A Study Of The Feeding Practices For Swine By Farmers In The Dogan High School Community, Freestone County, Texas

The hog efficiently converts far® grain into pork. To succeed in profitable hog production, however, the farmer cannot depend entirely upon the efficiency of the hog. He must use good feeding, management, and marketing practices and must produce hogs of good breeding. Under well-planned conditions, hog raisers produce 100 pounds of gain with 400 pounds or less feed. Grain is the principal feed-in pork production. An abundant, dependable, cheap supply, contributes to greater profits. About 170 bushels of grain satisfy the annual grain feed requirement for a sow and her produce based on two 7-pig litters, fed to the usual market weight. When plenty of good pasture is provided for swine throughout the growing season, pork can usually be produced at much lower cost than when swine are kept in dry lots. Not only does good pasturage furnish digestible nutrients at lowest cost, but still more important, it provides insurance against deficiency of vitamins