Bunn, Balance and Cobb Make Hogs Pay, 1943

Follow the Lead of Bunn, Ballance, and Cobb to Make Hogs Pay, 1943

“How Three Leaders Make Hogs Pay” by F.H. Jeter, Editor, State College Extension Service, The Progressive Farmer, March, 1943

Hogs are fast winning recognition as among the best money-makers on North Carolina farms and a necessary part of “Two-Armed Farming.” It’s a fine sign of the times that not only has North Carolina so many leading hog markets but that market pages of our dailies report hog prices on North Carolina markets along with cotton and tobacco prices. By following the practices of Bunn, Ballance, and Cobb many more farmers can make hogs pay year in and year out.

Last month we promised for this issue the story of C.S. Bunn, C.L. Ballance, and W.D. Cobb. Mr. Bunn is president of the North Carolina Swine Breeders’ Association, Mr. Ballance a director of that association and president of the State Association of Livestock Mutuals, while Mr. Cobb is a leading swine breeder I his section of North Carolina. There is much to learn from each of them.

Mr. C.S. Bunn of Spring Hope, Nash County, has been breeding Duroc-Jersey hogs for about 25 years. In fact, Mr. Bunn will have nothing but registered stock on his place whether it be chickens, corn, cows, or hogs. “Every animal from a purebred sire” is his platform. “I paid $100 for a new pig as a start and next fall I spent another for a bred gilt. From these two animals I began work with hogs,” he said. He also intimated that paying that $100 in cash for a hog was not very popular with his family at the time, but has paid him richly. Since that time, he has paid more than $100 on several occasions to get the right kind of breeding animal.

Stressing his faith in the “Two-Armed Farming” long advocated by The Progressive Farmer, Mr. Bunn declares, “I use all the waste stuff on my place for producing livestock, for without animals to balance my crop-growing I could not use my labor to best advantage. As for the best medicine for hogs, I would say healthful surroundings.” He uses a central farrowing house but the sows are carried to portable houses located on clean land where the pigs are grown out on self-feeders.

Provides for Plenty of Hay

Probably North Carolina’s leading breeder of Spotted Poland-China hogs is C.L. Balance of Rt. 2, St. P:aul. He has 1,192 acres in his home place with 664 acres of open or cultivated land. We found 325 head of animals on this farm including about 200 pigs of weaning age and under. Three things Mr. Balance is especially interested in are: an abundance of home-grown feed; good sanitation; and favorable marketing conditions.

As grain feed for his hogs Mr. Ballance seeds about 80 acres to oats, 80 acres to barley, and 25 acres to wheat each fall, along with 50 acres to green grazing crops (largely oats and rye) to provide clean pasture for the next crop of pigs. In addition, he plants 250 acres to yellow and white corn each year. Sweet potatoes and peanuts are additional feed crops, though Mr. Ballance is very careful about how he allows his hogs to clean up peanut fields. At least 75 acres of land are used as a range for the hogs and it is needless to say that few of the animals are invested with internal parasites. He uses the portable style farrowing house, carrying the brood sows to new land that has been cultivated since pigs were last farrowed there. Each of the 40 brood sows is handled in this way.

As president of the State Association of Livestock Mutuals, Mr. Ballance makes hog growing and breeding a business and is always available to aid in fighting for fair pork prices and shipping conditions.

In the case of Mr. W.D. Cobb, Rt. 2, LaGrange, three things that stand out are: a market-premium because his animals are exceptionally free of parasites; careful culling; and exceptionally large litters. On his 475-acre Greene County farm, Mr. Cobb usually keeps 12 brood sows of the Durock-Jersey breed and sells from 125 to 140 fat pigs each year on the nearby market. “I never allow my sows to farrow a second litter of pigs on the same land,” he says. “And on the last several lots of pigs I sold, a premium of ¼ cent a pound was gladly added because the animals were free of internal parasites such as kidney worms, intestinal worms, and liver worms.” (This is in marked contrast to results secured by most growers in Eastern Carolina; usually all their hog livers are condemned because of worms.) He has six large lots for farrowing purposes and uses them in rotation for every third farrow. The lots are planted in corn and soybeans, followed by a fall-seeded mixture of rye, crimson clover, barley, and rape for spring grazing. He believes in grazing crops and seeds lespedeza for late summer grazing.

235 Pounds at 6 Months

Mr. Cobb keeps his sows and pigs at the self-feeder from the time the pigs are 2 weeks old until they are weaned. Then the sows are removed and the pigs stay on the feeder until marketed. As a result, the pigs never let up in growing and, when 6 months old, tip the scales at 235 pounds, being marketed at that age. The sows come away from the litter in good shape and are soon ready for the next breeding. They lose no flesh, and, because of this, they wean an average of eight pigs to the littler. This is two pigs above the state average. “And these two extra pigs make my profit,” says Mr. Cobb.

He carefully selects the gilts to be used for the next crop of brood sows, taking them from the feedlot and feeding them by hand until they are ready for breeding. “I cull as I go,” he says. “If a sow does not good at the first breeding, I may try her again, but if she fails that time, into the feedlots she goes and is sold. I started in this hog business in 1914 and not only is it very interesting but it also has been profitable under our plan of operation.”