J.M. Clung Explains How Raising Hogs Can Be Profitable, 1918

June 7, 1918, from the Jackson County Journal

By J.M. McClung, Jackson County Agent

Hogs are often considered unprofitable simply because they are given unsanitary quarters, the dry lot feeding system is resorted to, or they are turned on pasture and managed like ruminants without receiving any concentrates as a supplement to their ration. Neither system should be followed, but a combination of the two that is swine should always receive a grain ration, even when running on the best pasture.

Economy is of prime importance in any enterprise, for it means gain or loss. When we “hog off” crops and the hogs do their own harvesting, hence we save labor. At the present high cost of labor this means a great saving. Hogs in fields were they harvest their own food gain nearly 30 percent more rapidly than those fed in yards, and require less grain for a pound of pork.

The cost of fencing seems to be the main obstacle preventing farmers from grazing hogs, yet the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station found that the ratio for fencing hogs compared to husking the corn was 1 to 2.5. As pointed out by W.W. Shay three years ago when 39-inch woven wire cost $8 per 40rod bail, pork was eight cents per pound. Today, a 40-rod bail of similar fencing cost $16, and pork is 17 cents per pound. It took just 100 pound of pork to buy a bail then. It takes less now.

Duggar at the Alabama Experiment Station in his experiments with hogs on forage crops found that soy beans gave better returns than any other crop used. Soy beans should be planted May 20 to June 14 in rows just wide enough for the cultivator to pass between the rows and cultivated as corn. The crop may be planted with a corn planter and should be rather thick in the rows. The pigs should be turned on the soy beans in time to eat all the leaves before frost.

Rape is one of our best forage crops for pigs. It should e sown 5 pounds to the acre on some of the best land available in August. This will furnish grazing for winter and early spring till clover is ready to grace. The latter will furnish pasture till the soy beans are ready for the pigs.

If no clover is available for spring pasture, sow two bushels of oats, 5 pounds of rape, and 6 pounds of red clover per acre as early in the spring as possible. When the crop is 8 to 10 inches high, it is ready to graze and will furnish pasture till the soy beans are ready to graze.

In discussing “hogging off” crops we must not overlook the fact that the excrement of the pigs is distributed quite uniformly over the field and that it contains nearly all the fertilizing materials of the food consumed. Then, too, nearly all the dry matter from which humus is formed is returned to the land. Consequently the productivity of the land is being constantly increased.

Hogs should be provide with plenty of fresh water all the time.

--J.M. McClung, County Agent.