system. Substitution between major classes of feed such as corn and soybean oilmeal is possible mainly where the rations are fortified with appropriate quantities of trace minerals (as well as antibiotics in the case of drylot feeding). These fortifying elements have been included in the rations of this study

Baby Pigs Have a Sweet Tooth!

Early gains are the cheapest. And you can get faster early gains by feeding a good pig starter. In this article, the others tell how pig starters can be made more palatable and also what should go into a good pig starter